Games nations play

The formation of the Indian Premier League has caused quite a stir.

The formation of the Indian Premier League has caused quite a stir. Much of the excitement has been over the amounts bid and about the high-profile cricketers and film stars involved in the process. But the phenomenon also points to a significant trend larger than the sport. Indeed, cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties, is a fairly sharp reflector of its times. Consider the changes in the format of the game and the manner in which it is played and one can draw up an easy reckoner of social and other trends in the country over the last couple of decades.

The shift from the five-day test to the one-day limited overs match to 20-20, for instance, was a response to the changing pace of life. The advent of media and advertising support that made it a multi-crore business heralded the arrival of the leisure industry. The betting scandal pointed to the rise of greed and corruption in society while the recruitment of women as sports anchors testified to the growth of women both as consumers of products and of the sport itself. The use of intimidatory tactics between players and the growing emphasis on winning buried old mores and principles of gentlemanliness. We perceived the primacy of India as a market and its shifting status in the global arena as a result. And now, the creation of an internal cricketing league points to yet another current trend, that of regionalism.

Of course, regionalism in the Indian context, is hardly a new trend. Cricket has always been played between cities and sportspeople have always been strongly identified with their native towns. Indeed, it has been considered a primary drawback among Indians on the sportsfield that they tend to cling so tenaciously to narrow loyalties of region, community and caste, very often in preference to the national identity.

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There are others, however, who would argue that the idea of India itself is a patchwork in progress, this not being a country at all but a conglomeration of regions, held together by tenuous threads. Ramachandra Guha, author of India After Gandhi, lists the Constitution, cricket and Bollywood as the country’s binding factors. One could add others: the notion of Gandhi as a father figure, perhaps, and wars against Pakistan.

Yet even after the euphoria of independence and idealism surrounding the birth of the nation, separatist tendencies have surfaced time and again. Discontent at the margins, linguistic and other agitations and violent anti-Centre sentiments have threatened the country’s unity at various points. In response, perhaps the Centre has slackened its hold to favour federalist tendencies. Today, states vie with each other to attract business and leaders such as Mayawati and Jayalalithaa enjoy as much clout as their peers at the national level.

Surprisingly, at a time when power was devolving from the Centre, we have seen the emergence of a parallel surge of nationalism partly manifest in the rise of the BJP. This was a nationalism that derived its force from ideas of past, lost glory; of purity of race and of an external show of might. It was a nationalism sustained and reflected by visuals such as images of the war at Kargil, of A.R. Rahman’s music and other uniting efforts by the commercial media and by the demagogic speeches of leaders.

In that sense there was a feel of the synthetic about this nationalism. (One can, of course, contend that the old nationalism based on Bollywood and Nehru chacha was equally synthetic).

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But if one accepts the view that nationalism can be manufactured, then the new regionalism powered by the birth of the IPL, and also by other phenomena such as the various music contests run by television channels, is equally a manufactured project. It may run parallel to the very real trend of regionalism but it does not stem from it. It aims to evoke emotional attachment to home but empties the feeling of political content, conveying the impression that schisms between regions, or between regions and the Centre, can be settled on a playing field.

At the same time, it is a significant phenomenon and says much about the changing mindset of the country. It is an India confident of its unity for instance that can allow the parts to evolve. Further the glossy new-look cricketing contest between regions also takes away the pejorative tag that has come to be associated with regional identities. It replaces the old defensive clutching of regional identity with a new aggressive marketing of the same. How this will translate in areas other than sports remains to be seen.

Mumbai-based Shah is author of ‘Hype, Hypocrisy and Television in Urban India’ amritareachgmail.com