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Abstract
This article provides a study of Australian-Indian sporting relations in the 1920s and 1930s. It draws attention to a number of tours made by hockey (Indian teams to Australia in 1926, 1935 and 1938), cricket (an Australian team to India 1935-36) and soccer teams (an Indian team to Australia in 1935). It does so with reference to a number of issues of historical importance. Racial discourse was central to press reports and official discussions that accompanied Australian encounters with Indian athletes and society. The abilities of Indian athletes that were displayed in their contests with Australians were viewed through a lens of Orientalist stereotypes. The racial aspect of this relationship was paradoxically supplemented by expressions of Imperial unity. India was on occasion recognised as a ‘sister dominion’ of Australia, and the relationship was located within a context of wider Imperial unity. Counter-paradoxically, the Australian-Indian sporting relationship also revealed tensions within Australian (and New Zealand) society.
Notes
1 The Argus, May 2, 1935.
2 CitationCoward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 110–11.
3 CitationCashman, Sport in the National Imagination, 146.
4 See a letter from Rowley published in the Referee, July 11, 1900.
5 CitationCashman, ‘Asia's place in the imagining of Australian sport’, 936.
6 The Argus, May 4, 1926.
7 The Sydney Morning Herald, February 26, 1927.
8 Referee, May 9, 1935.
9 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 1935; The Argus, August 19, 1935.
10 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 90–9.
11 The team was often referred to as Tarrant's Team in scorecards. For an example, see The Sydney Morning Herald, November 14, 1935. A collection of newscuttings gathered by J.C. Davis and donated to the Mitchell Library, Sydney, was also designated ‘Tarrant's Team to India 1935’. Davis Sporting Collection 2 – Box Cricket 98: Files on Cricket T-Z, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
12 The Sydney Morning Herald, May 23, 1938.
13 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 12, 1938.
14 The Sydney Morning Herald, February 7, 1938.
15 The Sydney Morning Herald, February 10, 1938.
16 For example, see The Sydney Morning Herald, August 22 and 26, 1938; The Argus, August 22, 1938; Official Souvenir Program, India versus Australia, Sydney Showground, September 3, 1938, Ephemera Collection, National Library of Australia, Canberrra.
17 The Argus, October 3, 1938.
18 The Sydney Morning Herald, January 18, 1939.
19 The Sydney Morning Herald, May 19, 1939/August 7, 1939.
20 The Canberra Times, August 26, 1935.
21 The Argus, May 13, 1935.
22 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 3, 1935.
23 The Sydney Morning Herald, June 2, 1938.
24 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 109.
25 The Argus, March 3, 1936, 13; The Sydney Morning Herald, March 3, 1936, 10.
26 Week, November 27, 1935, 24 [Newspaper clipping, Davis Sporting Collection 2 – Box Cricket 98: Files on Cricket T-Z, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales].
27 CitationGuha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 334.
28 Week, November 27, 1935, 24; The Canberra Times, February 26, 1936, 1; Sydney Mail, December 18, 1935, 46/December 25, 1935, 36/January 8, 1936, 37.
29 Sydney Mail, November 27, 1935, 30/December 11, 1935, 22.
30 Sydney Mail, December 18, 1935, 46.
31 Sydney Mail, March 18, 1936, 28.
32 Sydney Mail, January 8, 1936, 37.
33 Referee, May 9, 1935, 3/August 1, 1935, 24/August 8, 1935, 13.
34 Referee, May 23, 1935, 13.
35 CitationLamont and Bates, ‘Conjuring Images of India’, 308.
36 CitationLamont and Bates, ‘Conjuring Images of India’, 315.
37 The Argus, June 19, 1935.
38 Lamont and Bates, ‘Conjuring Images of India’, 316 & 323.
39 CitationCrabbe and Wagg, ‘A Carnival of Cricket?’, 75; Ramachandra Guha reports a subtle difference in the wording of the title of the Sun's report of the match – ‘Indian Hope Trick: Azza Wins But It's Much Urdu About Nothing’; Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 426; The use of ‘Hope’ referred to India's precarious position in the competition prior to their defeat of Pakistan. Nevertheless, this headline could also be read as ‘invok[ing] and mock[ing] notions of Eastern mysticism’, particularly as the word ‘Urdu’ – the major language spoken in Pakistan – replaces ‘Ado’. This replacement, invoking of a title of a play by William Shakespeare to describe the lack of violent confrontation between supporters of both teams, also displays the Sun's tendency to use puns in the headline.
40 The Argus, May 2, 1935.
41 Lamont and Bates, ‘Conjuring Images of India’, 312.
42 Referee, May 9, 1935.
43 The Sydney Morning Herald, March 1, 1927.
44 See CitationMandle, ‘Cricket and Australian Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century’, 227.
45 The Sydney Morning Herald, September 5, 1938/September 24, 1938/September 28, 1938.
46 The Sydney Morning Herald, May 19, 1939.
47 CitationMajumdar and Bandyopadhyay, ‘Race, Nation and Performance’, 161.
48 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1938.
49 Majumdar and Bandyopadhyay, ‘Race, Nation and Performance’, 166.
50 Referee, August 8, 1935.
51 Referee, May 9, 1935.
52 CitationJames, Beyond a Boundary, 173.
53 Sydney Mail, December 18, 1935; Week, November 20, 1935.
54 The Argus, July 24, 1926.
55 Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 233.
56 Week, November 20, 1935.
57 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 92.
58 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 94.
59 For details of the tortuous selection and ratification process, see Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 94–8.
60 CitationCashman, Paradise of Sport, 189–90.
61 Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 190.
62 CitationDavison, ‘The Imaginary Grandstand’, 9.
63 Referee, March 7, 1935; Patiala was involved in a feud with the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram, whom Guha describes as ‘greatly envious of [Patiala], who was a better sportsman and had deeper pockets as well’; Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 233–34.
64 Referee, March 7, 1935.
65 The Argus, March 12, 1935; Gregory was said to be great addition to the team due to ‘his batting, fielding, and personality’, indicating that his knee would not be stressed at the bowling crease.
66 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 93.
67 G. H. Capes, letter to Colonel Farebrother, May 10, 1926, Indian army hockey team [Box 6], 412/1/23, National Archives of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales.
68 G. H. Capes, letter to Colonel Farebrother, May 10, 1926, Indian army hockey team [Box 6], 412/1/23, National Archives of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales
69 T. Trumble [Departmental secretary], Memorandum to J. H. Bruche [Commandant of the Victoria Barracks], July 15, 1926, Indian army hockey team [Box 6], 412/1/23, National Archives of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales.
70 The Sydney Morning Herald, November 14, 1935; The Argus, November 14, 1935.
71 W. S. Weale, Letter, July 1, 1935, Indian Hockey Team Visit to Canberra, A1 1935/6359, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
72 CitationMeaney, ‘Britishness and Australia’, 129–30.
73 CitationWard, Australia and the British Embrace, 147, 155–66, 201–2.
74 Week, November 27, 1935 [Newspaper clipping, Davis Sporting Collection 2 – Box Cricket 98: Files on Cricket T-Z, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales]; Sydney Mail, December 18, 1935.
75 Commandant of the 2nd District Base, Letter to T. Trumble [Departmental secretary], May 8, 1926, Indian army hockey team [Box 6], 412/1/23, National Archives of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales; T. Trumble [Departmental secretary], Letter to Major-General J.H. Bruche [Commandant Victoria Barracks], May 20, 1926, Indian army hockey team [Box 6], 412/1/23, National Archives of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales.
76 CitationHoney, ‘Sport, Immigration and Race’, 46.
77 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 3, 1935.
78 The Sydney Morning Herald, August 8, 1935.
79 The Sydney Morning Herald, July 10, 1926.
80 Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 139. The Khilafat Movement offered support to the Ottoman Caliph, who was resistant to the westernization of the Turkish Republic; Guha, Corner of a Foreign Field, 137.
81 The Sydney Morning Herald, January 16, 1936.
82 The Sydney Morning Herald, July 11, 1938; Soccer administrators had previously made similar arguments for access to the SCG during a tour by an English team in 1925; Referee, February 11, 1925/May 27, 1925.
83 The Sydney Morning Herald, January 1, 1936; A similar, but slightly differently worded, report was included in the The Canberra Times, January 1, 1936.
84 Sydney Mail, March 4, 1936.
85 Sydney Mail, March 18, 1936.
86 The Argus, August 10, 1938.
87 Referee, June 20, 1935.
88 The Argus, August 14, 1935.
89 Sydney Mail, October 9, 1935.
90 Referee, March 7, 1935.
91 Melbourne Herald, undated newspaper clipping, Davis Sporting Collection 2 – Box Cricket 98: Files on Cricket T-Z, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales; see also the Editorial in The Argus, July 29, 1935.
92 The Sydney Morning Herald, July 29, 1935.
93 The Sydney Morning Herald, July 26, 1935; Michael Coward reports that, in fact, six voted for the inclusion of Alan Kippax and Ron Oxenham with seven against. Four voted for the inclusion of Woodfull, Ponsford and Chilvers with nine against; ‘Slinger’ Nitschke and Keith Rigg had three votes in favour of their inclusion, with ten against; Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 98.
94 The Sydney Morning Herald, July 26, 1935.
95 Referee, February 7, 1935.
96 Referee, February 7, 1935.
97 Referee, July 18, 1935.
98 Referee, August 1, 1935.
99 The Board of Control eventually gave permission for Oxenham to tour, along with Wendell Bill and Fred Mair, in August; The Argus, August 9, 1935.
100 Coward, Cricket Beyond the Bazaar, 94.