The atmosphere vibrated with triumphant joy

Abstract

This article critiques the Indian material culture located in present-day Pakistan pertaining to the inaugural Australian cricket tour to colonial India in 1935/36. The historical voice of the Indians is evident in the images and it is over the shoulders of the hosts of the tour that new perspectives emerge. It is culturally inappropriate to assume and evaluate how the locals felt about the visit of the Australian cricketers and the raison d’être of the tour. However, archives located in Pakistan provide a deeply subjective perspective. Goodwill and amicability reverberate through the photographs challenging conventional scholarship, which argues that Australian-Indian cricket is based on acrimony. The article concludes that despite the obvious and significant differences between the competing teams the tour experience minimized the racial divide between the Australian and the Indian cricketers.

Notes

1. Unfortunately the entire items of clothing have not survived due to moth infestations.

2. Nisar was already an exceptionally experienced cricketer having competed in India’s first Test in 1932.

3. In the early twentieth century, newspapers and magazines were published in English and Indian languages.

4. A research trip to Lahore in February 2015 can confirm that the pavilion is still standing.