Reading cricket fiction in the times of hindu nationalism and farmer suicides

Fallacies of textual interpretation

Bibliographic Data

ID5774596
AuthorsNissim Mannathukkaren (0000-0002-4957-3673, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume24
Issue9
Pages1200-1225
Publication date2007-08-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of the History of Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-3367 • E-ISSN: 1743-9035
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09523360701448349
OpenAlexW2080249340
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited13

This paper will critique postcolonial theory's attempt to read the cricket nationalism portrayed in the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film Lagaan as one that subverts the civilizing mission of British colonialism and also restores the agency of the subaltern classes. Instead, it will argue that this cricket nationalism replicates Indian bourgeois nationalism, which has no place for the subaltern in its imaginary. It will also argue that the postcolonial thesis of decolonization and indigenization of cricket supposedly achieved by Lagaan is marked by a culturalism that does not take into account structural factors such as capital, class and caste that dominate the institution of cricket in India. Finally, against postcolonial theory's tendency to read a text in isolation from the context, it will be contended that the cricket nationalism of the film can only be understood by locating it in relation to the present socio-historic conjuncture wherein forces of capital and nationalism are hegemonic

Indian nationalism · Mutiny · Subaltern · The Imaginary · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora

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