BODY, MEN AND SPORTS: CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITY IN BENGAL

INTRODUCTION
BY

AMITAVA CHATTERJEE

Fig.1: The many sports embraced in our times...

The cult of manliness that the physical culture movement represented was the answer to the racism of the white ruling class. The colonial stereotype of the 'effeminate’ Bengali babu, for example, was challenged by the protagonists of physical culture. Broad generalizations about the mild-mannered and effete nature of inhabitants of certain regions in India were a part of the stock of ideas held by Europeans. In the second half of the nineteenth century; middle class Bengalis made several efforts to combat the problem of perceived emasculation of the Bengali male.

The description of the Indian body as weak and inferior in comparison to the strong and superior body of the European and the subsequent effort to discipline Indian bodies to improve them; was at the heart of the politics of colonialism. J. A. Mangan emphasizes that sport was self consciously employed in British educational institutions for Indians as a part of their programme to discipline the feeble Indian physique into epitomes of  manliness and hardihood of the English public school boy.[i]

Within this discourse of hegemonic imperial masculinity, the most potent symbol of the “effeminate, native, other” was the "Bengali". Much has been written about the "Bengali babu" or the stereotypical government clerk, as the archetypical effeminate figure constructed in opposition to the hardy, masculine, imperial British ruler. This stereotype needs further elucidation.[ii]

It is worth presenting in this context, Thomas Babington Macaulay’s famous words describing the Bengali because it was this particular Bengali Image and Identity that formed the most powerful image of an effeminate India and which in turn became the foundation of the British confidence in their own masculinity:

The race by whom this rich tract was peopled, 

enervated by a soft climate and accustomed to 

peaceful avocations, bore the same relation to other

Asiatics which the Asiatics generally bear to the

bold and energetic children of Europe. . . . 

Whatever the Bengalee does he does languidly. . . . 

He shrinks from bodily exertion; . . . and scarcely

ever enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether there

be a hundred genuine Bengalese in the whole

army of the East India Company. [iii]

"The physical organization of the Bengalee is feeble even to effeminacy. . . . During many ages he has been trampled upon by men of bolder and more hardy breeds."[iv]

The 'feebleness' of the Bengalis  was justified as a reason for their loss of indepen­dence to the British. For Macaulay, this feebleness also had important implications for the moral characterization of the inhabitants of Bengal. On the contrary, Lord Minto expressed a different view. He once commented on the vigor and physical strength of Bengali youth of early nineteenth century:

“I never saw so handsome a race. These are much superior to the Madras people whose form I admired also. Those were slender. These are tall, muscular, athletic figures, perfectly shaped and with the finest possible cast of countenance and features. The features of the most classical European models, with great variety at the same time.”[v]

^{Fig.2: The toned muscular bodies of the Bengali...}

Not surprisingly, Bengalis contested this representation of effeminacy in sports where they quickly aspired to be equals of and superior to British players. Sport is therefore tied up in notions of Masculinity and Femininity and is a useful means of exploring such aspects of South Asian society. Bengali intelligentsia to some extent supported the physical culture movement which started taking an institutionalized form. Body building and wrestling became a common feature in the districts of Bengal. As the Indians strove to decolonize the male body by re-masculinizing it and thereby building national character, the colonized body emerged as an object of nationalist reform. Bodily reform both personal and collective; offered the possibility of purging the colonizer and rejuvenating the national body politic. Emphasizing the virtue of underlying collective will and action against the individualist quest for moksha (salvation), Vivekananda is said to have told Hindu youth: "You will be nearer to God through football than through the Bhagawad Gita." [vi] 


Sports were encouraged to make men healthy and instill the necessary moral virtues. Nationalism got intertwined with the notion of masculinity in Bengal. Masculinity evolved in Bengal through different stages. Thus the writings of Bengali stalwarts like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghosh reflected the urge to revive the physical prowess among the Bengalis. Hindu Mela took up the novel venture of popularizing physical culture among the Bengali youths through different competitions. The role of colonial masters in this regard was also noteworthy where public schools became important media for imparting physical education on a regular basis thus, channeling the school boys into the folds of physical culture. Thus, indigenous forms of physical culture became institutionalized through schools and competitions. Wrestling provided a boost for the Bengalis who gradually became concerned about their physical culture and masculine ethos as well.

Fig.3: Football, an identifier to Bengali identity...

Western sports, particularly football were considered a source of improvement necessary for the bodies of the Bengali 'race'. In spite of its colonial origins, these games which ritualized male aggression and enabled its supporters to invent a national community for themselves, provided the middle class Bengalis with a classification system to understand themselves and their notion of masculinity. The particular intensity with which the Bengali bhadralok began to redraw the contours of what started as a component of the expatriate white sub-culture of Calcutta's mercantile and military groups, needs to be situated in the context of the nationalist challenge to the colonial system. It has been noted how by asserting the distinctiveness and superiority of the club, fans effectively demonstrated their own status as men, since their manhood was related to the pride of the club. It was through such institutions like clubs and tournaments, alongside public patronage of the games that sporting activity which had an element of strangeness in local society began to strike their roots in the Indian milieu.

Footnotes:

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[i] J. A. Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal, London: Frank Cass, 1998.

[ii] a. Alter, Joseph S. ‘Celibacy, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Gender into Nationalism in North India’, Journal of Asian Studies 53, 1994, 45–66;

[ii] b.  Chowdhury, Indira, The Frail Hero and Virile History: Gender and Politics of Culture in Colonial Bengal, Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 2001; 

[ii] c. Sinha, Mrinalini, Colonial Masculinity: The Manly Englishman and the Effeminate Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

[iii] Lord, John (ed.), Macaulay’s Essays on Lord Clive and Warren Hastings, London: Ginn, 1931.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Lord Minto’s Letter dated 20th September, 1807 quoted in ‘A dying Race-How dying’ by K. L. Sarkar.

[vi] Sinha, Mrinalini, Colonial Masculinity: The Manly Englishman and the Effeminate Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Author’s Bio- Note:

Amitava Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor of History at Ramsaday College. His doctoral thesis explored the evolution of Sporting Culture in Colonial Bengal. He has published extensively in reputed journals of India and abroad viz. Calcutta Historical Journal; Journal of History, Jadavpur University; Soccer & Society, Sport in Society, International Journal of the History of Sport etc. He is a Charles Wallace Fellow (UK), 2012.