Colonial bodies, colonial sport: 'martial' Punjabis, 'effeminate' Bengalis and the development of Indian football

Abstract

First paragraph: As Michael Anthony Budd so aptly pointed out, 'every age has its characteristic body politics'. For imperialists of the late nineteenth century the body was a source of repression, anxiety and ambition. The male, European body was disciplined by the stresses of civilization, including organized sport, threatened by exotic climates and diseases, but positioned securely at the top of the hierarchy of global 'races'. Codes of gender, sexuality and 'race' managed the body and made it fit for imperial service and war - made it symbolic of all that was right about Christ and the Queen. Mens Sana Corpore Sano, 'Play Up, Play Up and Play the Game' and other such motivations were more than sporting or even military designs, they were about making the body fit the demands of nineteenth-century British power. As Joseph Alter has argued, the sporting body 'may be seen, not simply as a signifier of meaning, but as a subject actor in a larger drama of culture and power'.