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India’s first Dalit cricketer Palwankar Baloo fought against caste barriers on the field and off it


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“He was an extraordinary cricketer who battled incredible discrimination,” said historian Ramachandra Guha, whose 2002 book, A Corner of A Foreign Field, chronicles, among many other things, the life of the Palwankar brothers.

But one of India’s first world-class players, and its first Dalit cricketer, has been neatly brushed out of the annals of history, save a handful of textual records and oral histories — an indictment of both India’s cricket writing and the erasure of Dalit heroes from mainstream history and consciousness.

 

An Indian great

The eldest of four brothers, Baloo was born in 1875 in Dharwad to a family of leather workers but his father was in the army. Baloo and his brother Shivram learnt to play cricket with equipment discarded by officers in Pune. “The army held out the promise of a degree of equality for Dalits impossible elsewhere in a caste-ridden society,” explained Shraddha Kumbhojkar, a professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Indian cricket at the time was organised on caste and faith lines and the pinnacle of the season was a tournament in Bombay, where Hindu, Parsi, British, and, later, Muslim teams competed in three-day matches. Hindus in Pune had started a club but were in two minds over whether to invite Baloo. He was certainly the most talented bowler but breaking caste taboos was an anathema. But once picked, Baloo immediately made his presence felt and helped his team notch up several victories against the Europeans. “The Hindu team was otherwise weak. Baloo helped them match the British,” said Sadanand More, a Marathi historian.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/india-s-first-dalit-cricketer-palwankar-baloo-fought-against-caste-barriers-on-the-field-and-off-it/story-Cz10GUgvkQoLI4b7fhNVEO.html

 

 

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8 hours ago, Trichromatic said:

“He was an extraordinary cricketer who battled incredible discrimination,” said historian Ramachandra Guha, whose 2002 book, A Corner of A Foreign Field, chronicles, among many other things, the life of the Palwankar brothers.

But one of India’s first world-class players, and its first Dalit cricketer, has been neatly brushed out of the annals of history, save a handful of textual records and oral histories — an indictment of both India’s cricket writing and the erasure of Dalit heroes from mainstream history and consciousness.

 

An Indian great

The eldest of four brothers, Baloo was born in 1875 in Dharwad to a family of leather workers but his father was in the army. Baloo and his brother Shivram learnt to play cricket with equipment discarded by officers in Pune. “The army held out the promise of a degree of equality for Dalits impossible elsewhere in a caste-ridden society,” explained Shraddha Kumbhojkar, a professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Indian cricket at the time was organised on caste and faith lines and the pinnacle of the season was a tournament in Bombay, where Hindu, Parsi, British, and, later, Muslim teams competed in three-day matches. Hindus in Pune had started a club but were in two minds over whether to invite Baloo. He was certainly the most talented bowler but breaking caste taboos was an anathema. But once picked, Baloo immediately made his presence felt and helped his team notch up several victories against the Europeans. “The Hindu team was otherwise weak. Baloo helped them match the British,” said Sadanand More, a Marathi historian.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/sports/india-s-first-dalit-cricketer-palwankar-baloo-fought-against-caste-barriers-on-the-field-and-off-it/story-Cz10GUgvkQoLI4b7fhNVEO.html

 

 

Thanks. http://www.journalofsports.com/pdf/2018/vol3issue1/PartAJ/3-1-394-122.pdf

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18 minutes ago, Clarke said:

Never knew the castes of players but what I read is most players like Tendulkar Gavaskar etc were brahmins.

 

Surely there were some great international players of lower/dalit castes too ? 

There was a poster many years back here from Tamil Nadu who was very vocal about  how TN cricket was run and ruled by Brahmins till   L.Balaji  broke the mould. Not sure how legit his argument was but looking in from the outside, he sounded convincing.

 

I heard stories of class biases like Maharajas disrespecting their team mates from a lower class or Maharaja of Vizianagaram being condescending on  commentary (almost doing what Manju did to Pant the other day ) to guys who were popular among the masses like Kunderan who was a soldier or something. Obviously Manju is just an idiot. Don’t think he has a class or caste bias.

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1 hour ago, Global.Baba said:

There was a poster many years back here from Tamil Nadu who was very vocal about  how TN cricket was run and ruled by Brahmins till   L.Balaji  broke the mould. Not sure how legit his argument was but looking in from the outside, he sounded convincing.

 

I heard stories of class biases like Maharajas disrespecting their team mates from a lower class or Maharaja of Vizianagaram being condescending on  commentary (almost doing what Manju did to Pant the other day ) to guys who were popular among the masses like Kunderan who was a soldier or something. Obviously Manju is just an idiot. Don’t think he has a class or caste bias.

Manju has only country bias. He hates anything Indian and loves anything Pakistani. Also loves his macho and "big" men over malnourished types.

Edited by Forever Indian
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Cast is one of the most stupidest thing brown people takes into consideration. Even here in western culture, I see so many born Canadian who follows their parents disgusting cast-culture. 

 

I have seen one idiot in particular get all up your cast to another guy I know. Homeboy drives a Audi, makes close to 100k where as Mr cast guy lives in ghetto and washees dishes. Just cause of his last name doesn't mean he is a farmer here. Morons I tell you ...

Edited by Zero_Unit
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