When North–South fight, the nation is out of sight: The politics of Olympic sport in postcolonial India

Abstract

By the early 1970s in India, the southern states had emerged as major players in the nation's political scene. Central to this ascendancy was the success of the DMK (a South Indian political party) in the general elections of 1967. Yet when it came to sport, and in the case of the country's leading Olympic sport, hockey, the south was still subservient to the stranglehold exerted by the north. As a result, southern sports administrators were soon determined to challenge the well-entrenched northern supremacy even if that entailed the sacrificing of national interest in the long run. In the fight with the north for the control of Indian hockey, the south bloc led by M.A.M. Ramaswamy enlisted the support of the International Hockey Federation. In doing so, they pre-empted the possibility of a strong Indian protest when the shift to artificial turf was proposed in the mid-1970s. As a close ally of the International Hockey Federation and its president, Rene Frank, Ramaswamy, having assumed presidency of the Indian Federation in 1975, had little choice but to offer tacit consent in the move to AstroTurf. A fight for supremacy between the north and the south blocs, this paper will demonstrate, was at the root of the Indian apathy to stem the move to AstroTurf, central to the subsequent decline of India's leading Olympic sport. It follows that more than the shift to AstroTurf, it was the regional power struggle provoked by the peculiar nature of sport as a cultural practice that resulted in the disappearance of hockey from its position of centrality in the Indian sporting landscape.By the early 1970s in India, the southern states had emerged as major players in the nation's political scene. Central to this ascendancy was the success of the DMK (a South Indian political party) in the general elections of 1967. Yet when it came to sport, and in the case of the country's leading Olympic sport, hockey, the south was still subservient to the stranglehold exerted by the north. As a result, southern sports administrators were soon determined to challenge the well-entrenched northern supremacy even if that entailed the sacrificing of national interest in the long run. In the fight with the north for the control of Indian hockey, the south bloc led by M.A.M. Ramaswamy enlisted the support of the International Hockey Federation. In doing so, they pre-empted the possibility of a strong Indian protest when the shift to artificial turf was proposed in the mid-1970s. As a close ally of the International Hockey Federation and its president, Rene Frank, Ramaswamy, having assumed presidency of the Indian Federation in 1975, had little choice but to offer tacit consent in the move to AstroTurf. A fight for supremacy between the north and the south blocs, this paper will demonstrate, was at the root of the Indian apathy to stem the move to AstroTurf, central to the subsequent decline of India's leading Olympic sport. It follows that more than the shift to AstroTurf, it was the regional power struggle provoked by the peculiar nature of sport as a cultural practice that resulted in the disappearance of hockey from its position of centrality in the Indian sporting landscape.