Mahatma Gandhi and his stance on the 22 yards

Mahatma Gandhi and cricket may sound like a perfect example of an oxymoron, for 'Bapu' is hardly associated with the sport. Gandhi was comfortable grasping a stick rather than a cricket bat. Unlike a batsman, the propagator of Ahimsa or non-violence never wielded the stick.

Is there any connection then that ties Gandhi to cricket? Both shaped the course of India's history and influenced society in different ways. Mahatma was at the forefront of India's freedom struggle. His ideals, beliefs and virtues shaped the crux of society and influenced India's relationship with other countries. On the other hand, cricket imbibed the consciousness of the country, its aspirations and desire to carve out a place on the world stage. When an independent but bewildered India was looking for a way to establish itself on the world map, cricket arrived as a rescuer. India's series victories against elite teams, its 1983 World Cup win and its subsequent emergence as a powerhouse in a game invented by its erstwhile coloniser served as a platform to showcase nationalistic sentiments.

In such a scenario, cricket and Gandhi were bound to cross paths. Ramachandra Guha mentions one such example in his piece titled Gandhi: did he spin more than khadi? in which he discusses Louis Fischer, the author of The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, who had sent a list of questions to Mahatma's sister in 1948. Here's an extract from the article - In answer to "What does she remember about her brother Mohandas as a child and as a boy? Did he play games?" she replied: "When Mahatmaji was young he used to play with rubber balloons, tennis, cricket and such other games. He used to have such great interest for those games that he would not remember even his meals… He would not stay at home in the evenings as he would get engrossed in playing."

In the same article, Guha mentions a humorous incident involving Gandhi and cricket. He talks about an occasion when Laxmi Merchant, the sister of legendary Indian opening batsman Vijay Merchant, went to get the Mahatma's autograph. Gandhi scanned through Laxmi's book for a suitable page to sign, eventually settling upon one containing the names of the 1933-34 MCC touring party. Captained by Douglas Jardine, the 16-member team comprised stalwarts like Hedley Verity and Stan Nichols. Gandhi added an extra member to the team: "17. M. K. Gandhi".

Gandhi encountered cricket during his student years when he went to Rajkot and enrolled in high school. According to Kausik Bandyopadhyay's Mahatma On The Pitch, the headmaster of the school Dorabji Edulji Gimi made cricket and gymnasium compulsory for everyone. Gandhi, however, resented the instruction, partly because he was too shy to take part in the game and partly because he wanted to be with his ailing father after school. In his own words, "I never took part in any exercise, cricket or football because they were made compulsory. My shyness was one of the reasons for this aloofness, which I now see was wrong."

As fate would have it, Gandhi had among his four notes of introduction one addressed to Prince Ranjitsinhji, one of the legends of the game, when he arrived in England in 1888. Arghya Ganguly in his piece, The link between cricket and Mahatma Gandhi, explores the myth that those two used to be in the same Rajkot college and Ranji's hostility to Gandhi's movements. Cricket commentator Scyld Berry has remarked, "both the prince and self-made pauper were schooled in the sporting ethos of Rajkot."

In later years, Gandhi would give his 'not so favourable' viewpoint regarding cricket. "In the west, they have invented games like cricket for such people...To be sure, spending time in sports does give some exercise to the body, but an exercise of this kind does nothing to improve the mind...What proportion of men of high intellectual calibre shall we find among those who regularly play cricket or from among the large number who play football?" he wrote in a letter in 1931.

He even condemned cricket by stating that such a game had no place in a country burdened by the yoke of colonial bondage. Ramachandra Guha in the article, Why Gandhi would have been appalled by the Gandhi-Mandela Trophy, quotes him, "Our colonial-born Indians are carried away with this football and cricket mania. These games may have their place under certain circumstances. But I feel sure that for us, who are just now so fallen, they have no room. Why do we not take the simple fact into consideration that the vast majority of mankind who are vigorous in body and mind are simple agriculturists, that they are strangers to these games, and they are the salt of the earth?"

Cricket mirrors society and the problem of caste-based discrimination was present in the sport too. At a time when Gandhi was fighting against untouchability and working for the upliftment of Harijans (a term he used for the caste that means People of God), one Palwankar Baloo was struggling to make his mark in the gentleman's game by breaking through caste barriers. He had to face discrimination throughout his career despite being an excellent spin bowler, so much so that he featured in the first Indian team to visit England in 1911.

Despite his cricketing prowess, Baloo was marginalised time and again and was denied captaincy by the Hindu Gymkhana. Gandhi's fight against untouchability inspired him and his brothers Shivram and Vithal to fight for their rights. Later, Baloo became the vice-captain of the team and even got the chance to lead them for one innings in the final of the Bombay Quadrangular tournament. Vithal would later go on to lead the Hindu team in the 1923 edition. According to Guha in his book Cricket and Politics in Colonial India, "Gandhi never watched Baloo bowl or Vithal bat. But his campaign against Untouchability emboldened the Palwankars and their followers to fight more openly for their rights."

Gandhi had a direct influence in cricket during the 1940 Bombay Pentangular. According to Boria Majumdar's article Why Gandhi said no to British India’s top cricket tournament, Gandhi reportedly said, “I would discountenance such amusements at a time when the whole of the thinking world should be in mourning over a war that is threatening the stable life of Europe and its civilisation and bids to overwhelm Asia."

It must be noted that the tournament was going to be held at a time when World War II was threatening to ravage the world. It led to the cancellation of India's tour of England in 1940. Gandhi condemned the tournament and vehemently criticised its communal nature. Eminent personalities like the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram agreed with Gandhi. The tournament was abolished in 1946 and the Ranji Trophy became the premier domestic tournament in its place.

Despite Gandhi's lack of interest in cricket, his son Devadas was an ardent follower of the game and an admirer of Sir Don Bradman. In 1948, Bradman visited England for what was to be his farewell series. According to Guha, Devadas visited London to attend a meeting of Reuters, on whose board he served. But there was another purpose: to watch Bradman bat. Tickets for the Trent Bridge Test were sold out but he managed to get a complimentary pass through contacts. All hotel rooms in Nottingham were sold out also. Guha said that finally, the younger Gandhi found accommodation in the house of the warden of the Nottingham county jail. All of it to watch Bradman bat.

As Abhishek Mukherjee writes in his article for Cricket Country, "He took the train back to London after the second day’s play and did not get to see the rest of the Test (the first Test in Nottingham). He missed some spectacular performances, but it did not matter anymore to him. He had seen what he had wanted to."