The Asiatic Society of Mumbai
Mumbai Research Centre
Cricket Country by Dr. Prashant Kidambi
Lecture 1: 7 pm to 8.40 pm, 31 January 2023
Lecture 2: 7 pm to 8.40 pm, 7 February 2023
on Zoom | Charges Rs.500/-
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Cricket Country is the untold story of how the idea of India was fashioned on the cricket pitch in the high noon of empire. Conceived by an unlikely coalition of imperial and Indian elites, it took twelve years and three failed attempts before an ‘Indian’ cricket team made its debut on the playing fields of imperial Britain in the blazing coronation summer of 1911. This is a capacious tale with an improbable cast of characters set against the backdrop of revolutionary protest and princely intrigue. My talk, which is in two parts, will highlight key episodes in this extraordinary story and illuminate a fascinating and formative period in the history of Indian cricket.
Prashant Kidambi is associate professor of colonial urban history at the University of Leicester. After completing postgraduate degrees in history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a doctorate at the University of Oxford. Kidambi’s research explores the interface between British imperialism and the history of modern South Asia. He is the author of The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920 and the lead editor of Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos.
To register: https://rzp.io/l/Kidambi
- Dr. Shehernaz Nalwalla, Chairperson
- Prof. Mangala Sirdeshpande, Hon. Secretary