476 The Quest for Manhood: Masculine Hinduism and Nation in Bengal Subho Basu and Sikata Banerjee Seven millions sons, oh devoted Mother, you have made into Bengalis, not men. —Rabindranath Tagore, “Bongo Mata” (“Mother Bengal”) oal!” thundered eighty thousand spectators in Calcutta’s soccer stadium when Abilash Ghosh of Mohun Bagan grabbed a quick pass from Shibdas Bhaduri and hit the ball into the net against East York. Within two minutes the fnal match for the Indian Foot- ball Association (IFA) shield between East York, a British military team, and Mohun Bagan, a team of Calcutta Bengalis, came to an end on 29 July 1911. So electrifying was the victory for the Bengalis that many started tearing their shirts and waving them in the air. Even members of the Moslem Sporting Club (a pioneering soccer team of Bengal Muslims), forgetting bit- ter moments of Hindu-Muslim confict during the anti-partition movement that took place between 1903 and 1911, “went almost mad . . . [started] rolling on the ground . . . on the vic- tory of their Hindu brethren.” The event became international news as Reuters reported that “for the frst time in the history of Indian Football, a core Bengali team, Mohun Bagan, won the IFA Shield by defeating a competent White team.” Euphoria did not die down as the next morning, 30 July 1911, the Bengali , a nationalist daily of Calcutta, published a poem by the Mohun Bagans: Thanks my friends of football renown, For bringing the British teams down A victory grand to behold, Serene and noble-bright and bold. 1 The Bengali narrative of this event no doubt demonstrates the relationship between sports and nationalism in the imperial context. Indeed, recent research demonstrates that sports, with its tense spectacular drama for a limited period, highlights moments of nationalist out- pouring and transforms the imagined community of nation into concrete reality marked by intense emotion, sentimentality, and display of physical prowess. 2 This sporting event can also be read as a spectacle transmitting and creating a specifc idea of an imagined Bengali com- munity. This event in Calcutta also touches a crucial cultural aspect of emerging Indian na- Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Vol. 26, No. 3, 2006 doi 10.1215/1089201x-2006-027 © 2006 by Duke University Press 1. These details were derived from the Web site of the Mohun Bagan Athletic Club (www.mohunbagan.sports-india.com/ History-1910-1919.html; accessed 20 September 2005). We have, however, verified their authenticity, individually cross-checking original sources. 2. For further details on the subject, see Gary Armstrong, Foot- ball Hooligans: Knowing the Score (Oxford: Berg, 1998); Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti, eds., Fear and Loathing in World Football (Oxford: Berg, 2001); and Seth Koven, “From Rough Lads to Hooligans: Boy Life, National Culture, and Social Reform,” in Nationalisms and Sexualities, ed. Andrew Parker, Mary Russo, Doris Sommer, and Patricia Yaeger (New York: Rout- ledge, 1992), 365–91. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East Published by Duke University Press