The playground as a theatre for social and political life: Ramachandra Guha interview

In episode 153 of the 81allout podcast we interview the award-winning author and historian – and one of modern India’s most renowned biographers – Ramachandra Guha.

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Talking Points:

• The idea behind the Corner of a Foreign Field
• In search of the memories of India’s first great cricketer – Palwankar Baloo
• The Bombay Pentangular, a long-ago precursor to the Indian Premier League
• Does the Bombay school of batting begin with the remarkable P Vithal?
• Baloo and Vithal and their similarities to Jackie Robinson and Mohammad Ali
• How the city of Bombay is a main character in Corner of a Foreign Field
• The Parsee influence in the history of Indian cricket
• CK Naydu’s epochal 153 against the MCC team in 1926-27
• The evolution of the game in post-independence India
• Race, caste, religion, and nation – the fissures around Indian cricket
• The India v Pakistan match in Manchester in 1999 – with their soldiers at war
• The marvelous raconteur that was Raj Singh Dungarpur
• Some favourite books on cricket – Haigh, Kidambi, Bhattacharya, Berry, Lister, Marks

Participants:

Ramachandra Guha (@ramguha)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

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Related:

• Book review: Corner of a Foreign Field – Sharda Ugra – India Today
• A cricket history of India – Gideon Haigh on Corner of a Foreign Field – ESPNcricinfo
• The ‘Untouchable’ Cricketer Who Challenged the British & His Fellow Countrymen – Rinchen Norbu Wangchuk – The Better India
• The first Indian team to visit England – Martin Williamson – ESPNcricinfo
• India’s entry into Test cricket – Amit Varma – ESPNcricinfo
• ‘I wanted my own language to have some of the game’s glory’ – 81allout podcast with Surya Prakash Chaturvedi

Books Discussed:

• Corner of a Foreign Field – Ramachandra Guha – Amazon
• Spin and Other Turns – Ramachandra Guha – Amazon
• Cricket, Public Culture, and Making of Post-Colonial Calcutta – Souvik Naha – Cambridge University Press
• A Stroke of Genius – Gideon Haigh – Amazon
• On Warne – Gideon Haigh – Amazon
• Beyond a Boundary – CLR James – Amazon
• Cricket Country – Prashant Kidambi – Amazon
• Pundits from Pakistan – Rahul Bhattacharya – Amazon
• Fire in Babylon – Simon Lister – Amazon
• Cricket: the game of life – Scyld Berry – Amazon
• Late Cuts – Vic Marks – Amazon

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Lead image from here.