From Commentary to Comics: A Sensory Exploration of Football in Post-Colonial Calcutta

Abstract

This paper intends to highlight football’s relevance as a cultural force and its pervasive influence on the everyday life of Calcutta in post-colonial times. My paper extensively examines live football commentaries broadcasted by All India Radio and televised matches telecasted by Doordarshan Bhavan, which described the games and vividly captured the stadium’s sensory atmosphere—crowd roars, player nicknames, referee abuses, and the emotional ebb and flow of the spectators. It also analyses advertisements in newspapers and youth magazines, featuring Bengali footballers in caricatured poses promoting products to uncover the sports’ market acceptance and entrenchment in popular culture. Additionally, it explores serialised graphical depictions of global football matches published in Bengali periodicals which provide insights into the sport’s visual and narrative resonance. This paper also re-reads conventional sources such as IFA souvenirs, club archives, players’ autobiographies, etc., and collects visual and sonic references to explore identity questions, fan behaviour, transfer disputes, administrative responses, etc. The primary objective of the paper is not to describe football matches but to study what football means and why it matters.