| Abstract |
India's extremely diverse society has managed to hold together for over 60 years. There are a number of possible explanations for this, but one explanation that is often underappreciated is popular culture, and especially sports. Specifically, cricket has had a number of effects that would appear to have contributed to social cohesion in India. This thesis asks the following question: What effects has cricket had on the solidification of the Indian nation-state. The thesis focuses on three of cricket's contributions in particular. First, it finds that cricket has served as a catalyst, reflection, and expression of India's independence struggle. Second, cricket has provided a central social activity that has created shared experiences and memories, and in doing so has helped to meld many ethno-religious sub-cultures into one broader Indian polity. Finally, cricket has served as a tool for international diplomacy and as one of India's greatest expressions of national prestige. The study looks at Indian solidification by shining the narrow light of cricket through the prism of Indian nationalism, thereby providing a small, but important, piece to the complex puzzle of what has brought India together. |
