Poets, Wrestlers and Cricketers

Chapter four discusses the impact of colonial rule on traditional cultural and sporting pastimes and the new activities that emerged, most notably cricket. There are three case studies of mushairas (poetic contests), wrestling and cricket. The chapter reveals how their key participants in Lahore were able to perform on a wider stage because of the communications revolution. Nonetheless, they remained rooted in the mohallas and local institutions of the city. Lahore’s mushairas of the 1870s which received contributions from Muhammad Hussain Azad and Altaf Hussain Hali are seen as possessing an important impact on the evolution of Urdu poetry in North India. Competitions took Lahore’s most famous wrestler Gama from his akhara (wrestling arena) in the city to England. Many of Lahore’s most famous colonial era cricketers lived in the Bhati Gate and Mochi Gate area. The fierce rivalry in the 1920s and 1930s between Islamia College and Government College drew talent from across the Punjab. Cricket was not divided on communal lines, Lala Amarnath the future Indian test captain who toured England in the 1930s played for the Crescent Club based at Minto Park which was patronized by the middle class Rana family of the Mochi Gate locality.