Of my fan encounters during the Paris Olympics, I will especially remember the medal winning hockey match at the Yves du Manoir stadium. We had reached the venue later than anticipated and were scrambling to get some fan reactions ahead of the match. And true to hockey’s standing as India’s national sport, fans had come from far and wide. There was a lady from Brussels, and a family from London. Of the latter, only the father was Indian, but his British wife and children were were cheering for team India. Yet another family were Indians settled in Paris. The young boy spoke no English – “He was born here, so he’s a Frenchman – speaks only French,” laughed his father. Didn’t matter really, because he was waving the tricolour and saying he wanted India to win.
Inside the stadium, the Spanish team were not only vanquished, but their fans were no match for the war cries of ‘Jeetega bhai jeetaga, India jeetega’. If cheers could be a factor in a win, India’s fans at this game surely contributed to it.
But fandom is not always about jubilation and celebration. It also forges rare connections in protest, as we have seen since the day before, here in Kolkata. The rarest moments of solidarity were witnessed during the protest march that followed the cancellation of the season’s first Derby. The city’s premier clubs – Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting – known for their bitter rivalries off and on field, held hands to protest and demand justice for a horrific crime that has shaken the city.
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A Mohun Bagan supporter perched on the shoulders of his fellow protester in East Bengal’s colours made the front page of several newspapers. On Monday, to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, fans of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal again congregated on the Maidan for a joint show of solidarity, throwing up scenes that even Maidan veterans claimed to not have seen before.
Rabindranath Tagore had called for a Raksha Bandhan to protest the partition of Bengal in 1905. The Mohun Bagan-East Bengal scenes of the last two days are reminiscent of that very same spirit of nationalist protest – when fans rose above wins and losses on the field, and Indeed beyond sport itself, to act as a powerful nerve centre in a democracy.
The power of fandom in its quintessence is nationalist, and it is fans together with athletes who make international sporting competitions what they are. Come the Paralympics in Paris a few days from now, we will need to see what kind of fandom and support our para athletes garner.
If the strength of our democracy shows in the powerful statement for gender justice made together by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, it will equally need to show in how much support we extend to the differently abled who will represent the country. The Paralympics now has the support of the political class and corporates, but we’re yet to see a larger awareness of para sport in our country.
The power of fandom and our democracy lies in navigating newer territories. Let the Paralympics be yet another occasion when Indian fans surpass expectations.
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