Indian Football, Its first victory against the British Team on July 29th, 1911 with bare feet.

Bengal  is considered to be the home for Indian football. Its first victory was in the year 1911. The reason behind the true spirit which those 10 players had was the just the thirst for freedom laid strong  in their heart.  If we observe the events which occurred in Bengal during the period of 1909-1912 there was an evolutionary progress happening in the thought process that lead to the slow realization in the people and sense of understanding about the non-violent struggle for India’s independence. The historic game happened during this period.

In the year 1905,  partition of Bengal took place in order to suppress the Bengal Hindus participation in the governance,  but this  triggered an religious rift between Hindu’s and Muslims.  It almost created a national anti-British movement that involved non-violent and violent protests, this was undone in the year 1911 by the new governor, Charles Hardinge.  This was the first action of retract, though the turmoil still existed in people they were slowly realizing the strength in united struggle.  In parallel, the thought process of people in Bengal was also being influenced by the writings  of Aurobindo and Baghvan Das whose articles delivered a message of not only a non-violent struggle  but also the need for unity among Hindus and Muslims. These are just a record of  few events which happened during that time.

Just imagine the state of mind of the people when they got a chance to play against the British team.  Today just a cricket test match is enough for us to stay awake at night, wonder what level of anxiousness the viewers had who watched the game ! And the happiness of the victory they had felt, it was just not about the game; it was about their Freedom!