Two of Eastern India’s best known educational institutions, Hare School and Hindu College (present Presidency College) was established between 1816 and 1818. Both possess glittering lists of alumni and over two centuries many of their students have played a vital role in pre, post independence India. Curiously, Indian football also has a great debt to them. How Indian football started its long journey is often lost in the sands of time but it involved a young boy, an enthusiastic professor and a chance encounter on a winter morning in Calcutta.
Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was born in 1869 to Dr. Surya Kumar Sarbadhikari and Hemlata Devi. His early life was unremarkable but it would change on a September morning in 1877. Accompanied by her son, his mother had the habit of taking a dip in the holy river Ganga to start off the day. On that day, en route to the river, their horse drawn carriage passed through a road just north of Calcutta FC training ground. Nagendra Prasad was intrigued when he saw a number of British soldiers practicing with a circular ball. He got down from the carriage, moved closer to the ground to observe. After a while, the ball rolled towards him, prompting Nagendra Prasad to pick it up and marvel at how light the thing was. One of the soldiers came up to him and laughingly asked, “Kick it to me, boy”. He obliged. According to legend, this was the first time an Indian had kicked a football. Whether it was the first kick or not is a matter of conjecture, but this seemingly insignificant incident and that young boy would play a major role in snowballing the popularity of football in India – making the country arguably the most vibrant footballing scene outside Britain in the Victorian age.
Sarbadhikari’s story has passed into folklore but football in India stretched further back to early 19th century. In History of Indian Football Nirmal Nath states that the first recorded football match in India happened in Bombay (present Mumbai) in 1802 – a 30 minute game between teams named as “Military” and “Island”. Having taken place more than half a century before formal codification of football rules, it is very likely that this match was a hybrid form of football and rugby. This was followed by instances of football matches from Calcutta – Etonians against Rest of Calcutta (1838), Calcutta Club of Civilians against Gentlemen of Barrackpore (13th April, 1854), Etonians against Rest of Calcutta (1868).
As the 1870s dawned, football matches became more frequent in Calcutta, mostly involving British soldiers, tradesmen or sailors. These matches eventually led to the formation of Trades Club (later renamed to Dalhousie Club) by British businessmen in 1878. Armenian traders had been a major player in the field of commerce in Bengal since the 17th century and they also formed a football club. However, till late 1870s football was mostly limited to participation from non-Indians. This completely changed when Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari arrived on the stage.
Soon after his first brush with the game, an ebullient Sarbadhikari narrated the incident to his classmates in Hare School. His enthusiasm was infectious and his friends decided to start a group subscription in order to purchase a football. In the partly fictionalized Ekadoshe Surjodoy (Eleven Rising Suns), Rupak Saha mentions that they pooled in an amount of Three Rupees and Seventy Five paise. A little group of boys then made their way to Messrs. Manton & Co. in Calcutta’s Bowbazar area, a famous dealer of sporting goods. They purchased a ball but given their inexperience and lack of knowledge, what they bought was a rugby ball!