the kolkata football: history and representation

From the outset, the soccer clubs of Kolkata have gone through prismatic phases and multifarious metamorphosis. It is also interesting to note that many city sports clubs played a notable contribution to the formation of nationalism in the pre-Independence period. Amidst the appearances of the newly designated clubs like ATK-Mohun Bagan or SC-East Bengal, it is palpable that the colophon of the city has faced a radical modification in attitude vis-à-vis the rich texture of the new global forces prevalent in the city’s club culture. The re-embodiment or relocation of the Kolkata soccer, which needs to be critically addressed, is allied with empirical insights into the possibilities of creating emergent narrative geography of the city. Such an entire focus on particular city-based soccer practices and its socio-spatial dialectic throughout the ages are perhaps unique. This monograph, being rooted in the 21st-century narrative geographies of the city, will add to the existing knowledge. At the same time, it will trigger new paradigms in mapping the cultural geography of the sports culture of Kolkata - the politics of representation in literature and cinema, the culinary logos and the food rituals related to soccer in the city, the strategy behind the nomenclatures of the soccer clubs, etc. which are probably the first study of the subject.