Some martial arts were practiced during this time period, such as kalaripayattu.[10] Several variations of tag were played at the time, with kho-kho having been mentioned in the fourth century BCE,[11] and atya-patya around 300 CE; some of them were used for military training purposes.[12][13] The board game chaturanga formed the foundation of the modern game of chess, and was also used as strategic training for war;[14][15] it travelled towards Europe and China under Persian and then Arab influence.[16]
An 1875 painting of rugby being played by Europeans in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta).
British colonisation of South Asia introduced several British sports into the subcontinent, such as cricket, football, and hockey,[17][18] causing a decline for the local sports,[19] though some of the local sports began to be standardised during this period in Maharashtra.[20][18][21] The economic struggles prevailing at the time limited people's overall ability to participate in sport.[22]
The transformation of sports and society in South Asia and the accompanying element of coloniality and anti-colonial resistance caused unique transformations throughout this time period: cricket, for example, came to be seen as a unifying way to demonstrate resistance and success against the colonisers and helped in reducing various forms of societal discrimination,[23][24] while football came to be seen as an equalising game that cut across class lines and united the global anti-imperialist struggle in left-wing regions such as Kerala and West Bengal.[25] British accusations of Indian effeminacy, which enabled them to demonstrate superiority and powered their programs to reshape local practices, were resisted in a variety of ways, with success against British teams seen as contributing to national revival.[26][27] However, the interaction between local beliefs and Western sporting practices also manifested itself in anti-sport ways at times: the initial introduction of football at one Srinagar school, designed to produce physical fitness among the children, had to take place by force because the schoolboys saw contact with the ball as defiling them,[28] and similar sentiments of avoiding defilement led to Brahmins preferring cricket because it didn't involve physical contact with lower castes.[29]
Field hockey was popular for several decades after the colonial era. After India's victory in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, cricket started to grow in the subcontinent while hockey declined,[33][34] with the 1975 switch from grass to astroturf fields often cited as making hockey too expensive.[35] The introduction of Twenty20 cricket, a format that greatly reduced the playing duration, as well as the advent of the Indian Premier League, which made cricket a strong economic force in the region, further grew the popularity of the sport.[36] Cricket also grew in Afghanistan with the return of refugees who had learned the sport in Pakistan.[37]
The poverty of South Asia has continued to be a defining factor in limiting the success of sport in the region; until the 1970s, for example, cricket and football were not prevalent because of the expensiveness of buying balls.[38]
Various traditional sports have had professional leagues started for them in the 21st century (largely propelled by the economic liberalisation of the 1990s that took place in India that increased investing into sports),[41] such as the Pro Kabaddi League, which has significantly grown kabaddi,[42] as well as Ultimate Kho Kho and the Pro Panja League for arm wrestling.[43][44] Kabaddi in particular has begun to spread globally,[45] with non-South Asian countries becoming successful at the sport.[46][47] The growth of these traditional sports has been aided by changes to their appearance and rule sets, such as a shift from playing on mud surfaces to matted surfaces.[48][49][50] Some national and sub-national initiatives have also been undertaken to promote sports, such as Khelo India and the Chhattisgarhiya Olympics.[51][52]
^Mujumdar, Dattatraya Chintaman, ed. (1950). Encyclopedia of Indian Physical Culture: A Comprehensive Survey of the Physical Education in India, Profusely Illustrating Various Activities of Physical Culture, Games, Exercises, Etc., as Handed Over to Us from Our Fore-fathers and Practised in India. Good Companions. p. 22. OCLC14652803.
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