Portrayal of Indian Cricket Nationalism in Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan

Abstract

This research work is based on Ashutosh Gowariker' movie Lagaan which depicts the picture of the colonized indigenous of Champaner Village of India, a tormented peasant and entire villagers are struggling against the oppression of British Raj for existence. All villagers including protagonist Bhuvan challenges Veteran British cricket players to a game of cricket. If their village team beats a British team in a game of cricket, their Lagaan for three years will be cancelled otherwise they will take triple Lagaan from villagers. But villagers have not Lagan to pay due to poor agriculture production. The villagers think Bhuvan is insane, since a triple tax would destroy them. But he points out that they cannot pay the current tax, they have nothing to lose. Finally they win the match and Britisher leave this place. Gowariker's Lagaan reinforces colonial resistance. This research excels a better understanding of the relationship between sports and nationalism which is projected in the Lagaan, because the mode of resistance it chooses to depict cricket, as the ultimate signifier of the civilization mission whose rules are turned against the purveyors for the liberation of colonized. Drawing upon the notion of Partha Chatterjee's, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories, Anthony Smith's ,Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era and Benedict Anderson’s influential book, Imagined Communities, the present thesis proves the hypothesis.