UNREST IN INDIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18340, 2 September 1921, Page 3

UNREST IN INDIA

SCENE AT A FOOTBALL MATCH. RACIAL FEELING. Racial feeling in India is well exemplified in an account given in the Calcutta Statesman of a riot at a football match on the Maidar cn the evening of July 16. Ihe match was between • Calcutta and Mohan Bagan (the favourite purely Indian team), ancl it was fairly apparent some time before tho start that trouble was likely to occur. Some Indian spectators assembled on the ground as early as 9 o’clock in the morning and half an hour before play commenced there were 20,000 people m a close ring round the playing area, while m a wider circle, but always surging towards the arena, wore many thousands of Indians. There was on duty what might bo considered in ordinary circumsances an adequate police endeavour was mado, under the judicious lead of European sergeants and officers, to marshal the mass into something approaching order. There was, however, an ugly air about considerable sections of the crowd, and truculence was shown towards the police, and especially the Europeans, more particularly those in uniform, these being openly jeered at. Gnndhi-ki-jai was a frequent cry) and altogether the atmosphero was not of the to bo expected even at a match whore legitimate partisanship might bo described as allowable. That the game was started at all. the paper says, was a tribute to tho sporting spirit, of" tho players of both slides. It had been in progress only a few minutes, however, when the police had no option but to order a stoppage, this being necessitated bv the truculence ot the crowd inside the ring. The playing area was invaded by thousands of Indians, there were demands for the repayment of the admission charges, and a menacing demonstration took place in front of tho Europeans stand. The Mohar Bagar officials, the players, and not a few of tho spectators did their best to persuade the demonstrators to go away peacefully, but without avail. The bulk of the Europeans, including a number of ladies, went off quickly. The notice tried to persuade the mob that its attitude was wrong, and in the end a free fight took place, the mob using sticks, stones, and shoes, and smashing chairs and benches to provide themselves with weapons. Tho stands were set on fire, and, the mounted police arriving, had a half-hour struggle clearing the ground and the adjacent streets. This was the first occasion on which a football match at Calcutta had to be abandoned owing to crowd disorders, and the paper remarked that it was likely to be the last European-Indian match to bo arranged until the rowdy element was in a more subdued frame of mind.