Dbq Essay Crickets and Politics

The relationship between cricket and politics is clearly portrayed in South Asia from 1880 to 2005 through the easing of the tension between different caste members, although the tension eased was not always from a religious aspect between the Pakistanis, Indians, and the British. The different problems that arose in South Asia was mostly class or caste systems (Docs 2, 3, 4), rivalry (Docs 1, 6, 10), and religious tensions (Docs 5, 7, 8, 9) against the different countries and cricket teams. Cricket in many ways was a unifying force for the different classes in India as well as the relationship between Britain and India. As seen in Document 2, an Indian cricketer was invited to “...join the Sussex team,” which was a team from England. This shows some equality between the British and the Indians because the British typically saw the Indians as lower than them in standards. However, this paper could have left some things out and used as a source of propaganda seeing that it was published by a British newspaper. (POV) This connection between the British and the Indians can also be seen in Document 3 because in the opinion of an English cricketer and historian, he felt that “Cricket unites the rulers and the ruled.” The ruler in this case was Britain and the ruled was India. Cricket was said to be one of the most “...civilizing influences,” and the one that did “...least harm,” because rather than making the Indians grief over the fact that they were not an independent country, they gave them the sport of cricket, a source of happiness, moral training, and more. A sense of equality can be seen in Document 4 between the different castes in India. A lower caste Hindu was allowed to be on a team just because he was good at cricket. The other team members took him into the team and ignored the fact that they weren’t from the same caste. This is a very important example of unity because in history, different caste systems were never allowed to mix. For example, a lower