‘Golondaaj’ Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari: the father of Indian football

The story of Indian football begins with an eight-year-old boy kicking a ball.

The child, named Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, years later would come to be known as the father of Indian football for his contribution towards moulding the footballing culture in a country under British rule.

An enigmatic football administrator even before he turned teenager, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari’s story is one in a million.

The kick that kicked off Indian football

Football arrived in India with the British colonisers early in the 19th century.

While there are records of football matches played at various port cities like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, they were primarily restricted within the European community, particularly to the British army and naval officers, settled in the country.

The year 1877 turned out to be a gamechanger.

Few months after Queen Victoria’s official ascension as the Empress of India and England cricket team facing Australia in the first-ever Test match in Melbourne, the seed of Indian football was sown.

Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, an heir to one of Bengal’s ‘bhadralok’ or aristocratic families, was accompanying his mother Hemlata Devi to the Ganges in a horse-drawn carriage.

Starting the day with a dip in the holy river was a mother-son ritual of sorts. But on that September morning, they were delayed a bit.

En route, young Nagendra’s curious eyes stumbled upon a bunch of British soldiers playing football on the Calcutta FC grounds. On Nagendra’s insistence, the carriage stopped and the young boy alighted the wagon to take a closer look.

While he watched, a stray ball bounced his way and a British soldier called out to him saying, “Kick it to me, boy”. In awe, the young Nagendra obliged.

Indian football expert and historian Novy Kapadia, in his book Barefoot To Boots, argues that this was the first-ever recorded instance of an Indian kicking a football.

Whether or not Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was indeed the first Indian to kick a football is highly debatable. But the fact that it was the most important kick in Indian football history is beyond reproach.

A student of the erstwhile Calcutta’s famous Hare School, Nagendra Prasad sarbadhikari went back to school and relayed, with unbridled fervour, what he had witnessed and the experience of kicking a ball.

Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari’s zest was contagious and before long, he and his friends decided to pool in money to purchase a football. Everyone pitched in and a group of young boys walked in the doors of Bowbazar’s Messrs. Manton & Co. - a famous sporting goods shop – to buy a football.

The wrong ball and help from the balcony

The exact details of what transpired at the store is still unknown, but be it their inexperience or tender age, the boys walked out with a rugby ball instead of a football.

It’d be unfair to fault the boys though as at the time, rugby and football were almost synonymous in Britain. Even the Scottish Football Union, established in 1873, only changed their name to Scottish Rugby Union in 1924.

The young band proudly marched the rugby ball into their school grounds and started playing. None, unfortunately, knew the rules of football and what transpired was a clueless attempt at playing football with a rugby ball.

But the high-voltage kick-around involving the merry band drew a huge crowd. The novelty of the game being played was too enjoyable to miss.

Among the curious audience were a group of European teachers from nearby schools and colleges. One GA Stack, a professor at the Presidency College adjoining Hare school, caught a glimpse of the boys’ antics from his college balcony.

The amused professor, gripped by the enthusiasm of the boys, came down and asked them which sport exactly were they trying to play.

Upon grasping the confusion, Stack graciously offered to teach Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari the rules and even gifted them an actual football. Another Presidency college professor, JH Gilligand joined Stack in his endeavours.

Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari turned out to be exceptionally gifted at picking up the nuances of the game.

Soon after, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari and his friends set up the Boys’ Club – the first organised football club in India.

The development inspired college students from popular institutions like Presidency College, Calcutta Medical College and St Xaviers College to form football teams of their own.

With the help of his friend and classmate Nagendra Mullick, a member of the royal family based out of Chorbagan area in Calcutta, Sarbadhikari set up the Friend’s Club in the premises of the royal household of Raja Rajendra Mallick. It was a monumental step forward for club football in Calcutta and India.

After passing out from school, where he played football for the school team, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari joined the Presidency College.

In the following years, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari pioneered a string of sporting clubs in Calcutta, each bigger and more ambitious than the last.

Fight against racism and casteism in football

Among the clubs he patronised, Wellington Club and Sovabazar Club were particularly significant.

After establishing Wellington Club in 1884, just after leaving college, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari tried to bring about a sweeping social change in Indian football.

Football was still mostly an upper caste hegemony in those days and Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari tried to change the norm with the inclusion of Moni Das, a potter’s son, into the club. He, however, faced stern resistance from the more affluent members.

Disgusted with the petty discrimination, the enigmatic founder decided to uphold the sportsman spirit he so cherished and dissolved the Wellington Club.

Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari founded the Sovabazar Club in 1887 with the patronage of the Sovabazar and Cooch Behar royal families. The club was a symbol of societal progress in its own right as it ‘offered open membership to sportsmen, irrespective of class, caste, community or religious affiliations’.

Moni Das, who would later become one of the first members of Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan, was inducted in the Sovabazar Club to celebrate the change.

The team, built with players from all of Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikary’s earlier clubs, became the first Indian team to participate in the Trades Cup – the first open football tournament in India – in the competition’s inaugural year in 1889.

Sovabazar Club defeated East Surrey Regiment 2-1 in the 1892 Trades Cup final to become the first all-Indian club to beat a British team to win a trophy. The win set the stage for Mohun Bagan’s landmark IFA Shield win in 1911.

In 1892, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari also played a crucial role setting up the Indian Football Association (IFA) – the de facto governing body of football in India before the formation of the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) in 1937.

He, though, passed on the opportunity to become the first Indian member of the organisation and put forth Kali Mitter, a senior member of the Sovabazar club, for the role.

Long before his passing in 1940, Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari had rightfully earned his title of the father of Indian football.

Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari biopic Golondaaj

The father of Indian football’s life and accomplishments hit the movie screens in the form of a Bengali (Tollywood) film titled Golondaaj (The Gunner).

The dramatised biopic directed by Dhrubo Banerjee and starring popular Bengali actor Dev as Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was released in 2021.