The death anniversary of Indian Football's first legend

The immortals of 1911

When Mohun Bagan won the 1911 IFA Shield, their two defenders Sudhir Chatterjee and Bhuti Sukul played with great understanding. They formed a solid defensive partnership. Sudhir’s game reading and ability to anticipate opposition attacks made him an invaluable partner to Sukul’s tackling ability. Coincidentally, both their death anniversaries are in mid-April. Born on 12^th November 1883, left back Sudhir Chatterjee died on 12^th April 1966. Sukul’s death anniversary is on 16^th April, as he died on this day 70 years ago.

On 29^th July 1911, Mohun Bagan became the first Indian team to lift the coveted IFA Shield beating a British regimental team East Yorkshire Regiment 2-1 in the final. This victory led to massive political and social upheavals and established Calcutta as the nerve centre of football in India. This match also heralded the start of Calcutta’s love affair with football.

The victory of the oppressed over their oppressors in football was seen as a symbolic triumph and a huge morale-booster for activists committed to freeing India from British rule. It also challenged fundamental views on the racial superiority of white Europeans over Asians. Bagan’s team in the 2-3-5 system was as follows:

Goalkeeper: Hiralal Mukherjee;

Defenders: Bhuti Sukul and Sudhir Chatterjee;

Half Backs: Manmohan Mukherjee, Rajen Sengupta and Nilmadhav Bhattacharya;

Forwards: Kanu Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Bhaduri and Shibdas Bhaduri (Capt.).

Results: Beat St. Xavier’s Institute 3-0, beat Rangers FC 2-1, beat Rifle Brigade 1-0, semi final beat Middlesex Regt. 0-0 and 3-0 and in the final beat East Yorkshire Regt 2-1. Goal scorers for Bagan in the final were left winger Shibdas Bhaduri and centre forward Abhilash Ghosh.

All these eleven players became legends in their lifetime, even though they achieved little success during the rest of their careers. The film Egaro, released in 2011 to commemorate the centenary of Bagan’s historic IFA Shield victory, has re-kindled interest about this match and the players. The film shows that after the historic 1911 IFA Shield triumph, a nationalist myth became associated with Mohun Bagan. This win had wider social ramifications. It was seen as the deconstruction of the image of the Bengalis as an effeminate race and reconstruction of a more masculine and sprightly image.

The composition of the victorious Mohun Bagan team was a good indicator of how enthusiastically upper-caste Bengalis had taken up the sport. The team consisted of 10 Bengalis, six of them Brahmins with one player, Sudhir Kumar Chatterjee, a Christian. The rest were upper-caste Hindus. Only one player, Sukul, originally hailed from outside Bengal, his surname a corruption of the north Indian ‘Shukla’. Though from the upper castes, the players were not wealthy. Three of the team members, including captain Shibdas, were employed in government agencies and three were students at Scottish Church and Presidency Colleges respectively. Two were employed in private firms and two, Bijoydas Bhaduri (Shibdas’s elder brother) and Bhuti, were partners in a small business, which, among others things, traded in opium. Sudhir Chatterjee, who had a degree in education from England, was a teacher at the MS College in Calcutta. Not all the players were from Calcutta though. Manmohan Mukherjee was from Uttarpara and Nilmadhav Bhattacharya from Srirampur. Kanu Roy belonged to a wealthy family from Mymensingh in East Bengal and the Bhaduris and Sudhir Chatterjee were originally from Faridpur.

These eleven players were the first legends of Indian football. Amongst them, the trio of tricky left winger Shibdas Bahaduri (netted the equalizer in the final), the muscular centre forward Abhilash Ghosh (scored the match winner) and left-back Sudhir Chatterjee became really famous because of the stories and anecdotes associated with them. Abhilash’s parents did not want him to play this tournament as they feared he would get hurt. However he defied his parents to impress his girlfriend, who lived in the same locality.

Sudhir Chatterjee, a Bengali Christian, worked as a teacher in Bhowanipore College. There is a popular story that before the first and second round matches with St. Xavier’s Institute and Rangers F.C respectively, efforts were made by his opponents to prevent Sudhir Chaterjee from reaching the ground. Using the right connections, they tried to influence the Principal of Bhowanipore College to get Sudhir Chatterjee involved in college work so that he would not be available for the match. Sudhir was known to be a cerebral defender and without him, Bagan’s rearguard would not be so well-organised. Also, several of Bagan’s substitutes were injured and so they would have struggled to field a playing eleven. In both the matches, Sudhir Chatterjee just made it in time to the ground. The same ruse was attempted even in the final, but Chatterjee was alert and slipped off early.

The film Egaro shows that that Sudhir Chatterjee loses his college job because the British Principal hates to see him playing against a British team and his colleagues, who are also British, humiliate him. There is a dispute about the authenticity of the dismissal from the job, but the reasons for the jealousy of his British colleagues had also to do with romance. The British supporters were gathered at one side of the Calcutta Football Club ground, where the final was played. Much to everyone’s surprise, an attractive young British girl repeatedly cheered every time Sudhir cleared the ball and when Mohun Bagan scored. This young student admired the lean, lanky and smart Sudhir. There were even rumours of a passionate relationship, but nothing materialized. Sudhir’s popularity with the opposite sex probably caused envy amongst his British colleagues.

Poster for the movie ‘Egaro’, which is based on the 1911 team

Overall, Sudhir had an illustrious career. He was the only booted member of the Immortal eleven but his football career terminated in 1914 due to a serious injury. He joined Mohun Bagan in 1904 and was highly respected for his temperament and adjusting nature. On the morning of the final match, Mohun Bagan players went to Kalighat temple to pray in front of the goddess of power – Ma Kali. Mohun Bagan players stepped in the field with red tilaks on their forehead and blessed flowers in their pockets. Even Sudhir Chatterjee, a devout Christian, followed the same rituals as his teammates. It is gestures like these which made him a living legend amongst Bagan’s supporters.

A highly educated man, he had completed his MA degree; and after his football career was over, he went for higher studies to England in 1923 and joined Cambridge University. Later on, he got the post of lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge. Soon after, he returned India and formed the Residential College at Bishnupur. He was also associated with other educational institutes like Scottish Church College and Women’s College. Later in life, he became a priest and was known as Reverend Sudhir Chatterjee.

His love for the game and Mohun Bagan remained undiminished. He witnessed the 1947 IFA Shield final, when Bagan won the tournament after a lapse of 36 years. He was the only surviving member of the 1911 team when the club celebrated its Platinum Jubilee in 1964. During the Indo-China War in 1962, he auctioned his 1911 gold medal and gave the proceeds to the national defense fund.

There is also an interesting anecdote about Shibdas Bahaduri. The triumphant Bagan players were leaving the ground when a middle-aged person accosted him and pointing to the East Yorkshire regiment colours and the Union Jack aloft on the nearby Fort Williams said, “this one you have done but what about that.” The supporter implied that Bagan had lowered the colours of a British regiment and that now it was the turn for the young men to join the nationalist movement and drive the British rulers from the country. Shibdas apparently replied that this would occur when his team next won the Shield. This off-the-cuff and probably flippant prediction came true. Though Mohun Bagan reached the IFA Shield final on a couple of occasions in the 1920s, it regained the trophy only in 1947. Bagan next won the IFA Shield in 1947, the year of India’s Independence, when they beat East Bengal 1-0 in the final. Sarat Das was the Bagan skipper on that occasion and Selim scored the match-winner. This could be just a coincidence, as Bagan did not win either the Durand tournament in Simla/Delhi nor the Rovers Cup in Mumbai from 1911 to 1947.

It is stories like these which has made the 1911 IFA Shield final so memorable and part of Bengali folklore. In fact, what has outlived the actual game and its protagonists is the nationalist glow around the Mohun Bagan victory in 1911, the same year that the capital of British India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. The craze for the final was so much that a two-rupee ticket was sold in the black market for 15 rupees and even vendors of refreshments charged high prices. The Pioneer newspaper reported that one small boiled potato was sold at one paise. The crowd for the final is estimated at 80,000—100,000. Two sides of the ground were open for assembled spectators. Touts used wooden boxes to help spectators get a view of the match and charged Rs. 3 to 5 per box, depending on the closeness to the playing area. There was no space even on the tree tops. The member’s seats were fully occupied and the enclosed side of the ground had been booked by B.H. Smith Company for British fans. So very few of the Bagan supporters had a sight of the match. They were kept informed of the progress of the game by the ingenious device of flying kites, with the score written on them. The match was played in aid of charities and the princely sum of Rs. 6,194 was collected from the paying spectators.