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Mohammad Azharuddin as a Theorist of Shock: The Life of an Indian Muslim Cricket Captain in the Time of Hindu Nationalism

Priyansh (University of Toronto, Canada)

Marxist Thought in South Asia

ISBN: 978-1-83797-183-1, eISBN: 978-1-83797-182-4

Publication date: 11 December 2023

Abstract

Mohammad Azharuddin's arrival in professional cricket served, to quote Karl Marx, as a reform of consciousness that awakened the sport ‘from its dream about itself’. His expertise with the bat invoked the wide expanse of human sensorium, provoking reactions of shock and admiration among observers. In this chapter, I examine Azharuddin's life in cricket and public through a dialectical probing of the relationship between shock and aesthetics. Azhar and cricket appear as a productive terrain to carry out the analysis, as it pushes the possibility of what or who can be considered as a valid subject for theoretical scrutiny. Taking cues from Walter Benjamin and CLR James, I theorise the shock effects created by a cricketer most unusual. From his wristy wizardry with the bat to his appointment as captain of the Indian men's cricket team during the rise of Hindu nationalism in the country, Azharuddin's presence and popularity extended beyond the boundaries that are often imposed on a sportsperson. Through his involvement in the match-fixing scandal that was exposed at the turn of the 21st century, Azhar (the name by which he was popularly known) challenged the mores of a game that had emphasised Victorian notions of purity on and off the field. For the purposes of this chapter, I discuss how Azhar constructed a bodily discourse that pushes us to reassess our very notions of art and aesthetics.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Kanishka Goonewardena, Ayyaz Mallick, Chandrashri Pal, Kristin Plys and other members of the Marxism and South Asia Working Group at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. I am also grateful to John Kelly and other attendees of the 2022 South Asia Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago for their immensely helpful and encouraging feedback on an earlier draft of this chapter.

Citation

Priyansh, (2023), "Mohammad Azharuddin as a Theorist of Shock: The Life of an Indian Muslim Cricket Captain in the Time of Hindu Nationalism", Plys, K., Priyansh and Goonewardena, K. (Ed.) Marxist Thought in South Asia (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 40), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 99-119. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920230000040007

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024 Priyansh. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited