Modern sport has been steeped in social discrimination. Think of Jim Thorpe in 1912, whose medals were taken away from him because the men who organized the Olympics could not abide the idea of a Native American beating the white athletes. Or of Jesse Owens, whose four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics were all won in front of a hostile crowd of Nazis, Hitler included. Today, a similarly successful American athlete would, on return, be taken straight to the White House, the audience with the President to be followed by rewarding meetings with corporate sponsor’s and TV appearances. But in the racially divided nineteen thirties, Owens’s extraordinary achievements were ignored by the press, the white public and the politicians. No job was forthcoming: indeed, the returning hero was reduced to racing against horses for a living.

 Or take the story of Frank Worrell, who became the first permanent black captain of the West Indies team in 1960 – but he had to wait for a decade to get the job, denied by the elitism, insularity and racism of Caribbean cricket’s rulers. His determination not to be cowed by the powers that ran island cricket, shaped a man who changed the West Indian game for ever. It was under him that the Caribbean Island found their identity as West Indies cricket team.

But the most awful stories of discrimination in sport come from apartheid-ruled South Africa. Cricket historians know of Dik Abed, the gifted Cape Colored who could not play for his country, and had to emigrate to Netherlands to play cricket, and of Basil D’Olivera, who emigrated in time to become a citizen of England and an England cricketer. My own favorite – if that is the word – story concerns the great golfer Sewsunker Sewgolum.

An Indian South African from a poor family, Sewgolum was a one-time caddie who played with a unique grip, left hand below right. Despite Sewgolum’s success, as a black golfer he was not allowed to play professionally in his own country. The golfing establishment regarded him with amusement and mild embarrassment, while to the apartheid officials he was a black trouble-maker, who should not have aspired to play golf professionally. For years Sewgolum was forced to pursue his game as an amateur in “non-European” tournaments. After years of trying, he was finally allowed to join the professional circuit in South Africa. One of his first triumphs was in the 1963 Natal Open, where he was forced to change in a mobile van and have his meals with the Colored caddies. After he won, the award ceremony was to be held on the eighteenth green, but just before it began the skies opened. The function was hastily shifted indoors to the clubhouse. The problem was that by the rules of the day no dogs or colored men were allowed into the building. With imperial disregard, the organizers held the ceremony anyway, without the star participant. The speeches were made and the lesser prizes given away to the white golfers who had earned them. Sewgolum stood wet and shivering outside, waiting for a club flunky to deliver to him his own medal and cheque.

The battles fought by Owens, Abed, Worrell and Sewgolum were fought before them by a now unknown but truly heroic family of Indian low-caste cricketers. I am talking about the Palwanker brothers. Foremost among them was the elder brother P Baloo, a left hand spinner who played at the turn of the 20th century.

Born as the eldest of four brothers in 1875 into a family of leather workers or ‘Chamars’ in Dharwad, Baloo had the good fortune of having a father who had enlisted in the British Indian Army as a Sepoy in the 112th Infantry Regiment. For many of the untouchables, joining the army offered temporary relief from the oppressive caste hierarchies, and a shot at a decent livelihood.

 Indian cricket at the time was played along caste and religious lines. The foremost cricket tournament of those times was the Bombay Triangular tournament where teams from the Hindu, Parsee, and British community, would take on each in three-day matches. In 1912, a team from the Muslim community were invited to play in the tournament, and thus the tournament changed to the Bombay Quadrangular. In 1937 it became a ‘Pentangular’ with a Christian team joining the fray.

Against this backdrop, Baloo, a Chamar born in Dharwad in 1875, had by his sporting prowess, forced the Brahmins of the Deccan Gymkhana—eager to beat the British Poona Gymkhana—to take him into the team. Later, he was recruited by the Poona Gymkhana, and then the Bombay Hindu Gymkhana, who even admitted his brothers—Shivram, Ganpat and Vithal. This was the start of a spectacular family sporting history that reached its climax when Vithal, captain of the Hindu side in 1923, was carried out of the ground on the shoulders of high-caste Hindus after he had led them to victory in the quadrangular tournament.

Growing up, Baloo and his brother Shivram played cricket with equipment left behind by officers stationed in Pune. His first job in the game, however, was as a groundsman maintaining the pitch for the Parsis in Pune. It was in 1892, that the Poona Club hired a 17-year-old Baloo for a monthly salary of Rs 4, not for his talent but to set up the nets, roll and mark the pitch where the British would practice exclusively. However, his talent was unmistakable, and the British soon gave the spin bowler the opportunity to bowl to their batsmen in the nets. This is where he first honed his craft of spin bowling.

JG Grieg, the foremost English batsman and their captain, would give Baloo eight annas every time he dismissed him in the nets. Unfortunately, Baloo’s frustrations grew with the British for denying him the opportunity to bat—a task reserved for the aristocratic British. Nonetheless, word of his talent soon began to spread, and eventually, the Hindus in the community started contemplating whether they should take him into their side or not. When a Hindu Club challenged the Europeans for a cricket match, P Baloo was finally allowed to play a cricket match. Even then the brahmins did not want him in the team but due to the need to win against the Britishers the other castes prevailed over the brahmins.

With his orthodox left arm spin and the ability to turn the ball both ways Baloo was instrumental in defeating the Britishers many times. Ironically Baloo was allowed to play on the field but was not allowed to mix with his teammates off the field. He was segregated from the Europeans and the higher caste Hindus during rest and meal breaks. While his team-mates dined inside the pavilion on fine china, Baloo was left outside to eat and drink out of disposable clay crockery.

Over the next few years, Baloo slowly earned the respect of his Hindu club team-mates. As his standing in the Pune cricket community grew due to his obvious talents, these barriers broke down and he was eventually accorded the right to gather with his fellow players off the field. Thus sports broke down centuries of oppressive caste barriers.

In 1896 Baloo moved to Bombay, partly due to the plague in the region but also because Bombay provided him more opportunities on the cricket field. He enlisted in the Army in Bombay before working for the Central Indian Railways, which allowed him to play for their corporate team and the Gymkhana.

Also in 1896, Baloo was selected to play for the then newly established Parmanandas Jivandas Hindu Gymkhana (named after the two Marwari patrons who paid for the club building), one of the teams competing in the Bombay Triangular. Despite his obvious skills, he was still subjected to the caste prejudices. During match intervals, Baloo would be served tea away from the pavilion premises and in a separate cup made of disposable clay. If he wanted to wash his hand and his face, a separate attendant from the Dalit community would have to serve him with water. Baloo would also eat lunch on a separate plate meant for members of his community and at another table altogether.

However, in the following years, Baloo would earn the respect of his caste Hindu teammates. The Bombay Triangular final between the Hindus and British in 1906 would prove to be a watershed moment for him. Batting first, the Hindus scored 242 and bowled the British out for 191. In the second innings, the Hindus were bowled out for 160, leaving the British with a target of 212 runs to chase. Led by Baloo’s five-wicket haul in the second innings, the British were bowled out for a paltry 102, handing the Hindus a famous victory against their British colonizers.

With the freedom struggle in full swing, this was considered a landmark victory and was celebrated not just in Bombay but across the country. The victory was celebrated not just for the victory against the Britishers but also against Brahmins by some sections of society. It was not much later that the gates of the club were finally open for Baloo not just for cricket but also for dining. So much so that even his younger brother Shivram, and later Vithal were granted a seamless entry into the team. It helped that The Hindus beat the Europeans next year as well.

In 1911, an Indian team toured England for the first time. Baloo was chosen for the first all-Indian team to tour England, consisting of Parsis, Hindus, and Muslims, captained by a Sikh.

The tour was a 12-match series against a host of county and university sides. The series ended in humiliation for the Indian team, which lost 10 out of the 12 matches, but Baloo’s talents shone through. He was at the peak of his prowess and picked up an impressive 87 wickets and scoring a respectable 376 runs as a lower order batsman, in first class matches. If you include the friendly matches played his tally of wickets swells to 110 wickets. The 1911 tour of England was to start a trend in Indian Cricket which lasted till little after independence. Although the teams were captained by aristocrats (Maharajah of Patiala in 1911, Maharajah of Porbandar in 1932, Maharajah of Vijayanagar in 1936), the leading players were from economically weaker or socially deprived communities (P Baloo in 1911, M Nissar and Amar Singh in 1932 and Lala Amaranth in 1936).

Baloo returned to India a hero not just for the Indians immersed in the freedom struggle, but also for the depressed classes. They were delighted not merely by his success against the British but also how he had outshone his Brahmin teammates. At one particular function, a young college lecturer making his first public appearance presented the welcome address for his hero—Palwanker Baloo. He worked tirelessly to elevate Baloo in public administration- namely Bombay Municipals Corporation. That young lecturer was none other than B R Ambedkar and this was the first public appearance of a man who would go on to write the country’s Constitution. Ambedkar considered Baloo a hero of the Dalit, naming him as an inspiration to himself and others of their caste.

Baloo’s prowess on the field dulled the onslaught of prejudice but didn’t eradicate it, especially on the thorny question of captaincy. Every time Baloo was successful, it was heralded as a great moment for Hindu unity and cricket, but it was unthinkable for the selectors to choose a Dalit captain. Between 1910 and 1920, there was an unsuccessful campaign every year to make Baloo the captain. Despite this, there was widespread acknowledgment of Baloo’s talent, as reflected in 1913 when then captain MD Pai admitted, “The honor of captaincy should have been given to my friend Mr. Baloo.”

Matters came to a head in 1920 when Baloo was dropped from the Hindu team for the match against Muslims. D B Deodhar, a Brahmin was appointed the captain even though it was expected that Baloo would be captaining the Hindu team. All three Palwanker brothers – Baloo, Shivram and Vithal resigned from the team in protest. There was a massive protest by the rank-and-file members of the club, with threat of boycott from the general public. The authorities had to bow before the pressure and a compromise was stuck. Deodhar was removed and M D Pai(another Brahmin) was made the Captain and Baloo was given the Vice-captaincy.

During the next match against the Parsis, M. D. Pai deliberately left the field for an extended period, allowing Baloo to captain the team in his absence. The shackles had finally crumbled.

In this manner, Baloo finally broke the barrier of members of his caste acting as leaders. Remember this was when Mahatma Gandhi was just beginning his campaign against the stigma of Untouchability. It was only three years later that the youngest of the Palwanker brothers Vithal was made the Captain of the Hindu team and after leading his team to victory in the Bombay Quadrangle, was carried on the shoulders of his higher caste teammates to the pavilion.

Baloo by then had retired from cricket. But his story is not yet complete.

In many senses, Baloo was the first modern Dalit icon. Dalits didn’t have a leader then, so he became a leader. He was known all over India. Indeed, in his speeches throughout the 1910s, Ambedkar drew connections to Baloo and spoke of how much he admired the cricketer. As late as 1927 and 1928, Ambedkar was telling village audiences of his attempts to promote the greatness of Baloo.

Fate, however, would pit them against each other.

In 1932, India’s politics was at an impasse over separate electorates for the Dalits, a demand by Ambedkar that Gandhi strongly opposed. While Baloo was an early Gandhian, he followed Gandhi’s line on greater Dalit integration into the Hindu community. Ambedkar, however felt that this way of life had nothing to offer but discrimination. Gandhi felt that separate electorates (proposed by the Britishers) for the Dalits would break Hindu society, and opposed it, while Ambedkar supported the move because he thought that it would offer his community better representation in domestic politics. Ambedkar remained steadfast in his position, while Gandhi went on a fast-unto-death in Yera Wada Jail in Pune. When Gandhi’s health deteriorated, Baloo and Tamil leader MC Rajah pressed on Ambedkar to accept a compromise, that of reserved electorates (a system followed till date). Ambedkar relented, and Baloo, an unlikely leader, was chosen as representative of Congress and Hindu Mahasabha, to sign on the landmark 1932 Poona Pact.

But the relationship between Ambedkar and Baloo had soured. Baloo was one of the foremost critics of Ambedkar’s decision to convert to Buddhism. He also strongly opposed Ambedkar call for the Dalits to convert out of Hinduism. The matter came to head in 1937 when they fought against each other for designated “Scheduled Caste” seat in the Bombay Legislative Assembly

. Baloo lost narrowly, 11,225 votes to Ambedkar’s 13,245.

The cricketer-turned-politician lived well into Independence and passed away in July 1955 in Bombay. His funeral at the Santa Cruz crematorium was attended by all representatives of the Dalit community in Parliament and Provincial Assembly.

Today he is hardly remembered and his achievements on the cricket field forgotten. Even in his own community of Dalits he has been forgotten while Ambedkar is revered. One of the reasons was the falling out of the two. His own community never forgave him for standing on the sides of Hindu Mahasabha against the foremost of Dalit icon. It is not for nothing that they say that “History is written by the victors”.

But what of his cricketing prowess? By all accounts he must have been a formidable bowler, in those days of uncovered pitches. Perhaps the best left-hand spinner of his times. For that you have to understand that most of his exploits have come in a tournament which is now considered communal. The Bombay Pentagonal was discontinued in 1946 and Ranji trophy based on regional teams was started. Thus, all the records of that tournament were deemed irrelevant going forward. Of course, Independent India is guilty of institutional neglect of Dalits. This has meant there is little written record of Baloo’s achievements.

The history of cricket has pages filled with the deeds of brothers: the Graces of England, the Pollocks of South Africa, the Chappells and the
Waughs of Australia, the Hadlees and Crowes of New Zealand, the Wettimunys
of Sri Lanka, the Flowers of Zimbabwe, above all, the Mohammeds of Pakistan.
In cricketing skill and achievement, the Palwanker of India were comfortably
the equal of them all. These other families, moreover, had to fight their demons on the field alone, whereas the Palwanker were sinned against most grievously, by the society into which they were born.

Palwanker Baloo was the greatest Indian cricketer of his time who deserves to be remembered and celebrated for shining through oppressive caste prejudices. It is time we remember and celebrate him and his brothers.