Palwankar Baloo, Indian Dalit Cricketer icon
(19 March
1876 – 4 July 1955)
Mr. Palwankar Baloo a legendary successful spin bowler was born
on 19th March, 1876 in Dharwad , Bombay
Presidency, British India now in Karnataka State of India.
He was born in village Palwan situated in present day Madha Tehsil of Solapur District, now in Maharashtra. He was born in a
Chamar, leather working family. A Chamar is an untouchable( out caste) as
classified in Hindu religious codes . The else while untouchables now SCs, STs.
OBC, still face untouchability curses despite free India’s Constitution completely
banned it but made its practice under Art.17, a punishable Act. Palwankar faced
the untouchability curse despite being unmatched cricketer. His father was a sepoy , in112th Infantry Regiment of
British Indian. He also worked in Khadki ’s ammunition factory,
so they lived in army cantonment area. The army held out the promise
of a degree of equality for Dalits impossible elsewhere in a caste-ridden
society. However the caste hate was so powerful that even during
plague out brake in Poona in 1896, the high caste army men refused to be
quarantined with Dalits , when
death was eminent in their
refusal. Army forcibly quarantined
sepoys from all castes including Dalit untouchables.
Mr. Palwankar
was eldest of four brothers. His other cricketer brothers were Vithal, Shivram
and Ganpat. While living in army area all brothers learnt to play cricket with equipment
discarded by officers. They all became bright shining stars in the Cricket
History in the later years.
Mr. Palwankar associated
with cricket from 1892. He got engaged by Parsee
Cricket Club for sweeping the field and to attend all such odd jobs on
monthly salary of Rupees three. Later he got engaged by Poona Club on Rupees
Four as monthly wages. He was then 17 years young boy full of mental
and body energies. His duty was to erect,
roll back the nets and mark the pitch meant exclusively for Europeans. He continued with his similar earlier duties for
Parsees Club. Now he was always
with Cricket players so developed liking for
cricket game. He started helping in net practices to Bowlers. He picked up art of spin Bowling. His ball
spinning was marvelous. The main aim
of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid
rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate from its normal
straight path, thus making it difficult for the batsman to hit
the ball cleanly. His being left hand bowler added to his skills. On seeing ball spinning skills of Palwankar the European
Cricketer Mr. Trans and Grage engaged him for net practice
paying Palwankar eight Anna each over time practice in addition to his
salary.
The hundreds of hours bowling at the net helped him grow up into one of modern
India’s greatest cricketers. Baloo became so deadly spinner that in later time Dr M.E Pavri (1866-1946) an Indian cricketer born to a Parsee family , one of
Baloo’s opponents said of him as ,“The most deadly bowler on a sticky wicket
and called him Wilfred Rhodes( 1877-1973)an
English Cricketer”.
Indian cricket during those times was organized
on caste and faith lines. The top of the season was a tournament in Bombay. Here
Hindu, Parsi, British, and, later, Muslim teams competed in
three-day matches. Hindus in Poona
(now Pune) had started a cricket club named “Parmanandas
Jivandas Hindu Gymkhana”. They were in two minds over whether or not
to invite Baloo. His low caste was considered a big block for the Hindu team.
When left with no choice for their team bright future prospects so after long deliberations Baloo was inducted. Hindus team including Baloo played together
till break time. During the tea interval in matches, he would be served outside
the pavilion in disposable clay ‘matka’. If he wished to wash his hands and face, a
fellow Dalit attendant would bring him water in a corner. He would eat lunch
off a separate plate, at a separate table. However all Hindu religious heads
and revered books claim both these
people tagged to Hinduism.
In 8 February 1906 Hindus v Europeans,
the Bombay quadrangular was held when the independence movement was gathering
steam. Each victory of the Hindu team, helmed by Baloo, was cheered wildly. The
final saw the Hindus squaring off against the British. The Hindus
batted first and posted 242, and then bowled the British out for 191. In
the second innings, the Indians made 160, setting the British a target of 212. Fifers from Baloo and another bowler PA Erasha, saw the Europeans crumble for a
paltry 102. It was Indian’s famous victory.
Palwankar the top spin bowler with his supper quality
playing lead weak team of Hindu Gamkhana
club to victory, beat the Europeans but his low caste disallowed him to captain
the team so said Sadanand More, a
Marathi historian. Between 1910 and 1920, there was an unsuccessful campaign every
year to make Baloo the captain. Despite this, there was widespread
acknowledgement of Baloo’s talent, as
reflected in 1913 in his saying of then captain MD Pai,
“The honour of captainship should have been given to my
friend Mr Baloo.”
Still he was superseded twice for the
captaincy by Brahmin player DB Deodhar . In anger, Baloo’s brothers Vithal and
Shivram withdrew from the team. After Baloo played
his last first class match of 8 December 1920 ( Hindu V/s Pasees)
, insult on him was compounded by dropping him from the team in 1921. This
cleared grounds for captaincy in favour of a young Brahmin, DB Deodhar following the illness of the incumbent, M. D. Pai (Also a Brahmin),who had superseded Baloo earlier.
Baloo with all his qualities being superior
cricketer was hard bitten by caste cobra so lost his
just right to captainship. Vithal Palwankar, an ace batsman, had attained
by then ,a commanding position in the team.
The lacuna of Ballo was fulfilled by his younger
brother, equally radiantly talented cricketer Vithal Palwankar (1884 or
1886 – 26 November 1971) who captained the Hindus cricket team in the Bombay Quadrangular cricket competition. Vithal was introduced to cricket by his elder brother
Palwankar Baloo, who later sent him to attend the Elphinstone College High School in Mumbai (then Bombay), where vithal
began playing cricket seriously. Despite Vithal’s rightful claims for
captainship, he too was ignored due to his low caste tag. On this Baloo brothers protested with many
of their team mates against injustice of by-passing for the captaincy in
1922. Many players protested to resign in protest against ignoring right claims
of Baloo brothers. Even Vithal and Shivram with drew from team in protest for
injustice. However when
competition was again held in Pune in 1923 Vithal Palwankar was selected captain by Bombay Quadrangular Cricket of Hindu team and he served for four years.
It took 12 years and three aborted
attempts before the first composite Indian team took to the cricket field in
the summer of 1911and played 23
matches. The team was
selected on the basis of religion: there were six Parsee, five Hindus and three
Muslims. In the 23 matches played with 14 were first-class. It was the first tour by an “All Indian”
team. The Indians won just two of their first-class fixtures, drew two and lost
10..
The team was
captained by the Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupinder Singh and its outstanding player was Palwankar Baloo, the slow left-arm spinner who took 75 wickets at 20.12
with a best analysis of 8/103. Baloo, an untouchable ,was a mainstay for the
Hindus in the regular Quadrangular tournament .He took 114 wickets in all on
the tour.
|
Competition
|
|
|
Matches
|
33
|
|
Runs
scored
|
753
|
|
13.69
|
|
|
100s/50s
|
–/3
|
|
Top
score
|
75
|
|
Balls bowled
|
6431
|
|
179
|
|
|
15.21
|
|
|
17
|
|
|
10
wickets in match
|
4
|
|
Best
bowling
|
8/103
|
|
Catches/stumpings
|
12/–
|
The Indian team of eleven returned
from England on 15 September,1911 to
Bombay and was given a rousing reception. DR. Ambedkar a
“Dalit Icon” who in later time, earned the honour of being “ The Father of Indian Constitution”, had faced many humiliations at the hands of caste
Hindus at various times so was always at
look out to high light the achievements of any Dalit
better performer. Keeping this in mind he encouraged the Rohidas Vidhayavardhak Samaj arranged
a felicitation to Baloo on his great achievements
in cricket. From student times Ambedkar
looked at the solid fame of the untouchable bowler with pride. Baloo was
presented with welcome address by Dr. Ambedkar. This was first public
appearance to Baloo. In his book “Dr
Ambedkar: Life and Mission”, historian Dhananjay Key wrote: Ambedkar
tried for Baloo’s elevation to the membership of the Bombay Municipal
Corporation and got one seat added to the original one appointed to the
untouchables .
Ambedkar
‘s praising Baloo as a hero of the Dalit, naming him as an inspiration to
himself and others of their caste was a great honour to cricketer. However over the following years a rift was to grove
between these two over the methods of
dismantling the caste system. The main cause of rift may be based upon their
caste differences (Chamar and Mahar) exploitation by caste Hindus. Dr. Ambedkar
was for complete annihilation of caste but he knew, that was not possible so
leaving Hindu religion to join some other religion with promises of social
equality for his untouchable people was better option. Baloo got swayed by the
theory propagated by Mahatma Gandhi of promised reformation of Hindu religion
by removing untouchability and other such short coming. Due to relentless
efforts of Dr. Ambedkar from 1916 to 1932 through his contacts with possible
religious, political, social ,government meetings forums, he succeeded in
convincing the British Government to grant separate voting rights to the untouchables to safeguard their human
rights in future proposed Constitutional reforms . In 1932 the British
Government granted separate voting rights to
Depressed classed people under Communal Award against wishes of Hindus. Mahatma
Gandhi under took fast unto death to get it scraped. The British had put up the
condition to effect any modification in
the award on mutual agreement between Untouchables and Caste Hindus. The High caste Hindus had raised no objection
for giving separate voting rights to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians but to Depressed
classes. Mahatma Gandhi when lost all
hopes to block this communal Award sanctions, he resorted to fast unto death. When
a meeting under Chairmanship of Pt. M. M. Malvia on 19 September ,1932 in Indian Merchant Hall Bombay was held to negotiate solution to safe Mahatma’s
life Baloo was sitting with Hindu
leaders. This practice was followed by Baloo in all future meeting for negotiating possible agreement.
P Ballo and Rajah from Depressed classes met Gandhi separately
and assured him ,in Poona Jail , they will secure an agreement to save his
life. Long negotiations were held between Hindu leaders under Gandhi’s command
and Dalits with Dr. Ambedkar shaped agreement to save Gandhi’s life . That agreement
was called Poona Pact was signed on 24th September 1932. Baloo and Rajah also signed this document. Dr. Ambedkar signed under duress with only
thing to safe Gandhi life an act of non violence. Later all Hindu leaders
washed away their pollution by drinking
and sprinkling on them Ganga water ( My
memories and experiences by S.Shastri page151) showing the
pretended change of heart of Hindu leaders against untouchability and
untouchables.
Dr. Ambedkar raised his
political party IPL and put up 17 candidates for elementary Provincial
Elections held on Febuary17, 1937 under terms of India Act of 1935. The
Congress party and Sardar Patel first convinced Baloo to contest on Congress
ticket for Bombay Provincial elections. When Baloo agreed he was made to
contest against his onetime mentor Dr. Ambedkar. As
per R. Guha in ‘A Corner of a Foreign
Field, Baloo told, “It was Sardar
Patel who decided to pit Baloo against
Ambedkar for the Bombay Presidency elections. Despite squaring off on opposing
sides, Baloo wasn’t very keen on taking on Ambedkar and reportedly told a crowd
in January 1937 that he agreed to fight elections on a Congress ticket without
knowing which seat he would contest from”. Despite the facts Congress put all
resources against Dr. Ambedkar, he won with thumbing
support for Bombay Provisional Assembly. The IPL won 15 seats out of 17 contested,
which was a big win for the newly formed Political party. This was first
political win of Dalits and gained grounds to
safeguard their rights democratically, after centuries.
Before his death on 4 July 1955, Baloo was reported to be with
Dr. Ambedkar. Dr. Ambedkar had a big accommodating heart. He had pardoned many
of his opponents like, Rajah, Rajbhoj etc. When Baloo died, his funeral was
attended by national leaders
as well as cricketers besides his son Y.
B. Palwankar.
Explaining ever super cricketer Ballo ’s
qualities and capabilities, Ramchandra Guha said” It was Panwalkar Balu and
not Ranjitsingji (1872-1933) the first Indian cricketer
who was known across Western India and INDIA",
Dated 10-07-2020 Words 2449
Material Source :- 1.Wikipedia
2. R. Guha in ‘A Corner of a Foreign Field
3. My memories and experiences by S.Shastri page151
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