Fifteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

This paper explores the ultras phenomenon in the Kolkata football fraternity as a mediatized spectacle in the context of 21st-century sports fandom in India. In contrast to the common portrayal of football ultras as a group of conservatives in the global paradigm, this paper examines the Kolkata football ultras as a distinct community formed by specific fan groups of two prominent football clubs—Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. Exploring the complex configurations of sports fandom and ultras activities, this paper considers the ultras phenomenon in the Kolkata maidan as a form of pastiche, distinguishing it from its European counterparts. The study expands on the settlers-migrant conflict between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal fans in post-partition Kolkata, which has fuelled an intense rivalry between the two clubs since the mid-to-late-20th century. Through their energized gallery activities and spectacular display of tifos, the Kolkata ultras attempt to narrativize the rivalry on the visual level, which emphasizes the formation of the community based on the identarian discourse. Through its analysis, the paper also examines how this rhetoric foregrounds a recent change in football fandom in India and promotes a nation-building attitude to deliver messages of communal harmony manifesting sport as a great leveller through the emergence of the Kolkata football ultras in the 21st century.