This post is actually a comment submitted to a post by Subhanil Chowdhury on the KKR IPL victory celebrations at Eden Gardens on 29 May 2012
Thanks Subhanil for this analysis, and a call to take a critical look:
I want to bring in a few points here:
1. In my opinion when we try to analyse why thousands of people turned up to cheer KKR, or indeed lakhs support the team during the IPL - other than looking at the issue from the perspective of a choice exercised by the spectators we should also bring in the aspect of a spectators as a commodity. Yes, cricket as a sport and as a cultural form is being marketed by capital, and tools in the media and elsewhere are being used to market and enhance consumer attention to IPL as a commodity. But it may be useful to look upon the spectators and fans themselves as a commodity. Note for a moment how the IPL website asks fans to tweet their support for a particular team and then the statistics are shared live to the TV audience - almost as an instant TRP, an instant stock taking of available stocks in the godown. During the original IPL auction the distribution of franchises could also be looked upon as a case of the "sharing of spoils" - division of consumer catchments among the IPL bidders. By purchasing the Kolkata franchise, SRK has actually purchased the right to exploit the primary resource of accumulating capital through exploitation of the Bengali fan catchment. Just as in Africa the imperialists had devised an ingenious way of drawing lines through the map of the continent. Also, similar in the way billboards on roadsides do not charge those who look at them. Those who look at them are the ones who are being sold by the advertising agency to the client company.
2. We should not miss the fact that the celebrations at Eden Gardens was an aberration in the IPL business - a free show. Unlike all other IPL related products - tickets, t-shirts, merchandise etc. people did not have to pay any notional amount as gate money. It would be interesting to see if this brought in a different category of people. It would perhaps, be interesting to see who were the ones who actually got in. We they genuinely KKR 'fans' or was this event an exercise to give a free ticket a government expense to TMC supporters and workers (just a conjecture, but may be worth pursuing) - and that brings into question as to who were the ones who were lathicharged outside. But that aside, I think Subhanil has made the point succinctly that this wasn't a FREE event at all - TMC was paying KKR using government money to buy some respectability. And boy, did the CM extract full value for money off them: "When we cut cake, we will habh that shong....Ei Yusuph!! Yusuph…..come come…cake khao ... Shahrukh ar Jeet player der niye nachbe...naach suru korun [Shahrukh and Jeet will dance with the players, come on you two - start dancing]".
3. Governor Narayanan's statement is very pertinent. He really means what he says, trust him to do that. He means that he would rather have non-political gatherings and rallies block traffic in Kolkata, than political rallies. He would rather have people answer the call of Capital than answer the call of a critical conscience. People should much rather gather at Eden Gardens on a working day rather than at the Brigade Parade grounds or Sidhu Kanu Dohor even on Sundays. Calcutta street corners should rather be filled with decibels of poor sound quality playback of Rabindrasangeet rather than political speeches. The city walls should adorn the blue and white coloured consent, rather than the multiple colours of dissent.
Just some thoughts.
Thanks Subhanil for this analysis, and a call to take a critical look:
I want to bring in a few points here:
1. In my opinion when we try to analyse why thousands of people turned up to cheer KKR, or indeed lakhs support the team during the IPL - other than looking at the issue from the perspective of a choice exercised by the spectators we should also bring in the aspect of a spectators as a commodity. Yes, cricket as a sport and as a cultural form is being marketed by capital, and tools in the media and elsewhere are being used to market and enhance consumer attention to IPL as a commodity. But it may be useful to look upon the spectators and fans themselves as a commodity. Note for a moment how the IPL website asks fans to tweet their support for a particular team and then the statistics are shared live to the TV audience - almost as an instant TRP, an instant stock taking of available stocks in the godown. During the original IPL auction the distribution of franchises could also be looked upon as a case of the "sharing of spoils" - division of consumer catchments among the IPL bidders. By purchasing the Kolkata franchise, SRK has actually purchased the right to exploit the primary resource of accumulating capital through exploitation of the Bengali fan catchment. Just as in Africa the imperialists had devised an ingenious way of drawing lines through the map of the continent. Also, similar in the way billboards on roadsides do not charge those who look at them. Those who look at them are the ones who are being sold by the advertising agency to the client company.
2. We should not miss the fact that the celebrations at Eden Gardens was an aberration in the IPL business - a free show. Unlike all other IPL related products - tickets, t-shirts, merchandise etc. people did not have to pay any notional amount as gate money. It would be interesting to see if this brought in a different category of people. It would perhaps, be interesting to see who were the ones who actually got in. We they genuinely KKR 'fans' or was this event an exercise to give a free ticket a government expense to TMC supporters and workers (just a conjecture, but may be worth pursuing) - and that brings into question as to who were the ones who were lathicharged outside. But that aside, I think Subhanil has made the point succinctly that this wasn't a FREE event at all - TMC was paying KKR using government money to buy some respectability. And boy, did the CM extract full value for money off them: "When we cut cake, we will habh that shong....Ei Yusuph!! Yusuph…..come come…cake khao ... Shahrukh ar Jeet player der niye nachbe...naach suru korun [Shahrukh and Jeet will dance with the players, come on you two - start dancing]".
3. Governor Narayanan's statement is very pertinent. He really means what he says, trust him to do that. He means that he would rather have non-political gatherings and rallies block traffic in Kolkata, than political rallies. He would rather have people answer the call of Capital than answer the call of a critical conscience. People should much rather gather at Eden Gardens on a working day rather than at the Brigade Parade grounds or Sidhu Kanu Dohor even on Sundays. Calcutta street corners should rather be filled with decibels of poor sound quality playback of Rabindrasangeet rather than political speeches. The city walls should adorn the blue and white coloured consent, rather than the multiple colours of dissent.
Just some thoughts.
