Palwankar Baloo- Karna of Indian cricket!

KARNA!

सूतो वा सूतपुत्रो वा यो वा को वा भवाम्यहम्।

दैवायत्तं कुले जन्म मदायत्तं तु पौरुषम्॥

Translation- Whether I am a weaver or his son, whoever or whatever I am, the birth in this family was given by my Daiva or fate. But the prowess and power I have accomplished are by my own self.

Few days back, I saw a lachrymose Michael Holding reciting a passionate account of how his parents faced racism, when he was growing up. I was moved by what Holding said. It made me look into Indian cricket history, if we had anything remotely germane to the bias which the black people used to face in the past. In India, we have casteism which is not far from racism.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I stumbled upon the story of Palwankar Baloo. There is no better way to put this, so he was the first Dalit to play cricket. He was born into the Chambhar caste in Dharwad(this place is famous for its "pede", a sweet), Bombay presidency on 19th March, 1876. His father was a sepoy in the 112th infantry regiment of the British Indian army.

Baloo used to be a pitch curator for the Parsees in Pune. Occasionally, he used to bowl to J. G. Greig, an english batsman of the British Poona gymkhana. He used to bowl left arm orthodox spin. In 1896, he moved to Bombay and started playing for Parmanandas Jivandas Hindu gymkhana. He was a part of "Maharaja of Patiala's" Indian team which toured England in 1911. The tour was a disaster, but Baloo was the stand out performer.

During his playing days, he faced a lot of biases. During the lunch breaks or tea, he wasn't allowed to enter the dressing room. He was served his meal/snacks outside via a dalit attendant, in disposable plates.

He moved on from cricket and in 1910s became pals with Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar. He was a devout Gandhian and was strictly against dalits converting to other religions. His friendship with Ambedkar ceased when the latter converted to Buddhism. He contested against Ambedkar twice and lost the elections by a small margin. He died in 1955.

When I was going through his story, I couldn't help but compare Baloo's life with the mythological character KARNA, the invincible warrior who didn't get what he deserved.