In India, where a person wears multiple identities, identifying with a sports team and its triumph gives fans a sense of comfort and an identity that they can be proud of
The numbing and tragic death of 11 fans of the IPL trophy-winning team Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), in a stampede caused at a public reception to the team, throws up various lessons and questions about sporting frenzy. The predominant question is – why would youngsters, most of them well educated, rush to a stadium after having watched the team the previous night winning the IPL trophy? The answer is frenzy created by the sport which is a global phenomenon on which rests the big money that goes into sporting leagues. Few understand why there should be such frenzy.
Barricades the culprit
In India, stampedes normally occur in temples (religious frenzy and superstition) during special ritualistic occasions when more than the expected number land up. In terms of crowd management, the main cause of stampedes anywhere is the closing of doors (which happened at one of the gates at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru) and the putting up of barricades. Crowds get crushed against barricades and doors with no means of escape. It is a terrible death by asphyxiation. Doors are closed to keep away crowds from the stadium or temple. If all gates had been opened and the crowd had been allowed to move in or out of the stadium, the stampede would not have happened. Or the ground itself should have been opened to the surging crowds.
Also read | Bengaluru stampede: What exactly happened? Timeline, and other details
But in India, the cricket pitch is treated on a par with the sanctum sanctorum of temples. No one is allowed to come near, let alone walk on the pitch. Even though a damaged pitch can easily be relaid. Large crowds of half a lakh have been accommodated in stadiums, the latest example being the Coldplay show inside the DY Patil Stadium in Thane (Maharashtra), which also has a cricket pitch. But in such case,s elaborate arrangements had been made while the Bengaluru event was almost spontaneous.
Enclosed spaces not fit for unplanned events
What made about 3 lakh people (by government estimates) land up to receive the team, which in its 18 years of existence has not been a cause for any mass hysteria? Obviously, winning the IPL made all the difference, and that too since it was the first time.
When the World Cup-winning team, led by Rohit Sharma, returned to Mumbai last year, close to half a million people received them at Marine Drive, even without prior planning or ticketing. It went off smoothly because it is an open space with any number of exits and entry roads, and of course, no barricades were put. Here, too, the crowd was unexpected.
When the Argentina team won the World Cup in 2022, 10 million people ended up in the city square of Buenos Aires to welcome the team. No mishap happened. The reason: Open space with no barricades or closed doors. Never hold such unplanned events in enclosed spaces like the stadium.
When the RCB team reached Vidhana Soudha, nothing happened even though the crowd was surging. It is pertinent to note that 10 to 12 crore people (approximately 100 million) watched the IPL final on the Jio Hotstar app alone. Which means that about 300 million would have watched the match in the country. The police should have foreseen the frenzy and disallowed a closed-door event.
Also read: Udumalaipettai woman, techie with Amazon, among Bengaluru stampede victims
Sub-nationalistic fervour
The reason for such mass hysteria suddenly being whipped up is nothing but sub-nationalistic fervour. Sporting leagues around the world are founded on this principle: name the club after a region or state, and fan frenzy is assured. Be it La Liga, Premiership league, the NBA, all teams carry a regional or state tag: Indiana Pacers, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, and the rest of it. People who have political, family or residential connections to a city, align themselves with that team. It does not matter if the team has no locals like in the case of RCB, which only had two Karnataka players. RCB has West Indians, Australians, Afghans, UP and Bihar-wallahs, and Delhites. But in the end, 11 Bangalore residents who identified totally with the team due to the Bengaluru tag died just to have a glimpse of the team, none of whose heroes belong to Bengaluru.
In a matter of days, the same sub-nationalistic fervour can change to nationalistic passion for any other sporting or general reason. Sub-nationalistic passion is not just for sports. With just one clever speech or one film (Kamal Haasan’s ‘Thug Life’ for instance), this passion can take other forms in support of language, culture, or hurt to a local symbol. Overriding all this is a religious fervour which can divide the same sporting crowd into two or three groups warring with each other.
Also read | Bengaluru stampede: Why RCB tweet on victory parade is under scanner
Reassuring identity
So in India, a person wears multiple identities and, based on the occasion, wears the religious, sporting, and castiest dresses on top and acts according to the demands of the occasion. When, as part of a mass, any individual suspends disbelief or his own thinking powers and merges himself into the IQ of the mass, which is always below average. This is also how riots break out spontaneously, and people keep joining the rioting crowd after pulling on their religious or casteist cloaks, depending on what sort of riot it is.
To be aligned with some power or group or club is a basic human trait. In India, religion (and caste) satisfy this to a great extent. Beyond these identities, there are alignments formed by class and certain peculiar social and regional structures. But what helps everyone ride over all these social tectonic plates that collide against each other is sport. When a panipuri seller sits in a stadium cheering for a club, he forms part of a gigantic whole and feels comforted. He finally has an identity which he is proud of and he announces it by wearing a team jersey.
Power of a jersey
In both religion and sport, identities and allegiance are shown off in dresses and other means. But in sport, there is victory that is real (unlike in religion, where victory is only imagined), and a triumphal arcade of a team along a city’s main boulevard is the ultimate wiping out of all such barriers because the victory belongs to that city and thus its populace.
Also read: Bengaluru stampede: Fatal twist for dental student, Bosch employee; kin recount teary tales
To triumph and to be part of that triumph is a thrilling experience in which your allegiance is fully justified and you sport your team jersey as a mark of pride and identity. Techie Ashay Ranjan and his chartered accountant wife, 26-year-old Akshata Pai, took half a day’s leave to reach the Chinnaswamy Stadium after seeing RCB’s Instagram post about the celebration.
“We bought new RCB jerseys and reached the stadium,” Akshay said. He was holding his wife’s hand all the while as the crowd surged near gate number 17, and then his wife’s hand slipped from his grip. That was the last he saw of her. Akshata was among the 11 who died, and she died wearing her RCB jersey.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
