Doesn't 'Guwahati' Deserve its Name in the ISL?
So, it is the onset of my favourite festival and I wake up in
the morning to find this piece of news in the newspapers: the Guwahati
franchise of ISL is witnessing turmoil within its management and one of the
co-owners pulled out due to non-agreement of certain terms and conditions.
Now,
I did manage to find out that the disagreements were due to the naming of the
franchise, and incidentally I too did discuss the same issue with some of my
friends back a couple of months earlier. When the ISL did finalize out, with
the auction of the franchises back in April and then the official unveiling, I
was greatly excited with the glamorous idea of football being promoted in this
fashion in a cricket-crazy nation. The merging of IMG and Reliance to take
football to another level in our country made me symbolically emotional. I even blogged about it. (Read here.) But
then such news where a co-owner forces another co-owner to pull out and create
a selfish environment for the sake of money is very saddening, and that too involving
a respectable Bollywood star.
When the unveiling of the teams took place, I was a bit surprised
to see that the Guwahati franchise didn’t even contain the name of the city,
Guwahati. Instead it was named ‘North-East United Football Club’. It was asserted
that the co-owners, particularly John Abraham had a vision to unite all the
states of the North-East in the name of football and hence, named the franchise
as such. I know he wanted to sound like an emotional nationalistic human but
surely this was more of a business strategy than national sentiments. I mean,
why does this only happen to the states of this region? The unity thing came
only when the club involved Guwahati, a rather neglected city in comparison to
cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, which too has franchises based
in them. So, when Guwahati did find its way to such a tournament, it is really
frustrating to witness such events. But why didn’t someone try to unite the southern
states of our country and try to name the Chennai-based franchise as ‘South
United Football Club’ or try to unite the rather uncharacteristic Central part
of India by renaming Delhi as ‘Central United Football Club’? It is because
this is a rather stupid thought, let alone the insane action. In fact, who said
that the North-Eastern states aren’t united with each other? I wouldn’t
elaborate much into these facts as I don’t want to wander this post off topic. But
I would have appreciated it, had John Abraham taken an initiative to develop
our city further through this venture, rather than allegedly increasing his fan
base. In fact, when the auction was held, only the city names were up for
bidding, not a particular region. This means that by associating the whole ‘North-East’
in the name of the club, while owning only the rights of the city-franchise
Guwahati, violation of rules and regulations have taken place, which is sadly
being neglected. But then, I wouldn’t even have a problem had ISL been launched
as a region based football tournament. But it is clearly stated that the ISL,
much like the IPL is a city based tournament and no one, not even those
business minded owners, have the right to remove the name of the city itself,
in which the club is based. Other than this insane act, there is no sign of any
promotion of this club in the base city itself. No posters, no hoardings, no
advertisements; in other words, the city is still alien to what’s what and who’s
who of the club and its jersey & anthem, other than the unconditional name
of the club and its fairly biased co-owner, Mr. John Abraham. The team was even
officially launched in Mumbai, and not Guwahati. Reports claim that the team
hasn’t yet trained together in Guwahati nor has even seen the home city
altogether. So, basically we, the people of Guwahati has been made fools by the
co-owners, excluding city businessman Sanjive Narain, who pulled out as an act
of protest. The identity of our very own city, Guwahati has been reduced to nil
in the name of business. The home of the club is Guwahati, and not the whole region of North-East. I am not spreading hatred or any demeaning feelings
but all I want is that the name Guwahati, be incorporated in the name of the
club, which is actually the identity of the franchise. And till further such
derogatory acts are performed by the co-owners, I would be neglecting the
matches of the so-called ‘North-East United FC’ and would continue to do so
until the organizers and the co-owners bring justice in naming our club.
#GuwahatiAsClubName
Well, it was bound to happen as Asamiyas have lost the sense of maintaining their identity. Most of us go 'ga-ga' about North-east! What has Assam to do with a geo-political division like 'NE'? Practically nothing, but yet people are delighted to associate them as north-easterners rather than Asamiya. Why the emphasis on Assam hasn't been left – though it had been one of the ancient provinces during British Raj, a region with vibrant Indo-Aryan Language and many more and yet lost with identity crisis?
ReplyDeleteThis state has been divided multiple times to cater to tribal demands and all other regions have evolved from Assam so there's nothing really to unite - unity in there but the presence is not to be realized this way! Assam has always been cooperative so it had got divided multiple times - it shows how tolerant the community is. Assam has shifted its state capital from Shillong to Gauhati just because Meghalaya can have an independent capital. Could we have not asked of having joint capital like Chandigarh for Shillong? We could have but we didn't, instead we moved on and gave to those who wanted to establish distinct identities and have been happy for them and for rest of the regions but, act of benevolence doesn't come at the cost of own identity for a region that's – strategically so important!
Ironically, states like Mizoram and Arunachal issue ILP (Inner Line Permit) for rest of the people including Asamiyas to enter their states! We have no restrictions, nor we will have however, it makes me realize how the founding state is looked by rest of the region.
Largest metropolitan area, biggest tea industry, oil, oldest motion picture industry, average urban centres - all in Assam and yet it is engulfed with the NE envelope? Wikipedia states - Gauhati to be the largest area of the region, but why not as largest metropolis of Assam? Where has Assam disappeared? Assam is not NE, that's what people should realize!
If there's any prominence from this region, it has always been for Assam and hence it would have been apt to have Gauhati as a team name. It was not considered for IPL and now not even for ISL!
Relate South, all states so similar in their distinct food habits, Dravidian language scripts and most of their culture but yet distinctly having their identities maintained. All South States have their IPL Team even for a state as small as Kerala.
Sometimes, making a stand helps. Assam could have easily said that if we don't see the name of largest metropolis as a Team we are not hosting any matches! How irony, all matches will be in Assam and still no 'Gauhati'. Could they not have a tag line below the name that just said - United NE, if they really wanted, instead of renaming the whole Team? Surely, this would not eliminate Inner Line Permits! Unity? LOLs.
I guess youngsters like you should start taking small steps to make people aware so that identity is not diluted. Here, in the UK Assam is a brand! I feel happy when I say I am an Asamiya – someone from Assam – Britons can almost instantly identify you, that’s an identity but sad that in India Assam has lost its uniqueness. People think just another tribal state from the region!
Google still doesn’t have Asamiya as co-offered language. Asamiya yet to come under Uni-code standards, Doordarshan still doesn’t have 24hrs Asamiya broadcast service, DD Kendra Guwahati renamed to DD NE, Bangladeshi Infiltration – come on what are we talking about?!!
It has a long way to go and sooner youngsters realize and try to make a difference it will help. I’m happy that you’ve taken a lead and shared your views with others – it’s high time to have constructive talks!