The Change Maker

For Sailen Tudu and his fellow adivasi travellers from rural India, the road to redemption passes through lush green rugby fields in the form of the Adivasi Rugby Club

- Sujit Bhar

The game of rugby is said to have been born in the womb of impetuosity, delivered by a boy, William Webb Ellis, who refused to be cowed down by the rules of football, picking up the ball in his arms and running with it. It happened in the latter half of 1823 at a school game at Rugby School, in a town called Rugby, in Warwickshire, England.

That’s how it has been recorded for posterity. Call it a myth, call it innovation, call it whatever you wish. But one thing is certain: Rugby was a path-breaker.

So, it seems to have remained, too, in Kolkata. The sport, a somewhat foster child of football, has branched out in directions that few would have envisaged in the past. Imported by the British in the latter half of the 19th century, played with gusto by their armed forces and later by the Irish, the Scots, the Welsh, the Armenians and a privileged few of the natives, rugby today receives booming membership from the fringes of society.

A significant percentage of rugby players in Kolkata and neighbouring districts today represent the ambitions of the have-nots and the adivasis or tribal people. Teams of street children and people far removed from mainline civility by the rulers of this acutely race- and caste-conscious country for centuries seem to have found in the sport a vehicle to carry them out of poverty, illiteracy and social neglect. Quite like Webb Ellis, they refuse to be cowed down by social straitjackets. And how they have succeeded. This success is today reflected in great detail in the formation of the first and only Adivasi Rugby Club of the country. The pioneer is Sailen Tudu, a Santhal from Jungle Mahal, a tribal belt of Jhargram, Bankura, in West Bengal. This is the story of a 27-year-old who has received laurels and plaudits in his endeavour to earn for himself a better life.