All That Hoof Talk

A celebration of polo tracks its patrons, from maharajas to corporate sponsors

Polo in India
Jaisal Singh, Ppriya Kapoor,
Roli Books, Rs 2975

Polo, that complex sport where ball meets stick while the player balances precariously on a galloping horse, has a romance and glamour that continues to endure. Polo in India, a glossy, coffee-table book by polo player Jaisal Singh and publisher Priya Kapoor, chronicles the game over the last century and has a promising cover in muted, sepia tones of the Jodhpur team in 1925, led by their maharaja to a glorious victory in England. Divided into six broad chapters, the 200-odd-page book goes back in time to provide a historical overview through the photographs. However, sometimes it is impossible to tell one grainy image from the next with mustachioed men in polo helmets, clutching their sticks and trophies, occupying over a hundred pages. A reader has to judiciously pore over every caption to make out the very subtle differences.

Clearly, though, this book8217;s target audience is specifically the polo community in India, for whom some of the pictures dating back to the 1880s will be of interest. There are photographs of the maharajas of India playing in exotic locations in Europe, effortlessly winning coveted tournaments, giving us a glimpse of those glorious days past. Some spirited shots of princes William and Harry on the polo field, as well as Lord Mountbatten at prize-giving ceremonies in pre-Independence India, again, attest to polo8217;s popularity, worldwide. Royalty and polo in India are inextricably linked and this has gone a long way in reviving the sport in India in the last decade. Though even now the game occupies alarmingly little space on the sports pages of newspapers while taking pride of place in the society section, its blue-blood image has generated interest in many sponsors.

Though the authors have valiantly attempted to analyse this and give some perspective on the bright future of the sport, Polo in India is not a social history of the game. Its focus is instead erstwhile aristocrats, with a few shots of India8217;s current crop of polo players. Some interviews with the professional players about the sport as a career, or anecdotes about matches and mingling with glamorous icons like Jackie Kennedy in the picture with Gayatri Devi and Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur would have gone a long way in giving this book some spark and depth.

However, the chapter on the dashing first couple of polo, maharaja Sawai Man Singh and Gayatri Devi, has some outstanding pictures from the past. The Jodhpur breeches, India8217;s contribution to global fashion, and how they went on to become a fundamental part of riding gear have been nicely documented. Polo8217;s new patrons, industrialists like Vijay Mallya, Naveen Jindal and Karan Thapar who run their own teams, have been cursorily acknowledged, while a huge chapter has been devoted to the Indian Army8217;s contribution to the game.

This is a book to adorn the bookshelf, a tribute to a game that traces its origin to India that one can leaf through occasionally, a little like how the kings indulged in this royal pastime.