Sports, neoliberalism and crime in India: Towards a Marxist analysis

Sports and Crime are an integral part of the social reality of India. The recent case of Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar has again reinvigorated the public sentiments regarding the relationship between crime and the state of `minor’ sports in the country. This paper analyses the issue through an intersectional paradigm informed by the neo-Marxist analysis of sports and Classical Marxist Criminology. The paper argues that sports and crime are integrally related to each other in the rural hinterlands of India. This relationship is expressed in the processes in which sportspersons attempt to adapt to varying circumstances. Under neoliberal capitalism, where the dominant ideology proposes to normalise the idea of succeeding at all costs, sportspersons associated with `minor’ sports in India often resort to criminality because of their lack of social capital coupled with the faults associated with the process of management of these sports.