Our life is filled with color. Each shades of hue represent a part of life. Red symbolizes love, yellow friendship, orange valor, green life and so on. Each shade has their own significance. But Red and Gold is the color that renovate my inner soul.
Red and Gold, for a normal man it’s just a color. But for me and many like me it is our life. In 1920 somewhere in streets of Kolkata, at Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co. Departmental Store in Chowringhee a red and gold t-shirt was hanging impressively. It was least known that day, that this color would eventually be an integral part in lives of millions, one day.
It so happened that East Bengal football club was formed in 1920. And after inception when founders were looking for suitable jersey color they saw this t-shirt and decided this would be the color for East Bengal jersey. Since that day this color has been an inspiration for generation of people. It represents a near century struggle. It symbolizes pride. It’s an important part of Bengali culture and Indian history.
Historical References
Unable to deal with revolutionary activities of Bengal, the British Government in 1905 under viceroy Lord Curzon ordered for partition of Bengal. This is per have the first instance of separate existence of East Bengal or Purbo Banga in Bengali. Bengal was however reunited in 1911 owing to strong opposition of the decision.
In 1920 Jorabagan was facing Mohun Bagan Club in CoochBehar Cup football tournamnet. Jorabagan excluded star defender Sailesh Bose. Sailesh Bose was an East Bengalian( Purba Bangio in Bengali ) himself, being hailed from Dhaka. The decision did not go well with part of Jorabagan management who belonged from East Bengal. So, part of Jorabagan Management left Jorabagan to set up a new football venture. The management consisted of stalwarts who had immense contribution in Indian football. Like Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen, and Aurobinda Ghosh.
Since these gentlemen belonged to Eastern Part of Bengal they named the new football club East Bengal. Noteworthy mention of Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, who hailed from Santosh, now in Bangladesh. To immortalize his contributions in Indian Football interstate football tournament has been named Santosh Trophy.
1947, saw Indian Independence with the cost of Partition of India. Parts of Bengal and Punjab were taken away from India to form Islamic state of Pakistan. This lead to huge riots. It is that time when East Bengal became a significant institution. It became a name that the Hindu refugees coming from East Bengal started associating with.
A group of people who once lost their relatives, their property and their every last resort had to look up to the East Bengal club for their self-esteem. Being defeated in every sphere of lives they put all their emotions in stake for the fight of 90 minutes on football field. The burning torch, which is the logo of the club represents the fight of millions of people. It is this time the red and gold color started blazing. Indian football had big names. But emotions were bigger and East Bengal started setting the tone. It became the club with most significant achievement in Indian football oversees.
1971 saw another dark phase in world history. About 5 lakhs women were raped and 25 lakh lives were taken by Pakistani ruler in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Legends had that women were being raped mercilessly for innumerable number of times. Even the dead corpse of women body did not have any respite. It was brutal and in-human experience for the Bengali speaking people and especially Hindu minorities of East Pakistan were mercilessly punished. So, the decade saw another mass migration from East Pakistan to India.
East Bengal club represents these victims.
East Bengal had raised both the red and gold and Indian tri color flag high in plenty of occasions. Notable mentions would be winning 2003 ASEAN CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP, which incidentally is the only tournament won by an Indian team oversees.
East Bengal also was the first Indian team to reach AFC semifinal undefeated in 2013. Which is a huge tournament for emerging football nations of Asia.
Present Times
Things have not been spectacular for us in recent years. We are fighting our way to cope with the recent changes in Indian football. Finances are week. Management has issues. Nevertheless we will keep fighting our way.