The Terrific Tales of Mohun Bagan between 1925-50 | Why Mohun Bagan Ep. 5

The Terrific Tales of Mohun Bagan between 1925-50 | Why Mohun Bagan Ep. 5



This article is the fifth article of the multiple articles to be published under the ‘Why Mohun Bagan’ feature series by MBFT. Read the First Four Articles here: 



I. A Distress Call from Gujarat

July 23, 1927 is a dark day in the history of Gujarat. Devastating floods grappled the State and Ahmadabad and its neighbouring regions incurred the most losses. It rained for seven consecutive days and Ahmadabad received more rainfall in that week than it normally received in a year.

It was a mammoth challenge for the Gujarat Government, and especially Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was the President of Ahmadabad Municipality during that period to drain out the flooded areas and compensate the affected families, and he did an incredible job in managing the disaster which cemented his reputation as an able administrator.

Due to a lack of funds, many methods were utilised to source the finances required to execute the recovery measures. Primarily an appeal was sent to the Gujarati diaspora spread across the country to donate to the cause, and also many events were organised from where the proceeds would be sent straight to the Relief Fund, one of which happened to be an exhibition football match held in Bombay between the Cheshire Regiment and none other than Mohun Bagan Athletic Club.

By that time, Mohun Bagan was well known and respected throughout the footballing fraternity of the British Raj. It’s popularity skyrocketed after the 1911 I.F.A. Shield Victory which has been extensively documented in the third episode of this Why Mohun Bagan series.

Bagan became the first native club to be invited to the Rovers (in 1923) and the Durand Cup (in 1925) where they impressed everyone, reaching the final and semi-final of the respective tournaments. The club drew huge crowds wherever it went, and the spread of word from the influential Bengali community in major economic and cultural centers of the country was helpful too in educating people about the significance of the club and the sport itself.

So Mohun Bagan obviously responded to the call of distress from Gujarat. Led by captain Umapati Kumar, the Bagan brigade drew 0-0 against the Cheshire Regiment and thus made their contribution to the Gujarat Flood Relief Fund.

Mohun Bagan had now been devoid of a major trophy for a while now. It had occasional successes in the Cooch Behar Cup, the latest of which had come in 1925. But it seemed that the famous I.F.A. Shield Victory brought a curse along with it where the team had to suffer the wrath of biased English referees and some very frustrating eliminations from big tournaments, and draws and defeats in the Calcutta Football League.

Mohun Bagan paid a visit to Dagshai again in 1927 to take part in the Durand Cup but were large unimpressive and were sent out early. In 1928, the only somewhat significant trophies which came home were the Lakshmibilas Cup, the Jabakusum Cup, the Power Memorial League and the Coochbehar Cup.


II. A Punch to the Face of the British (quite literally).

View of the Maidan, Calcutta, 1880-1920 (Courtesy: Sarmaya)

A year later, i.e. 1929, Mohun Bagan were playing their Calcutta Football League fixture against Dalhousie, where a parry attempt by the Bagan goalkeeper would lead to a collective furor which would change the organisational structure of the Indian Football Association itself.

During that match, Dalhousie’s Right Out Williams would take a shot on goal and would be collected by Bagan keeper Santosh Dutta. However referee Cameron thought otherwise. He decided to declare it as a goal because according to him the ball had crossed the line before it was collected.

It was a close call, no one was really sure about it, but it was always easy for the English referee to lend a bit of favour to his countrymen, especially due to the fact that Mohun Bagan ended as Runners Up that season with 23 points, the Champions Dalhousie finishing with only three points above Bagan.

That somehow didn’t end up being the most controversial moment of the match. In the 89th minute, it was Williams again who leaped to catch a long ball into the Bagan box. Santosh Dutta tried to clear the ball by punching it, but the punch didn’t connect with the ball, rather it hit Williams’ chin which got broken into two pieces.

It obviously wasn’t done intentionally by Santosh. However, referee Cameron decided to give the marching orders to him. What the referee probably didn’t expect was the march of the thousands of spectators standing just beside the touchline into the field to protest such an unfair decision. The police had to disperse the angry crowd by a lathi (solid wooden stick) charge and the game was suspended.

What the Indian Football Association did next simply blew the whistle of the pressure cooker. An internal committee, dominated by the British ofcourse, came to the decision that Santosh’s punch was intentional and awarded him a two year ban from football.

The Indian clubs came together and immediately demanded the cancellation of such a ridiculous ban for the Bagan goalie and lobbied for an equal representation of Indians in all committees of the I.F.A., else they would break away from the Association and create an Indian Sporting Association which where they would play football in a separate tournament.

Such was the influence of Mohun Bagan that even the colonisers realised that keeping Mohun Bagan unchecked this time around had a significant potential to create a much more intense Nationalistic agitation than the one they already faced in the beginning of the Century and as a result of which they had to shift the capital of the Raj form Calcutta to Delhi.

The British backed down. They annulled the suspension of Santosh Dutta. They agreed to a 50-50 representation of the Colonisers and the Colonised in the Indian Football Association, where 7 out of the 14 members would be formed out of representatives from the major Indian clubs. A punch to the face of the British, literally and then figuratively.


III. Legends Depart and a Major Trophy after a while.

Shibdas Bhaduri (rightmost bottom (sitting) row) departed for the heavens on February 27th, 1932.

Still a major trophy was nowhere to be seen. 1929 and 1930 were uneventful too with the exception of a Jabakusum Cup. 1931 brought with it Bagan’s tenth Coochbehar Cup along with the Griffith Shield. Tragedy struck on the 7th of June, 1931. Subedar Major Sailendranath Bose was no more.

Sailendranath Bose had taken up the role of the Club Secretary in the year 1900, and he spent fourteen years in that role, before leaving to serve in the Great War. He had brought forward a football revolution in the club after a period of stagnation back then.

He had taken up the responsibility of team building himself and his persona similar to that of a tender coconut, hard from the outside while soft at the heart, was instrumental in keeping everyone motivated and on the same page.

A year later, on February 27th, another club legend departed for the heavens. It was none other than Shibdas Bhaduri, one of the greatest Bengali footballers of all time, the captain of the ‘Immortal XI’, at the ripe age of 44. He was down with tuberculosis and while vising the pilgrim town of Puri in modern day state of Odisha, he contracted Malaria and passed away there.

As if losing two stalwarts wasn’t heartbreaking enough for the Mohun Bagan loyals, further grief awaited. In the same year on the 24th of June, General Secretary Dwijendranath Bose, who had stepped in when Subedar Major Sailendranath Bose had to leave to serve in World War I, breathed his last too. That period was an emotional thunderstorm for the Bagan faithful on and off the pitch.

The lone trophy of 1932 was the Calcutta Soccer League, not to be confused with the Calcutta Football League. The CSL was won again a year later along with the Coochbehar Cup, the Governor’s Shield of Hazaribaj, Lady Shifton’s Shield and the Darbhanga Shield.

Three memorable wins in the 1932 against East Bengal were in the Lady Hardinge Shield, the Calcutta Football League and in the Gladstone Cup, where Karuna Bhattacharya score one goal in each game.

Now championing the Darbhanga Shield was a commendable victory. The Maharaja of Darbhanga, in the modern day state of Bihar, had patroned the Shield in 1924. The format of the competition divided the participating teams into four regional groups, and the champion of each group would face each other in the semi finals.

The regional teams of North Bihar, primarily from Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur would form a group, another would be formed out of the teams from Patna and Jamalpur from the South Bihar region. The teams from Kolkata would be divided into groups of Indian local teams and the English teams.

Mohun Bagan won the regional group with a 2-0 victory over East Bengal, courtesy of goals by Amiya Deb and K Bose. In the final, Bagan faced familiar foes Dalhousie, on the 7th of September. This time around, it was the Green and Maroon who would emerge victorious over the all British team.


IV. Mohun Bagan and the National Team Pt. 1 (1924-38)

Collage of pictures published in Australian Media in 1938 when India went on a tour to Australia (Courtesy: ozfootball.net)

By now, Gostha Pal had established himself as a club legend as well as one of the best defenders of Indian football, and it was under his captaincy that an Indian XI went to Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) in 1933 to play an International Friendly, which ended 1-0 in favour of the Indians. The goalscorer of the match? None other than captain Gostha Pal.

The “National Team” by now had seen multiple stalwarts of Mohun Bagan. The first major excursion was that of the Calcutta Indians, which was the first set of Indians to have played a friendly with non-Indians on a somewhat of an international stage, as the opponents were Rangoon XI, from another British controlled territory of that time.

The Rangoon XI comprised of a team of Burmans, Europeans, Anglo-Indians and Karens, while the Calcutta Indians had the then best players under the Indian Football Association, four of them being from Mohun Bagan, namely, Midfielders B. D. Chatterjee and M. Das, who also happened to captain that side, and Forwards R. Ganguly and F. Rahaman. The information regarding these matches have been sourced from rssf.org, authored by Karel Stokkermans.

The other players of that Calcutta Indians squad who had went on a tour of South East Asia, playing 13 games against clubs and variously assembled XIs in Singapore and the Dutch East Indies (mostly modern day Indonesia), winning 8, drawing 2 and losing 3, scoring 15 goals while conceding 9, were P. Das, the Goalkeeper of Aryans, Defenders P. Guha and P. Chatterjee of Wari and East Bengal respectively, Midfielder F.K. Mitter of Bhowanipur Sporting, and Forwards P.C. Chatterjee, M. Dutta of East Bengal and Syed Abdus Samad of East Bengal Railways.

The Indian XI in their tour of South Africa (Courtesy: The Mercury via PressReader)

A year after the excursion to Ceylon, on May 30, 1934, a 16 member all Indian team comprising of Aryans and Mohun Bagan players managed by PK Mookerjee, the then joint honorary secretary of the I.F.A. visited South Africa.

It was a return trip of sorts after a team comprising of Indian migrants based in South Africa had previously went on a pan-Indian tour playing against the Calcutta Indians, and various clubs and University teams throughout the country in 1921.

When the Natals (Natal being the region where most of the Indian immigrants in South Africa were located then) played two matches against Mohun Bagan in their tour of India, the first match ended in a victory for the visitors while the second ended in favour of Bagan, both the scorelines being 1-0.

In the return tour of 1934, the Indian team comprising of Bagan and Aryans players played sensationally, beating the Natals XI 6-0 in their opening game, where Karuna Bhattacharya scored a hat trick. They lost their next game, and won the remaining 14 games of the tour.

In 1938, a total of 11 unofficial games were played against various State and Regional Federation teams and 5 official games were played against the Australian National Football Team on Australian soil.

Originally, Gostha Pal was expected to Captain that side, but few days before the journey towards Africa began, Gostha Pal fell in. To fill his void, another Bagan warrior Dr. Sanmatha Nath Dutta was named the captain for the touring Indians. Goalkeeper K. Dutta, Half Backs Bimal Mukherjee and Premlal, and forward Satu Chowdhury of Mohun Bagan found a place in that team.

Since Australia also had a proposition from the Football Association of Yugoslavia to welcome clubs from Austria at a similar time, the Australian FA asked England whom to play against, and were recommended to prioritise the Indian team as they were a stronger side.


V. The Making of Mohun Bagan’s Second Golden Generation

Some of Mohun Bagan's Legendary Players namely, clockwise from top left, Karuna Bhattacharya, Gostha Pal, Syed Abdus Samad, Umapati Kumar, Amiya Deb, Bimal Mukherjee, Sanmatha Dutta and Balaidas Chatterjee.

Karuna Bhattacharya would be part of that famous Bagan team, along with Gostha Pal, Syed Abdus Samad, Umapati Kumar, Balaidas Chatterjee, Sanmatha Dutta and Bimal Mukherjee who would soon bring home a multitude of laurels.

Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya, dearly known as Habla, was yet another graduate of the legendary coach Dukhiram Majumder (who had a significant role to play in the foundation of Mohun Bagan itself as detailed in the first article of this series).

He joined Bagan in 1930 after developing himself at Aryans for two years as an able Right In (back then a 2-3-5 formation of five forwards was commonly used, where the touchline hugging wingers were known as Outs while the wide forwards operating a bit more centrally alongside the Center Forward were known as Ins). He captained the Indian XI Team which toured Australia in 1938.

Syed Abdus was also known as Jadukar Samad, Jadukar meaning magician in Bangla (Bengali). He would eventually join Mohun Bagan and play for a year between 1931 and ’32.

As already mentioned in the previous article of this series, it was Syed Abdus Samad who had scored 10 goals himself in the 10-0 victory of his Purnia Zila School team over Kishanganj Higher English School in an inter-school tournament. In the losing side, was none other than a young Umapati Kumar, one of Mohun Bagan’s greatest legends.

Sanmatha Nath Dutta captained that side which went on the tour to South Africa. He joined Bagan circa 1927 and played actively for around 13 years at the club, even captaining the Green and Maroons between 1931-33.

Born in 1906 in Jessore, he became a Licentiate of Medical Faculty (LMF) from the Campbell (now Nil Ratan Sircar) Medical College, Calcutta in 1929. He even captained the National team vs. a visiting Chinese team in 1936.

From then afterwards he got positions in the administration in the club as well as in the I.F.A. and even in various other sports. He became the Secretary of Mohun Bagan in 1940 and was elected the team manager in Bagan’s tours of East Pakistan (modern day Bangladesh) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1949 and 1950 respectively.  

Bimal Mukherjee had quite the entry into Mohun Bagan. He himself went to the Bagan club tent in 1930 and requested Gostha Pal, Umapati Kumar among other club members to make him a part of the team.

Bimal was the son of none other than Manmohan Mukherjee, the 1911 I.F.A. Shield Championing Right Half. To Bimal’s surprise, he was asked to prove his worth to play for the club by taking part a match in the Power League. He declined the offer for this trial of sorts and came back home.

Bimal had previously played for Bally Wellington Club (now Bally Athletic Club) which was founded in 1888. Now, Bimal happened to have a contact in the East Bengal Club. He offered himself to the club and the East Bengal official said that a place could be arranged for him in the team.

This news, however, got to the Mohun Bagan tent, which was located next doors to the East Bengal tent. Bimal was summoned to the Bagan tent and an official slapped him hard just when he entered. It would have been a scandal had the son of the Shield winning Manmohan Mukherjee played for one of Bagan’s biggest rivals.

This time, Bimal was given a chance against Police AC in the League in the position of the Center Forward. Bimal played remarkably, scoring two goals, this helping Bagan win that match. He eventually cemented his place as a starter in that position.

By around 1935, Mohun Bagan players had finally shifted from playing barefoot to wearing boots on the pitch. It was only possible due to the influence of Abdul Hamid, who also became Bagan’s captain in 1934 and was in the club for three seasons between 1933-35.

This happened to become a significant factor towards the subsequent period of glory for the Green and Maroon as they finally moved on from the disadvantage against the booted Britishers while playing in muddy pitches during monsoon. It was also needed to give some competition to Mohammedan SC, established in 1891, who were going through a Golden Era at the time.

Abdul Hamid was someone who was ready to lay his life on the pitch, and was probably one of the greatest deserving captains of this glorious club. It was matchday between Mohun Bagan and PWD Volunteers in the 1934 Edition of the I.F.A. Shield. Just before the match, Abdul Hamid received a telegram from his house.

He stepped aside, went away for a bit, came back and led the team to a 5-1 victory. After the match, while the players were celebrating in the dressing room, Hamid showed the telegram to the club officials and immediately collapsed into tears. His 4 year old son had passed away.


VI. First Derby Hatrick, Derby wins on Back-To-Back days and First Encounter against a Foreign Football Club.


1934 brought with it the laurels of the Bell Cup, the Calcutta Soccer League (Bagan’s last ever before it was eventually discontinued), the Jabakusum Cup and the Liberty Cup.

A memorable game in that year happened to be at the Semi Final stage of the Darbhanga Shield, between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. 18 year old Amiya Deb had scored the first ever hat-trick of the Kolkata Derby.

The game was played in the common ground which was shared between Bagan and East Bengal at that time. Amiya had scored a brace in the first half as well as a brace in the second half, thus helping Bagan trounce East Bengal 4-1. Fondly known as Kani, Amiya Deb became the replacement for Abhilash Ghosh, the Shield Winning forward who had recently retired.

The Lady Hardinge Shield, the Bell Cup and the Cooch Behar Cup were won in 1935. The Lady Hardinge Shield and the Cooch Behar Cup were won again the year later along with the Griffith Shield, the William Younger Cup and the Jabakusum Cup. The final of the 1936 Edition of the Lady Hardinge Shield was against East Bengal, on the 12th of August where Amiya Deb had scored a goal in Bagan’s 3-1 victory.

In 1935, Mohun Bagan also happened to win the Kolkata derby on literally the next day after winning one! On 7th August, Bagan won 2-1 over EB in the Lady Hardinge Shield Semi-Final, courtesy of a goal by S. Deb and a free kick conversion by B. Ghosh in the dying minutes of the game.

The Lady Hardinge Shield was named after the wife of Charles Hardinge, the Viceroy of British India during the First World War. A day later, it was the Semi-Final of the Darbhanga Shield, again against East Bengal, this time Bagan winning by a solitary goal.

Also in 1936, Club President Sir Rajendranath Mookerjee, one of India’s pioneering Industrialists whose company Martin Burn has created some of the most iconic infrastructure of Kolkata (from the Victoria Memorial, the Esplanade Mansion, the Standard Chartered Building, Tipu Sultan Mosque, St. Xavier’s College, Belur Math and also the Howrah Bridge), breathed his last on the 15th of May.

Few months later, Bijoydas Bhaduri, another of the ‘Immortal XI’, and elder brother of Shibdas Bhaduri left for his heavenly abode. Bijoydas was renowned for his trickery with the ball and his elusive body movements. He was a specialist in delivering exquisite through balls and breaking open a defense.

A year later, Bagan won its last ever Jabakusum Cup before it was eventually discontinued, its fourth ever Lakshmibilas Cup, its first ever Park League, its first ever Raja Shield and its second William Younger Cup.

Now, the Raja Shield had a rather sorrowful yet heartening story behind it. Raja Banerjee was a player for Howrah Union. During a match against East Bengal, Raja got a horrible injury, and couldn’t recover from it. The Raja Shield was created in memory of Raja Banerjee.

Islington Corinthians and Dhaka XI team photo in 1937

Bagan had faced East Bengal in the final of the 1937 Edition of the Raja Shield, specifically on the 6th of August. Asit Ganguly decided to score a hat trick for Mohun Bagan, and an additional goal by S. Sen helped a 4-0 victory in Bagan’s favour.

On the 23rd of the same month, Bagan and EB met again to play out a 2-2 draw. However, it was the Third Round of the William Younger Cup, thus a replay was conducted with a gap of a day and Bagan won comfortably 3-0, with Asit Ganguly finding the net twice and B. Bose once.

It is regarded that the Islington Corninthians were the first foreign side to have played against an Indian Club, that ofcourse being Mohun Bagan. Until now, clubs like Dalhousie and Calcutta were formed of local British officers while the Army teams were formed out of the best players of that respective Regiment posted in British India.

Islington Corinthians Football Club was established in 1932 with the goal of generating funds for local charitable organizations. The team played against the reserve teams of teams like Fulham, Chelsea, and Arsenal in the London Professional Mid Week League.

The Corinthians were chosen to play a friendly match at Highbury in 1936 against the Chinese Olympic squad. This served as the impetus for a global tour. The club visited the Netherlands, Switzerland, Egypt, India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Japan, Hawaii, the United States, and Canada during the 1937–1938 football season.

In their encounter against Mohun Bagan on November 16, they won by a goal to nil, courtesy of a Frank Tarrent goal. According to news reports, Beniprasad, Premlal, and Dr. Sanmatha Dutta played really well and the losing Bengali side missed a few chances and also hit the crossbar once.

The Cornithians underwent attacks in the Khyber Pass by the British Army, went on opium den operations with the Hong Kong police, and also toured Hollywood movie sets. The team traveled and played 95 games in total. The club, however, did not survive World War II and vanished once the tour's South American itinerary was canceled in 1940.

It was also the year, the young talent Amiya Deb had to cut his career short due to a tragic on field injury. He wasn’t originally even in the matchday squad in a match against Mohammedan, but due to a sudden injury to Karuna Bhattacharya, Amiya had to start.

During the game, he happened to clash against Mohammedan’s Goalkeeper Usman which led to his right shinbone getting fractured. He couldn’t return to the field again. Apparently, his right leg had become a bit shorter due to the surgery which made playing football impossible.


VII. Championing The Calcutta Football League Against All Odds

Headline of Mohun Bagan winning the 1939 C.F.L along with the League Points Table published in Jugantar, July 14, 1939. 

“The Premier Bengali team played sparkling football. They will be a serious rival of Mohammedan Sporting in the struggle for the League’s Championship,” said The Statesman on the 19th of May, 1939.

For some context, Mohammedan SC had just five peated the Calcutta Football League and were arguably the best Indian footballing club of the time. But for the first time, their dominance was about to get challenged, that too by none other the determined Mohun Bagan.

The above quote was written after Bagan defeated Customs 3-0. Bagan were unbeaten till the point, winning over Rangers, Border Regiment and Police while drawing against Kalighat.

Now, Mohammedan had surprisingly lost 2-0 to East Bengal, which made the first of the two derbies between Bagan and East Bengal all so important. Mohun Bagan would win 2-1 in the first encounter in the double round-robin formatted league.

It was a very intense and competitive game. Satu Chowdhury gave bagan an early lead but EB compensated for the difference in the 8th minute through a free kick converted by Laskshminarayan. Bagan scored the winner two minutes into the second half when captain Bimal Mukherjee deflected Satu Chowdhury’s corner into the net using his head.

Now Bagan had to face the mighty Mohammedan, and the match ended 1-1. The next match, Bagan lost 2-1 to Bhowanipore, which happened to be the solitary defeat for Bagan that season.

In the return fixtures, Bagan won over Rangers, Bhowanipore, Police, Camerions and Aryans while they drew against Mohammedan, Border Regiment and Customs. Bagan’s remaining fixtures were against Kalighat and East Bengal. Mohun Bagan, although had not won the league mathematically, but it had become obvious who was getting the Silverware.

It was exactly when East Bengal and Mohammedan, who had no realistic shot at the league, conspired to void the League. They asked for the Schedule to the League to be changed.

They alleged misorganisation and biased referees in this last ditch attempt to prevent Bagan to win it all. Even Kalighat and Aryans joined their calls, although later Aryans backed out and rejoined the league.

The I.F.A. did not entertain their ridiculous claims and EB, MDSP and Kalighat decided to boycott the remainder of the competition, at a time Bagan were 6 points off second place and had only two games left to play.

Thus, the team of Bimal Mukherjee (captain), K. Dutta, P. Chakraborty, Anil Dey, Dr. S. Dutta, A. Roychowdhury, M. Banerjee, Beniprasad, Premlal, S. Deb Ray, J. Ghosh, B. Dey, S. Dey, K. Banerjee, S. Seth, R. Sen and S. Dutta lifted Mohun Bagan’s first ever Calcutta Football League.

It was Bimal, son of the Shield winning Manmohan Mukherjee, who captained the League Championing side on its 50th year anniversary. Bagan had finished the season with 39 points from 16 wins, 7 draws and a single defeat.

A year prior, Bagan had won its fourth Trades Cup after a gap of three decades along with the Khagendra Memorial Shield. Along with the 1939 CFL, Bagan also lifted the  Governor’s Shield of Hazaribagh, the Griffith Shield, the Lashmibilas Cup, the Park League, the Raja Shield and the Trades Cup again.

Mohun Bagan came close again to the I.F.A. Shield, reaching its final in 1940. Their opposition were Aryans. It was the first time the tournament Final saw two native clubs contending for the coveted Shield.

By then Aryans had lost its dominating grip and it was mostly expected for Mohun Bagan to bring the second elite trophy during its Golden Anniversary Celebrations. However, Aryans managed to win over Bagan. Not by some small margin, Mohun Bagan had to digest four goals while compensating for only one of them in front of a hundred thousand supports present that day at the Maidan.

Mohun Bagan played horribly. Their were even doubt casts over the integrity of the players. Agitated supporters had surrounded the Bagan club tent till quite late that night. Goalkeeper K. Dutta had to bear the brunt of criticism due to his poor performance. He left Bagan to join East Bengal next season.

When the Kolkata Derby is mentioned today, it obviously represents the rivalry between East Bengal and Bagan, as also mentioned few times above, but back then the 30s and 40s, Kolkata Derby actually meant the match between Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting Club.

Bagan were locked in with Mohammedan again in the chances for Championing the 1940 Calcutta Football League. Bagan won 2-0 over MDSP in their first encounter in the League where Anil Dey scored a 45 yard long ranger in the 20th minute. However, in the return fixture it was Mohammedan who won 2-0 over Bagan.

Mohammedan eventually won the 1940 C.F.L., Bagan faring second and had obtained only three points less. Had they won that return fixture against the Black Panthers, Bagan could have won back to back C.F.Ls.

In other competitions, Bagan won its last ever Khagendra Memorial Shield and Park League before they were eventually discontinued, the Lakshmibilas Cup and the Raja Shield.

However, it was now time for the 50 year completion celebrations. On December 15, 1940, Club officials went to the holy temple of Kalighat and arranged a special Hom Yagna. A day later, in front of around a thousand supporters, a play titled Maatir Ghor (House of Clay) was orchestrated at the Rangmahal of Hatibagan.

A friendly was played between the current and former Bagan players. On the evening of 19th December, a game of Lawn Tennis was organised too and the influential and important members of the Club were felicitated and presented with mementos. The celebrations officially ended on 20th January, 1941 with the Annual Athletic Meet of the Club.


VIII. Player Insurances, Dedicated Medical Team, Youth Setup, the First Ever Case of Player Kidnapping in the Maidan and Back to Back League Champions.

Headline published in the Jugantar after Mohun Bagan won the 1944 C.F.L along with the path to Mohun Bagan's victory and the Points Table


Mohun Bagan planned a major rebuild just as the 1940s began. Bagan had spotted the talented Sharat Das who played for Maharana Athletic, a club based in Assam. Mohun Bagan wanted to sign him but he was already in advanced talks with East Bengal.

Sharat finally decided to play for East Bengal but the story doesn’t end here. Sharat was abducted by Mohun Bagan officials while he was coming via train from Gujarat to Kolkata, and was brought to and locked up in the Ballygunge residence of Bagan’s then recruiter, Swapan Dutta.

There was now no option but to agree to play for Mohun Bagan. He got admitted to Ripon College and one of his classmates happened to be none other than one of Mohun Bagan’s greatest legends Sailen Manna.

It was Sharat Das who requested Bagan officials to consider Sailen Manna as a potential recruitment. Although Sailen Manna had nearly signed with Aryans, he immediately signed for Bagan when he got approached in 1942.

Also in 1942, Mohun Bagan became the first club in Indian Football to introduce insurances for their players in case they get seriously injured on the field while playing.

Solicitor B.K. Ghosh and Barrister S.K. Gupta initiated the formation of a Trustee Board for monitoring the club’s finances. Not only that, a dedicated medical team was set up a year later and what is now known as ‘Medicals’ were performed on every player to check on their fitness levels.

The trophies which came home in 1941 were the Chandicharan Memorial Shield, the Coochbehar Cup, the Kohinoor Shield, the Lady Hardinge Shield, and Bagan’s last ever Governer’s Shield of Hazaribagh and the Lakshmibilas Cup before they were eventually discontinued.

1942 brought with it the another Lady Hardinge Shield, the Power Memorial League and the Raja Shield. Bagan won it’s sixth Trades Cup a year later along with the Calcutta Football Shield yet again.

They faced tough challenge from the likes of Mohammedan and East Bengal. Mohammedan had stalwarts like Ismail, Osman, Jumma Khan, Taj Mohammad, Rashid Khan and Nur Mohammad while East Bengal fielded the expertise of Rakhal Majumdae, Paritosh Chakraborty, Arakraj, Apparao, Somana and Sunil Ghosh.

Bagan had a relatively young refreshed squad which included Goalkeeper Ram Bhattacharya, Full backs Sailen Manna and Sharat Das, Half Backs Anil Dey, Talimeren Ao and Dinanath Roy, and forwards Nim Basu, Amal Bhowmick and Nirmal Mukherjee.

Born in Howrah, Sailen Manna was renowned for his clean tackling, anticipation and tactical defending. Even in the days where five forward were fielded, Sailen Manna was never sent off in his career spanning nearly two decades. After playing for two years for Howrah Union, he joined Bagan when he was 18, and retired at Bagan at the age of 36.

He’s known to have never taken a single rupee from Mohun Bagan and his only source of income was from his day job at the Geological Survey of India. More of his club and especially international exploits will be detailed in the next episode of this series. In 2000, he was named the Indian Player of the Millennium by AIFF.

Sailen Manna was an exceptional gentleman. He was respected by all, he never talked poorly on the pitch. All East Bengal and Mohammedan players were his good friends too. He would ensure all other players had received food before he ate himself.

Sailen Manna and Talimeren Ao


Anil Dey was quite the character. He was so charming, handsome and charismatic that a reputed Bengali actress of that time would religiously make herself present at the stands everytime Bagan would play just to cheer for him. They would get married eventually, although would separate few years later.

At the time when the Quit India Movement was at its peak in 1942, and sporting activities had come to a halt in the Maidan, few Englishmen, including Denis Compton, decided to play informally at the Eden Gardens.

However, a mob, led by Anil Dey himself, carrying Congress flags entered the pitch and stopped play. Anil Dey was glorified as a Nationalistic hero for the act which further boosted his popularity.

Dr. Talimeren Ao was born in the quaint village of Chagki in Nagaland in 1918. His father was the first reverend of the Naga hills district. Talimeren would play beautiful football as a child but his father wanted him to become a Doctor of Medicine. Thus, he decided to become both.

However, his father didn’t live to see that happen. He passed away when Talimeren was a teenager. After a breif footballing stint with Maharana SC, he secured admission to Carmichael Medical College (currently R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital) in erstwhile Calcutta.

On arriving to Calcutta, he learnt that another former Maharana SC player, Sarat Das had joined Mohun Bagan, and Sarat helped him get a place into the team. He would eventually mature into a prolific defender and become the first captain for the Indian National Football team post independence in the 1948 Olympics.

In 1944, Mohun Bagan built its youth team and put club legend Balaidas Chatterjee at its helm. Balaidas was an exceptional scout and it was him who had spotted and brought in none other than Chuni Goswami to the club’s youth team in 1946.

In the same year, Dr. S.K. Gupta took over the position of the General Secretary from B.C. Ghosh (appointed as Vice-President replacing Sailen Banerjee in 1941 and then getting elected as GS) while B.C. Ghosh retook the position of the VP.

Also in 1944, Bagan again won the Calcutta Football League. And what a championing it was. It was the final matchday. Mohammedan were top of the table with 39 points from 23 games, while Bagan with the same number of games played were on 38 points.

10 minutes remaining on the clock. The score: 0-0. Had it ended like that, Mohammedan would have won it again. Mohun Bagan get a free kick, and there stood the ever composed and cool as a cucumber, Bagan’s set piece specialist Sailen Manna. A low grounded power shot into the goal. Mohammedan dumbfounded. Mohun Bagan in ecstasy.

Bagan also won the Coochbehar Cup, the D.N. Guin Memorial Cup, its 5th Lady Hardinge Shield, the Nadia Challenge Shield, the S.N. Banerjee Memorial Cup and the Trades Cup in 1944.


IX. Missed Opportunity for Arsenal Legend and Shield Victory with the Indian Independence.

Arsenal Legend George Curtis (Courtesy: Arsenal FC)

The next year, the Trades Cup was won again along with the Victory Cup and the Griffith Shield (Bagan’s last ever before it was eventually discontinued). Bagan were agonisingly close to the C.F.L., losing the Premier position by only a solitary point to East Bengal, who won the C.F.L for the second time after 1942.

Bagan were set to face East Bengal in the 1945 I.F.A. Shield Final. It was around the same time that one of the greatest Inside Forwards of the time, George Curtis, who played for Arsenal, had come to Calcutta.

He was part of a military team which was formed during the Second World War, and is regarded as a lost potential since he lost his prime years to the War when all sporting activities were halted in England.

Now Curtis asked Bagan whether he could play for the club for this important game. A meeting was conducted. All members agreed to include him, except for Club President and R.G. Kar Medical College’s Principal Dr. M. N. Bose. He did not want to break the tradition of not letting a foreigner play for the club.

Mohun Bagan lost that game 0-1. Curtis bemoaned that had he been allowed, he definitely would have gave Bagan supporters celebrate winning the Shield which they had last won in 1911.

Ironically enough, the goalscorer of that game was none other than Pugsley, a Burmese who had fled his war torn native land and walked through dense jungles and mountains for months before arriving to Kolkata, barely alive, and pleading Bengal to take him in as football was the only thing he knew.

1946 was the first time in 15 years that Mohun Bagan ended the footballing season without a single trophy. The last time that happened was in 1930. Bagan were inches close to the Calcutta Football League again.

Matter of fact, Bagan didn’t lose a single C.F.L game! However, they drew 6 games, while East Bengal drew only 3 and lost 1 game, and thus were the C.F.L. Champions with one additional point.

Also that year, as the Independence struggle reached its peak, many tournaments were cancelled midway and not even conducted at all due to communal riots, which included the I.F.A. Shield.

And thus, India opened a fresh chapter in its story on the 15th of August, 1947. With Independence, Calcutta bore witness to more rioting and chaos due to mass displacements due to Eastern Bengal becoming a part of Pakistan. Hence, the Calcutta Football League was cancelled midway.

However, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal happened to meet on the field exactly one week after India got independence. On the 22nd of August, 4-1 was the score in favour of Mohun Bagan in the first round game of the Coochbehar Cup. Nayar and Nirmal Chakraborty scored a goal each while Nayar bagged a brace. However, it was Mohammedan who won the Coochbehar Cup that edition.

Thankfully, the Bagan faithful did not have to wait long for the coveted Shield, especially after that heart-wrenching defeat to East Bengal. Quite poetic how the National Club of the country Championed the I.F.A. Shield for the first time after 1911 just when the country itself overcame its colonisers.

Post Match Report published in the Jugantar after Bagan's 1947 I.F.A. Shield Victory

In Goal, stood the charismatic D. Sen, informally called ‘Bakai’. Often he would be spotted sporting a cap on his head while guarding the Bagan goal. The other goalie was Chanchal Banerjee. In defense, the trusty Sarat Das and Sailen Manna. At Half, Anil Dey and Talimeren Ao.

Mahabir Prasad at Side Half had scintillating footwork and dictated the field of play at the mid field. At Half Back was Dipen Sen who was known for his hardwork and aggression. He also used to guide the youth team. Nayar was brought from East Bengal after he became the top scorer of the C.F.L. with East Bengal, finding the net 35 times.

Arun Sinha joined the squad late. Due to certain legal complications, he was not eligile  to play, but the issue got sorted before the Quarter-Finals. Mohun Bagan won over Mohammedan in the Semi Finals, the headed goal being scored by Arun Sinha himself, who stayed on field even after sustaining an injury while playing. It came from a corner by Nirmal Chakraborty. Sailen Manna had missed a penalty earlier in the game.

This would be the same Arun Sinha, the revolutionary football coach who scrapped the old 2-3-5 formation for a modern system for that time and nurtured talents like Jarnail Singh and Chuni Goswami and won laurels with Bagan in the early 60s.

Due to a fan attack incident in the other semi final, the final was postponed for a bit but ultimately conducted on November 15. East Bengal attacked aggressively in the initial few minutes, but Sailen Manna and Sharat Das produced a defensive masterclass to fend off the EB forwards.

Soon enough, Mohun Bagan gained more control on the match. They focussed on attacking from the wings and the plan worked. In the 6th minute, Dinanath Roy received a pass from B. Bose and ran up the Right Wing, before cheekily back passing the ball to Salim.

Salim immediately completed the link up, through it towards Dinanath who ran behind the defense, thus completely exposing the East Bengal backline, but Dinanath was marginally offside and the chance could not be converted.

However, within the next two minutes, Bagan found the back of the net. Dinanath again ran up the right wing, passed it on to Salim who took a shot on target himself this time which could be deflected by EB Goalie Mustafi and ended up inside the goal.

In the second half, East Bengal went all out, but were toothless in front of the sturdy and reassuring defensive organisation of Bagan. Mohun Bagan were the first ever I.F.A. Shield Champions of Independent India. An amount of Rs. 27,000 was generated from the sale of tickets that day.

East Bengal had a formidable team and were considered favourites in the build up to the final. For them started P. Mustafi at goal, Rakhal Majumdar and Paritosh Chakraborty, D. Chandra, S. Kaizar and N. Roy, S. Mukherjee, S. Bhattacharjee, B. Dasgupta, Sunil Ghosh and Saleh.

There is a popular story in relation to Bagan’s 1911 Shield Victory. Apparently, after Bagan won it in 1911, a monk approached Reverened Sudhir Chatterjee, asking that now that the Union Jack flag of Great Britain had been lowered on the Maidan, when would that also be removed from everywhere in the country. Sudhir Chatterjee had replied that it would happen the day Mohun Bagan wins the Shield again.


X. A Heartbreaking defeat to France, Third Shield Victory, a Chinese Encounter, Diamond Jubilee.

The Indian Footballing Contingent at the 1948 Olympics
(Courtesy: The Hindu via Wikipedia)

The 1948 Olympics were held at London. India’s footballing contingent to the Olympic comprised of three players from Mohun Bagan. They were Talimeren Ao, Sailen Manna and Mahabir Prasad. The team got captained by T. Ao, thus him becoming the first captain of Independent India’s National Football Team.

Formar Mohun Bagan Center Half and then Football Secretary Balaidas Chatterjee was appointed as the trainer for that team. Due to Balaidas Chatterjee’s thus temporary absence, Gostha Pal was appointed the Acting-Secretary for Mohun Bagan, and due to T. Ao’s absence, Goalie D. Sen became the captain of Bagan for that period.

The full team roster for the travelling Indian side was: Goalkeepers: Kenchappa V. Varadaraj (Mysore), Sanjeeva Uchil (ICL-Bengal Club, Bombay); Defenders: Sailendra "Sailen“ Nath Manna (Mohun Bagan AC), Taj Mohammed (East Bengal Club), T.M. Varghese Papen (Bombay FC); Midfielders: Talimeran Ao (Mohun Bagan AC), Sattar A. Basheer (Mysore), Mahabir Prasad (East Bengal Club), S.M. Kaiser (East Bengal Club), Anil Nandy (Eastern Railway SC), B.N. Vajravelu (Mysore); Forwards: Robi Das (Bhawanipore Club), Ahmed Mohamed Khan (Mysore), Sahu Mewalal (Eastern Railway SC), Ramachandra Balaram Parab (Bombay FC), Sarangapani Raman (Mysore), K.P. Dhanraj (Mysore), Santosh Nandy (Eastern Railway SC).

In the very first round match itself, India had to face the mighty France. But the Indian team played exceptionally on the 31st of July. It was an evenly contested game, in front of 17,000 spectators, until Rene Courbin scored a goal in the 30th minute.

Just before half time, India were awarded a penalty. Sailen Manna stepped up to the spot, but his shot aimed at the top left corner sailed over the crossbar. But India didn’t drop their shoulders and launched blistering counter attacks from the beginning of the second half. Sarangapani Raman gave India the equaliser in the 70th minute.

In the 80th minute, India got another penalty. This time, another Bagan player Mahabir Prasad took the penalty, but again the shot didn’t enter the goal as the acrobatic French goalie pulled off a brilliant save.

In the final minute of the game, just when the players were expecting for the game to get into extra time, the French scored the winner completely against the run of play. The valiant Indians were inches close to producing their greatest victory in their footballing history.

After the game, the impressed King George VI of England invited the team to the Buckingham Palace. Known to have a sense of humour, he lifted up Sailen Manna’s trouser and told him he was checking whether he had legs made of steel.

Due to the absence of three crucial players, Mohun Bagan lost crucial players for many games of their 1948 Calcutta Football League campaign. That eventually led to Bagan finishing second, three points off Mohammedan SC. Against East Bengal, bagan drew 1-1 and won 3-0 in their two League encounters.

Bagan had to win against Mohammedan to win the C.F.L. After the first half ended goalless, Goalkeeper D. Sen himself wore an outfield jersey and played as a forward in the second half, trying to exploit his shot power, but that game ended 0-0 and eventually Mohammedan became Champions.

But the I.F.A. Shield came home again. The final was won over Bhowanipore this time around with a scoreline of 2-1, which was the replay after a 1-1 draw. Rashid scored both goals for Bagan while Bhowanipore’s solitary goal was scored by Amin.

Before the Olympics, the Chinese Olympic Team arrived at Kolkata to play a friendly with Mohun Bagan. The game ended 0-0. The three Bagan players who were selected for the National team had already joined the National camp, hence it was a significant achievement for the Mariners to hold the Chinese to a draw.

Also that year, Mohun Bagan had a great run in the Rovers Cup. The reached the final, only to lose 1-0 to Bangalore Muslims, who were considered one of the greatest teams of Indian football throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Mohun Bagan that year won the Coochbehar Cup, the Lady Hardinge Shield and the Power Memorial Shield, the latter two being Bagan’s last ever before the tournaments were eventually discontinued.

Left: Amrit Bazar Patrika Report on the First Game of 1948 I.F.A. Shield Final ending in a draw (21st Aug); Right: Report two days later on the Presentation of the I.F.A. Shield to Mohun Bagan.

Another great team of that time were Mysore FC. In 1949, Bagan brought two good players from them, namely A. Sattar and Bajravelu. From Mysore itself, East Bengal had brought in Ahmad Khan, Dhanraj, Saleh, Venkatesh and Apparao, and formed their famous Pancha-Pandava.

Mohun Bagan at that time had a comparatively worse team compared to East Bengal. Bajravelu couldn’t adapt to Kolkata and he went back to Mysore. East Bengal won the 1949 I.F.A. Shield.

However, Mohun Bagan managed to win both their games in the Calcutta Football League. Nayar’s goal helped Bagan in the first game while Salim scored a brace in the other fixture which ended 2-1. Still, East Bengal managed to win the C.F.L. too that year.

Bagan won its final Chandicharan Memorial Shield, William Younger Cup and Raja Shield that year before the tournaments were eventually discontinued along with its 16th Coochbehar Cup and the Trades Cup.

Mohun Bagan completed 60 years of existence in 1949. On the auspicuous occassion, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wrote that “the club is a household institution not only in Bengal, but throughout India where sport and atheletics are valued and appreciated.”

Vallabhbhai Patel was the President of the Ahmedabad Municipality back in 1927 when Mohun Bagan had played a friendly to help raise funds for the flood affected victims of Gujarat.

On the Diamond Jubilee, the then Chief Minister of Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy wrote that he “was with pride and pleasure that I witnessed the victory of Mohun Bagan in the Shield tournament in 1911. Following as it did the Nationalist movement in political Bengal, the event was welcomed by all of us, young men of those days as the harbinger of greater things for Bengal and for this country.”

Swedish club Helsinborgs were invited to play a friendly for this special occassion and the match ended goalless. Celebrations started form 15th August, 1949 and included prayer rituals at Kalighat, hoisting the National flag and a firecracker show.

On 11th December, a Hom-yagna organised at the house of Mohun Bagan’s first President Bhupendanath Bose. A torch procession was conducted after that which passed along the important locations of the club’s history such as the Fariapukur Street of North Kolkata, the second and third offices of the club at the aristocratic houses of the Mitras and Sens respectively, the initial grounds of the club at Shyam Square and that at Laha Colony.

The procession ended at Bagan’s club tent. Legnds such as Abhilash Ghosh, Gostha Pal, Umapati Kumar, Sanmatha Dutta, Karuna Bhattacharya had took part in the procession. Two days later, a Legends match was conducted between the Mohun Bagan Legends and I.F.A. legends and 1911 Shield winning Goalie Hiralal Mukherjee himself took part in that match. Abhilash Ghosh was the referee of that game.

Mohun Bagan would soon into another era of transition, modernisation and many interesting tales and anecdotes, before entering their Golden Period in the 1960s. The next Episode of Why Mohun Bagan will focus on the years 1950-1965.
 
 
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