He took the sport on an unending voyage and a new destination of polo was set at every stoppage.
Joseph Sherer is acknowledged as the ‘The Father of English Polo’ worldwide for pioneering determined efforts at Cachar, Manipur and Calcutta. The evolution and expansion of polo is a minded effort of able men who have ascended up from time to time and contributed in the regale history of the game. And in the course of time, a man with no relation and enthusiasm for the sport, shows up as the messenger of polo to the western countries after he got fascinated by the high-spirit game.
Image credit: Orwell Today
It started during the mid-nineteenth century, when a tense political situation led to the migration of many Manipuris, who later settled on the border and central region of Cachar, an administrative district situated in the eastern part of India. It was in this outlying area that Lieutenant Joseph Ford Sherer, adjutant to the Sylhet Light Infantry had an encounter with a game played on horses: usually seven players, mounted on forty-eight inches ponies endeavouring to hit a wooden ball in a rectangular field.
Like hundreds and thousands ever since, Lieutenant was too smitten by the game. He reported to Capt. Robert Stewart, who held the post of Deputy Commissioner in Silchar, Cachar capital. Eventually, these two officers, joined by some tea planters in the district, had been seen in the sport back in 1854, in some spontaneous matches. They have been the first recorded Englishmen to play polo which they called ‘hockey on ponies.’
The pioneers steered to start a polo club in classic British fashion, with a combined and dedicated effort for the love of the game. The Silchar Kangjai Club was started in March 1859 after a meeting in Stewart’s bungalow. The unknown and unsung establishment was made in the remote outpost of British Empire, and the first polo club was formed
Ten years later, when a lot of polo was happening in Calcutta, Lt. Sherer in March 1864 brought his team of Manipuris known as the Band of Brothers along with their athletic ponies, and with high saddles, leg guards, bridles ornamented with shells, rope reins they created a grand sensation. The saga of some lesser known polo players from Manipuri then expanded vividly as they played at different locations.
It was during a match in Imphal, where small Manipuris ponies ran circles around the big Indian mounts. To everyone’s surprise, the visitors were incapable to win a single match. While in Calcutta at Indigo Club, Sherer was presented a silver tankard and salver, and it was at that moment that he was entitled with an eminent title of “The Father of English Polo”. A portrait of him bearing this inscription still stands in the Retreat Club in Silchar.
