Notes on Vyayam: a vernacular sports journal in western India

The initiation of vernacular press in western India was followed by the penetration of print and proliferation of a range of journalistic endeavours by the early twentieth century. While political journalism has had its share of historians, the story of sports journalism has remained rather under-researched and obscure in mainstream narratives of the subcontinent. In this article, I focus on the contents and policy of a unique Marathi language periodical, Vyayam [Exercise], which was launched in 1915 and was committed to the popularization of sport and physical culture especially among the educated middle classes of the region.