Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games

Abstract

The Commonwealth Games are Delhi’s biggest sporting event ever. As the promise of hosting them envelops Delhi there are questions that loom large, unasked and ominous: Who will emerge the winner in this contest to present Delhi as a true global city? Will Indian sport gain at all? How much is it costing the person on the street? Who has actually benefited from all the digging and window-dressing? And who has lost livelihoods, dreams, perhaps even lives? This book is the story of the politics of these Games, the money that is being spent and the priorities that have shaped it.

With access to hitherto unused archives, including primary documents from the first-ever British Empire Games in 1930, this book is also the first and only attempt to place Delhi 2010 in perspective within the history of the Commonwealth Games, their meaning and indeed the larger question of why we need a Commonwealth at all. Explaining what all this means for India, it provides a unique understanding of the Delhi Games in its entirety.