Eleven men, playing without boots on their feet, showed a country what freedom felt like, long before its citizens were free. This is their story.

Mohun Bagan is the toast of Calcutta. The city burns with nationalist fervour and the British shift the capital to Delhi—away from the “bomb-wielding nationalists and barefooted footballers of Bengal.”

All of Calcutta is decked up, and thousands throng the maidan to watch Bagan play the East Yorkshire Regiment again.