Rakhal Majumdar was a defender for East Bengal in the 1940s. He played for 16 years for the club from 1937 to 1952. He captained the club in 1943 when East Bengal won the IFA Shield for the first time. Rakhal Majumdar was also my Borda Mama Dadu (grand uncle) – he was my paternal grandmother Namita’s first cousin. I remember meeting him in my childhood at my grandparent’s house in Lake Road, Kolkata. I have memories of him giving me ‘pen pencils’ whenever I met him. I knew he played for East Bengal but had no idea till recently of his illustrious footballing career.
Thanks to the Facebook pages of East Bengal Club and East Bengal Samachar as well as twitter handles such as East Bengal History, I was able to piece together the story of his career. It has everything - treble winning seasons, an ‘invincible’ double winning season, derby battles with Mohun Bagan, rebel leagues and “freedom struggle” vs Nicholas Saheb of IFA, captain courageous in Paritosh Chakraborty and the “Panch Pandav” era when East Bengal played a ridiculous 2-3-5 formation!
Thanks to the Facebook pages of East Bengal Club and East Bengal Samachar as well as twitter handles such as East Bengal History, I was able to piece together the story of his career. It has everything - treble winning seasons, an ‘invincible’ double winning season, derby battles with Mohun Bagan, rebel leagues and “freedom struggle” vs Nicholas Saheb of IFA, captain courageous in Paritosh Chakraborty and the “Panch Pandav” era when East Bengal played a ridiculous 2-3-5 formation!
Rakhal Mazumdar was the captain of East Bengal when they won their first IFA shield in 1943
With our first Prime Minister
From the team photographs, Dadu seems to be of short height and slim/average build, it’s hard to imagine he played as a central defender or centre back as they called it in his time - especially in a 2-3-5 formation! Must have been quite an athlete as in the 1949 treble winning season, the team only conceded scored a total of 111 goals and conceded 11 goals in 31 matches in the 3 tournaments they won - IFA Shield, CFL and Rovers Cup. It is difficult to find such a record anywhere in top flight football. In the following year they won the double of IFA Shield and CFL without losing a game - an invincible season!
An article by Dadu himself
In 1948, he was the bedrock in defence of the East Bengal team that defeated the Chinese National team en route to compete in the London Olympics. A day after the historic triumph over the Chinese Olympic side, Amrita Bazar Patrika published a report with the headline “Chinese National Team Defeated By 2-0.” The report describes how East Bengal outplayed the opposition in every department and also showed superiority in terms of creating chances with the star being Saleh (not be confused with Liverpool’s current star Salah!). It heaped praises on our two full-backs, Rakhal Majumdar and Byomkesh Bose for their effective tackling and immaculate passing.
This is especially incredible as in those days, the clubs hardly paid the footballers. The players played for identity - East Bengal gave the much needed pride to the Bangal refugees from opar Bangla like my grandparents who were looked down upon by the Ghotis of West Bengal.
Here's the Rakhal Mazumdar story:
PS:
1) The articles on East Bengal Samachar page was in Bangla which I can’t read fluently and had to use an online translator, but the archiving is gold! However, there may be the odd typo.
2) The language may seem a bit partisan - but of course, it is written from our East Bengal point of view 💛❤️