“Tan, Dhan, Mann sab Hindustan se hain. Agar woh mere bure din mein sahara diye hai, toh mera bhi farz banta hai ki main bhi unke acche ya bure din mein sahara doon. (My body, wealth, mind belongs to Hindustan. If they have helped me through my bad days, then it’s my responsibility to be there with them for the good or bad times.)”

Pushpender Kundu struggles to remember the exact nature of his beginnings with Hindustan. The 39-year-old central defender and captain of the Delhi-based-second division club has been associated with the first team for a period of 17 years, with a few breaks in between.

“Many clubs we started playing with in the second division either made it to the I-League or shut down, mostly the latter. They were sponsored by big corporates, while we struggle to keep afloat. Yet, 14 years later, we are the only ones left standing,” says DK Bose, president of Hindustan since 1983.

In their 14-year-stay in the second division, 2018 was the closest they have come to making it to the first division, with a core of players who have honed their skills at the club for five years or more.

Their first loss of the season came in the last match against eventual champions Real Kashmir FC, as they lost 3-2, a cruel way to bow out. The runners-up beat favourites TRAU FC and held heavyweights Ozone before their last game against RKFC in Bengaluru.

Cruelly though, while Real Kashmir have become the toast of the Indian football fraternity overnight, very few had Hindustan and their struggles in mind. In a volatile system, where clubs open and shut in a heartbeat, their commitment to the second division, without eyeballs, without a return of interest, without recognition, is an act of defiance, a refusal to curl up and die.

Bose, the long-suffering president, states that the club, is one of Delhi’s oldest (started in 1948), founded by JK Dasgupta, the first secretary of the capital’s football body. Along with Simla Youngs, New Delhi Heroes, it remains one of Delhi’s first clubs to remain operational till date.

“By the late 60’s, the club had become dormant. Dasgupta had become old and Sunil Ghosh, DSA secretary at the time, was running the club. In those days, the club used to play in Delhi’s B division, and Delhi football was not very organised,” says Bose, a former Hindustan player himself. Hindustan’s president had also appeared for the Delhi and the combined universities teams in his playing days.

Hindustan was one of two big Delhi clubs owned and run by Bengalis, the other being Raisina Sporting. Both played their B division matches at the Government of India press grounds, Minto road, next to the eponymous press, where the union budget used to be printed. The ground also played host to a series of friendly matches between the British press and the Govt. of India press, as well as Kolkata giant Mohammedan Sporting.

“My parents were both government servants and they had official accommodation provided nearby. In school, they used to say chalo, chalo, match hain. We would to go watch games riding our cycles. I entered government service [sports officer in customs and excise] in 1978 and I asked Ghosh to let me handle Raisina or Hindustan and Raisina was a much bigger name then, so he gave me Hindustan,” recollects Bose.

The three-time Delhi league champions became the first club from the capital to attract corporate sponsorship in 1996 from Finnic shoes as the likes of Coca Cola, Nestle followed. They entered the second division of the National Football League in 2003, and have played against luminaries of the local game such as Sporting Clube de Goa, Churchill Brothers, Aizawl and Neroca.

Vikrant Sharma, ex-Dempo goalkeeper and head coach of the club, appeared as a player for the club as late as 2015, as a 42-year-old. They reached the final rounds of the second division that year and the previous year, and repeated it this year.

Hindustan FC in the 2015 season.

A major disparity between Hindustan and their second division rivals lies in the paucity of resources of the Delhi club. Sharma and a physio are the only team staff while Bose says he does not have any front office or administrative personnel. Hindustan played with a 21-member squad consisting of three goalkeepers and three Under-18 players. They lost two of their key players, Nitesh Chikkara and Utkarsh Kaushik, prior to the second round.

Sharma had to make do with this bare bones of a squad but the lack of locally produced players hampers the progress of the squad. “Even though many Hindustan players are there, Delhi does not produce many players for us to scout. Manipuri, Punjabi, Kerala clubs have local talents, that reduces costs significantly. We don’t have that luxury.”

While Bose says they were inspired by Bengaluru FC to maintain their fitness which helped them remain competitive, Kundu gives credit to Aizawl’s achievements for driving his team on.

“[Liston] Colaco, the former AIFF secretary, asked me why I didn’t try for the first division. I told him I can’t sustain with my resources in the top tier,” Bose says while giving the example of Mohammedan, who have been promoted six times only to be relegated each time.

Bose reckons that with a higher budget and community backing, Hindustan can become a first division club but doesn’t rule out entry through corporate entry. “Real Kashmir has now become the team from Kashmir and everyone is ready to support them. Corporate houses have come forward to support their club. Similar, we want people to look at us as not just Hindustan but a Delhi club. When we started, we were motivated by the thought of the first division. At this point, our involvement is more due to an emotional connect to the division.”