The
first Indian sportsmen to become world champions were the wrestlers. Formidable
men like Karim Bux (1892), Ghulam (1900), Gama (1910) and Gobor Goho (1921)
brought unprecedented honour to India under colonial shackles. They strode the
world by sheer blood and guts in an environment of hostility and humiliation.
These men relied on themselves. They possessed phenomenal strength, skill,
courage, determination and self-belief. Totally devoted to the ideals of their
deity, Lord Hanuman.
Among
them was Mian Ghulam Mohammed, more popular as Gama Pehelwan. Born in Datia in
the princely state of Holkar (Madhya Pradesh) in 1880, his skills at the ankhara were phenomenal. Every
opposition was decimated with clinical precision. The fearsome wrestler of
massive girth was as handsome as he was modest and generous.
Early in life he came under the generous
patronage of the Maharaja of Patiala. In 1910, Gama set sail for UK to pit his
strength against the best of European and American grapplers. The other
wrestlers in the squad were Imam Bux (his cousin), Gamu, Gobor Goho from
Calcutta and Ahmed Bux.
The western wrestlers of superior height made fun of
the short-statured Indian grapplers. Within days however, the reality
dawned. Just 5 feet 7 inches in height
and about 200 lbs in weight, Gama’s immense strength combined with his
technique had the white-skinned wrestlers in total disarray.
The world champion at the time was Stanislaus Zbyzsko
of Poland. On 12thDecember, 1910, the two giants fought each other
with no quarters given, none asked for. At the end of more than two hours of
grueling duel, it was decided to stop the fight for the day and a re-match was
scheduled.
But next time Zbyzsko did not show up. The organizers
had no option but to crown Gama with the world title. For more than a decade he
was unrivalled. None quite came close to defeating him. He remained the
undefeated champion of the world.
Close on Gama’s heels came his cousin, Imam Bux. In
fact Imam’s father, Aziz Bux, was the person who coached Gama and Imam. Imam
was indisputably among the greatest ever, but he never received the world
crown because he constantly refused to fight against his elder cousin out of a
tradition of respect prevalent among certain wrestlers in India.
In Gama’s later
years he would probably have lost the world crown to Imam had the younger
cousin duelled with him. But not only did Imam not fight Gama, Imam also let
it be known that whoever wanted to fight Gama, would have to defeat him first.
Since no wrestler was able to beat Imam, the reign of Gama continued till his
retirement.
The great Gama retired as the undefeated heavy weight
champion of the world. After partition he settled down in Lahore, where he expired
in 1960. Unfortunately the art of wrestling has lost its way in urban India.
But the legend of Gama Pehelwan, as the Rustam-e-Zaman still continues to
reverberate among the rural masses of the sub-continent. Today these hardy,
brave jawans from rural India guard India’s borders just as Gama Pehelwan once
guarded India’s self-respect.
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