Wrestling used to be a medium to entertain royal families back in old age. While it started as an activity to keep men fit, wrestling has now become a professional sport that has a lot of inspirational women. If we talk about the traces of wrestling in India's rich history, it goes back to the fifth century BCE. For the unversed, the early form of wrestling was renowned as 'malla-yudha', which means hand-to-hand combat between two people. We have several references to the same in our ancient epics, like Mahabharat and Ramayan.
As time passed, wrestling became more popular across the nation, and different people gave it different names. From kushti, pehlwani, to dangal, we have different wrestling names in different regions of our country. Another important thing is that wrestling started as a men's sport, but now we have so many women wrestlers in India.
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In recent decades, we have been blessed to witness the heroics of so many incredibly talented women wrestlers. Although the list of their names is quite long, some of the most famous ones include Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Babita Phogat, Geeta Phogat, Divya Kakran, Alka Tomar, Nisha Dahiya, Geetika Jakhar, and many more.
Hamida Banu is the first female professional wrestler of India. She was born in the early 1900s in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh. Right from an early age, she was interested in wrestling, as she was born into a family of wrestlers. Just by watching them play and practice, Hamida developed a deep interest in wrestling and decided to take part in it at a time when it was considered a 'men's sport.'
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Hamida Banu was not just India's first professional wrestler, but she was also exceptional in wrestling. After learning all the tricks and techniques, she was the kind of wrestler that every opponent wished to skip. According to a report in NDTV, Hamida Banu was so passionate about wrestling that she gave an open challenge to some wrestlers to beat her if they wanted to get married to her back in February 1954. With such passion and commitment to wrestling, Hamida Banu represented India on the international stage when she beat a Russian wrestler, Vera Chistilin, in just two minutes.
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Hamida Banu started dominating a lot of headlines in the 1940s and 1950s, courtesy of the fact that she was the first professional woman wrestler in India. However, her popularity skyrocketed when she beat the iconic wrestler, Baba Pahalwan. The fight lasted for just 1 minute and 34 seconds and ended in Hamida's favour. Unfortunately, Hamida retired from wrestling after beating Bab Pahalwan, and even to this very day, no one knows the real reason behind it.
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Talking about Hamida Banu's personal life, not much is known as she vanished from the limelight after leaving wrestling. According to several reports, Hamida Banu's coach, Salam Pahalwan was reportedly against her decision to go to Europe, which broke her so hard that she left everything behind. As per multiple media reports, Hamida Banu survived by selling milk and renting out some properties.
However, Hamida Banu soon ran out of money and started selling homemade snacks by the roadside. From being renowned by the title of 'Amazon of Aligarh', due to her weight and height to selling roadside snacks, Hamida Banu indeed had a turbulent life. However, there's no denying the fact that Hamida Banu opened the gates for so many young women in India, who dreamt of doing wrestling. For this, she will always be remembered for centuries to come.
What are your thoughts on Hamida Banu's wrestling career? Let us know.
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