Sometime around the late 19th century, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Jaswant Singh, hosted a competition where wrestlers had to compete to perform the most baithaks or squats. Over 400 wrestlers competed, and among them was a 10-year-old boy. When the competition thinned to only 15 competitors, the Maharaja stopped the event, and, impressed by the grit of the boy, declared him winner. The victory earned Ghulam Muhammad Baksh a big applause from the crowd—and a week-long bed rest, owing to muscle soreness.
But this awe-inspiring feat was a mere dot in the universe of wrestling that the boy would go on to conquer and become the undefeated champion — Rustam-e-Hind and ‘The Great Gama’. In the time to come, he would inspire a generation of wrestlers and athletes, including the legendary Bruce Lee.
The Great Gama was born in Amritsar in a family of wrestlers that had Kashmiri origins. Most accounts put 1878 as his year of birth. He was introduced to the akhada (Indian-style gymnasium) by his father, Aziz Baksh, when he was only five. Aziz was a wrestler in the court of the Raja of Datia—now in Madhya Pradesh. A decade later, Ghulam Muhammad was appointed as the court wrestler.
Challenging the Rustam-e-Hind
Gama earned victories at the courts of Rewa, Orccha, Gwalior, Bhopal, Indore, Baroda, and Amritsar, writes author Rudraneil Sengupta in his book, Enter The Dangal. But the title of Rustam-e-Hind, or the Champion, was still elusive and under the firm grip of the 6-foot-9-inches-tall Rahim Baksh Sultaniwala. The two went head-to-head in Lahore; the towering Sultaniwala naturally being the crowd favourite. After two hours of wrestle, the fight ended in a draw. Rahim retained his Rustam-e-Hind title, but this was only the start of the Gama-Sultaniwala trilogy.
Becoming the Rustam-e-Zamana
Gama’s legacy is unique also because he became the world champion before becoming one in India. More than a century after the grappler challenged the world’s best, it seems as if he already knew he was the best—those championship titles just a stamp on his might.
After the match with Sultaniwala, Gama went to London in April 1910 to compete in the John Bull World Championship financed by the Bengali millionaire and wrestling aficionado, Sarat Kumar Mitra. Billed as “the undefeated wrestler of India, winner of over 200 legitimate matches”, Gama threw a challenge to take on three wrestlers one after the other, irrespective of the weight division.
It would take four months and a 6-feet-1-inch American doctor, weighing 106 kg to accept Gama’s challenge. Dr Benjamin Franklin Roller and Gama were to face each other on 8 August 1910. The four-month-long wait to see The Great Gama in action in the heart of the British empire ended in less than 10 minutes—he emerged as the winner.
This set the stage for the “undefeated wrestler of India” to take on the Greco-Roman world champion, Stanislaus Zbyszko. On the line was the John Bull World Champion title. Zbyszko was on his back within the first minute of the fight and immediately assumed the defensive position on all fours. The fight dragged on for three hours. A rematch was announced to determine a clear winner, but Zbyszkon never showed up. Gama became the Rustam-e-Zamana and Fakhr-e-Hindustan (Champion of the World and Pride of India).
Becoming Rustam-e-Hind
Sight is one of the most important moves in extreme physical sports. Bouts are decided even before the combatants enter the ring—a slight diversion of the gaze in a stare-down gives the one who holds the stare a clear advantage.
It was in Allahabad when Gama and Sultaniwala squared off against each other for the third time in 1911. Sultaniwala entered the arena covered in “red ochre, shouting out his battle cry, ‘Deen Deen Elahi’”, writes Sengupta, quoting SC Muzumdar from Strong Men Over the Years. A 6’9 giant covered in red powder would easily have the psychological advantage of sight over a 5’7 Gama. But the latter stood his ground without fear in his sight— confident and regal — like “a veritable Apollo”. The match ended with Gama winning the title of Rustam-e-Hind.
The empire slams back
Research scholar Jeng-guo Chen in the paper, Gendering India: Effeminacy and the Scottish Enlightenment’s Debates over Virtue and Luxury, quotes the 19th-century British politician Thomas Babington Macaulay: “The Castilians have a proverb — that in Valencia the earth is water and the men women; and the description is at least equally applicable to the vast plain of the Lower Ganges.” Macaulay was expressing the popular British sentiment vis-a-vis Indians. Gama’s victory in London, in a sport that pushes the will and resilience of humans to its extreme, was India’s answer to British claims of the former’s effeminacy.
In 1928, Zbyszko and Gama met again — this time in Gama’s backyard at the Maharaja of Patiala’s court. Zbyszko was defeated in less than three seconds. The elated Maharaja took off his pearl necklace and placed it around Gama’s neck, who then rode on the king’s elephant, holding a silver mace. “Gama and his patron, the Maharaja, came to symbolize the possibility of self-determination and independence,” writes Joseph S Alter in his book The Wrestler’s Body Identity and Ideology in North India.
Gama’s legacy shines bright decades after his death not only because of his illustrious career that spanned five decades but also for his humanity. After Partition, the great champion moved to Lahore. He settled down in Mohni Road, an area with a significant Hindu population. When communal tensions grew, he, along with a few of his peers, patrolled the area to protect the Hindu community from riotous mobs. He reportedly knocked out a charging rioter with a single slap and smiled at the mob who had gathered for blood, forcing them to flee.
Over six decades after his death in Pakistan, India has preserved a not-so-light training equipment the champion wrestler put to use — a 100 kg hasli now housed in the National Institute of Sports at Patiala as memorabilia. The hasli is a symbol of the mental and intestinal might of the champion who was not only the greatest of all time but also unconquerable in his humanity.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)