The Great Gama – The pehelwan who refused to lose

The Great Gama in a bout

“The art of Indian wrestling has many legends, but no history.”

This statement perfectly summarises the state of the dialogue surrounding wrestling in India. More often than not, the sport has failed to generate any tangible discussion other than pop-culture references of the legendary Dara Singh or professional wrestlers of today like Sushil Kumar.

Of course, the international realm of professional wrestling and entertainment sports has given birth to an inherent bias in the perception of a subtle mind about the country’s quaint heritage in this particular sport.

Nonetheless, the remarkable story of Ghulam Muhammad, or ‘The Great Gama’ as he is more popularly known, takes its rightful position at the confluence of history and legends, establishing him as modern India’s first ever sporting icon.

Gama was a Kashmiri Muslim wrestler, who was born in 1878 in the Punjab province of colonial India. His father, Aziz Baksh, was a famous court wrestler under the patronage of Raja Bhawani Singh of Datiya. From an early age, he would accompany his father to the Raja’s gymnasium. However, Gama lost his father when he was just five or six years old.

He and his younger brother Imam Baksh were subsequently raised under the guardianship of their maternal grandfather Nun Pahalwan initially. Later on, their eldest maternal uncle Ida Pahalwan took responsibility of the two boys. It was Ida who vowed to transform Gama into a champion pehelwan, something that Aziz had already envisioned. It was the catharsis of this quest that would spur Gama through the rest of his life.

What drove the young Gama was his late father’s will to make him the world’s greatest pehelwan. He thought he could keep a part of his father alive inside him by realising the dream, and disciplined training was the only way to do it.

Gama first came to the forefront when he took part in an exercising competition organised by the Raja of Jodhpur. The primary objective of the competition was to do the as many ‘bethaks’ or deep knee-bends as one could. Being the most common training exercise amongst the wrestlers, it was a hotly contested affair.

Among 400 wrestlers taking part in the contest, Gama made it to the last 15. That’s good but definitely not amazing, you would think. Of course, I have forgotten to mention his age at that time. Gama was only 10 years old at that time and even Jaswant Singh, who went on to win the contest, stated that the young pehelwan was clearly the winner.

Of course, the effort took a toll on the 10-year-old’s body and he was bed-ridden for a week. But this phenomenal feat marked the beginning of his career. It earned him instant recognition and he was invited to various competitions all over India. However, he only started wrestling competitively after he reached 15 years of age.

Mind you, none of this was achieved in a day. Gama had a strict regime from a very early age including 500 bethaks, 500 dands or ‘jack-knifing pushups’, and the regular pit-digging every single day. He followed a diet comprised of milk, fruits and almonds. When he was 15, meat, butter, yakhni (a boiled down gelatinous extract of bones), joints and tendons were incorporated into his diet.

Gama quickly proved his mettle and was soon inducted as a formal wrestler in the court of Datiya, where his father was once the court wrestler. His training regimen now included 3,000 bethaks and 1,500 dands every day. He also used to run one mile carrying a 120-pound stone ring around his neck.

His diet also saw a massive overhaul, now consisting of 20 litres of milk, half a litre of clarified butter, four kilos of fruit and three-fourths of a kilo of butter.

Gama was rising through the ranks at a very fast pace. When he was 19 years old, he challenged Raheem Baksh Sultani Wala, the Indian wrestling champion. Now Raheem stood at a towering 6’9” and had a very impressive record. Analysts dismissed Gama and proceeded to tout the match as inconsequential, as the winner was already decided.

Gama taking on Raheem, the Indian champion in 1912

The reality, however, was in stark contrast to what the analysts predicted. The bout went on for hours as a young Gama managed to churn out a draw, much to the amazement of the crowd. Everyone began to take notice of the 19-year-old pehelwan, and a rematch was quickly arranged.

In the second match, Gama did not adopt the defensive approach that had served him so well in the first match. Instead, he unloaded a series of offensive moves and by the end of the match, a bleeding Gama had managed to batter Raheem’s chest area completely.

By 1910, Gama had defeated all the famous Indian wrestlers barring Raheem. He then embarked on a journey to England to take on the world’s top wrestlers of that time. In London, he issued an open challenge, claiming he would throw any three wrestlers of any weight class in a time span of 30 minutes. Unfortunately, no one came forward to accept the challenge.

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However, his next invitation was taken up by Benjamin Roller, an American champion. It is said that Gama defeated Roller in less than three minutes, and he then went on to beat 30 prominent Japanese wrestlers. The organisers were thus forced to give Gama a match against Stanislaus Zbyszko of Poland, who was the reigning world champion.

The date was 10th September, 1910. Zbyszko had the physical advantage but he was taken aback by the Indian’s strength. A minute into the bout, the Polish strongman was already on the mat, biting the dust. He pretty much remained in that position for the next two hours and 35 minutes, with just brief respites in between, and he barely avoided defeat.

A rematch was scheduled on 17th September. Zbysko, however, never showed up, and Gama was declared as the world champion by default. He was awarded the John Bull belt and the prestigious title of Rustam-e-Zamana, the Champion of the World.

It is interesting to note that before winning the national championship, Gama actually became the world champion. On his return to India, Gama called out his old foe Raheem for a bout. The match, which took place in front of 50,000 spectators in Allahabad in 1912, is regarded as the most famous wrestling bout in Indian history.

Gama prevailed over the Indian champion this time and earned the title Rustam-e-Hind, the Champion of India.

Until 1927, no wrestler came up to face Gama. By then he had attained the nickname “the Lion of Punjab.” Then, came the big announcement. Gama would encounter Zbyszko once again in India.

At the behest of Raja Bhupinder Singh, the two wrestling greats faced each other at a massive stadium in Patiala in front of a crowd of 1,00,000 people in 1928. The contest is said to have lasted only 42 seconds. A 50-year-old Gama emerged victorious against the Polish wrestler in an incredibly one-sided affair.

After the bout ended, the veteran wrestler refused to board Bhupinder Singh’s vehicle. In a magnanimous gesture, he chose to simply walk alongside his fans, who formed a procession celebrating the victory.

Gama ensured that he remained undefeated in his career spanning almost 40 years when he overcame Swedish wrestler Jesse Peterson in his last professional bout in 1929.

An interesting anecdote is well worth sharing at this juncture. In the 1920s, when Gama and his brother served time, he was asked by the warden to name his enemies. It is said that the champion wrestler replied, “I have no enemies in this world. If you think that I would bring down someone else in order to save myself, you are wrong. I am your prisoner, do with me what you will.”

That, in a nutshell, is the story of the Great Gama – the invincible pehelwan, the hero that the country deserved but not one it needed at that time of oppression. Truly, he is one of India’s greatest forgotten sporting heroes.

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