Even though the number of akharas in Delhi has come down from 100 to 15 in the past 30 years but both budding and established wrestlers participate regularly at the Urdu Park dangalThe Sunday market on Netaji Subhash Chandra Marg is abuzz with activity. Right from the bookshops on Daryaganj’s pavements till the makeshift shacks selling woolens opposite the Red Fort, the place is teeming with people. Squeezing my way through this road I head towards the historic Urdu Park at the traffic intersection.Inside the park, hundreds of men are sitting in a circle waiting for action to begin. It’s 4 p.m. In the middle, on a sand enclosure, a referee announces on the mike that the show is about to begin. Soon, it’s a believe it or not situation, as at least 50-60 boys and men, all pehelwan or kushtigeers, are ready to jump into the fray to test their skills. The dangal starts, with pehelwans aged between 12 and 22 waiting for their turn. The first kushti is between two teenaged boys. The winner gets Rs 10 and the loser a consolation prize of Rs 5 from one of the organisers.Mohm Saleem, president of the Ittehadi Dangal Society and one of the organisers, explains that dangals are different from akharas. “While the akharas are schools where these wrestlers are trained, the dangal is a place where they can display their skills. This tradition of friendly wrestling bouts by members of various akharas dates back to the Mughal times,” he says.Adds Sultan Thekedar, another organiser, “Be it the legendary Guru Hanuman or the Olympic bronze winner Sushil Kumar—every wrestler from not just the city but also the region has participated in this dangal. Though the number of akharas in Delhi has come down from 100 to 15 in the past 30 years, both budding and established wrestlers regularly participate at the Urdu Park dangal.”The various akharas start competing with each other. Waiting for his turn, Babar from Ghaziabad’s Ismail akhara says how he had found a tough opponent last time in a youngster from one of the akharas of Mewat. “I have been trying to locate him since the last half-an-hour in this crowd. Perhaps, he hasn’t turned up this time,” he says.Rajbir from Hanuman akhara is excited. “Last week, I won the match. I want to win this time too, and also better my performance,” he says.The wrestlers from Guru Kalyan Singh akhara in Azadpur are hopeful that with Sushil Kumar winning a bronze medal in the Olympic Games, perhaps now the Government as well as the private sector will pump in money in kushti. “That is also one of our major concerns,” says Saleem, adding that the expenses of the weekly wrestling meet is solely borne by the organisers.It’s almost 7 p.m. and Saleem and other organisers are waiting for the team from the lone women’s akhara to join them. “Maybe, they are stuck in a traffic jam,” he says, adding that at least 10 women wrestlers participate in the dangal almost every week. “In the case of the male wrestlers, a student from one akhara can ‘fight’ with a student from another one, but for the women wrestlers there’s no such scope. They have to contest amongst themselves,” he says. Do women come to watch these wrestling matches? “No, never, unless they are reporters like you,” he tells me as the last wrestling match of the day begins.The Urdu Park was also the place where leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had addressed the people of Delhi, urging them to fight the British. Every Sunday evening, the place witnesses a different kind of a struggle—to keep alive a tradition that’s integral to the various institutions associated with kushti.
