Hamida Banu: India’s First Woman Wrestler Celebrated by Google Doodle
hamida banu: india’s first woman wrestler celebrated by google doodle
Google Doodle curators on May 4, 2024, temporarily replaced the search engine’s logo with an artwork honouring Hamida Banu – widely regarded as the first professional woman wrestler of India. The commemorative doodle marks the 70th anniversary of the day the female sporting icon carved her name in the annals of history.
“On this day in 1954, the wrestling match that earned Banu international recognition and acclaim was reported – she had defeated famed wrestler Baba Pahalwan, in just 1 minute and 34 seconds, after which the latter retired from professional wrestling,” Google said.
Saturday’s doodle, drawn by Divya Negi, a guest artist from Bengaluru, features an imposing illustration of the obscure wrestler whose life still remains relatively shrouded in mystery.
Little is known beyond Banu’s diet, achievements and most famously, her offer to marry the male wrestler who could beat her in a bout.
“Born into a family of wrestlers in the early 1900s near Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, Banu grew up wrestling, winning over 300 competitions throughout her career spanning the 1940s and 1950s,” the doodle’s description read.
She was a true pioneer in an era when women were discouraged from entering the world of athletics.
10 years before the “Amazon of Aligarh”, as she came to be known, was immortalised in sporting folklore, she had established herself as a force of nature.
In 1944, around 20,000 people flocked to a stadium in Mumbai (then Bombay) to watch Banu take on wrestler Goonga Pahalwan. The fight, however, was cancelled following her adversary’s “impossible” demands, which included higher match fee and extra preparation time, according to the BBC.
The stadium was vandalised as per a report in the newspaper Bombay Chronicle.
A decade and several hundred appearances later, Banu hit the headlines for an unusual reason as she had issued a challenge to her male contemporaries: “Beat me in a bout and I’ll marry you.”
She defeated two wrestlers in successive fights after the announcement, ultimately facing Baba Pahalwan in Vadodara for her third – which lasted all but a minute and 34 seconds, the Associated Press reported.