Meet Hamida Banu, India's 'first' woman wrestler who competed with men and won
Born in the early 1900s, Hamida Banu was a woman of substance! She defied all odds and social norms to become India’s first professional woman wrestler who was famous not just in the country but also internationally. Remembering Hamida Banu on May 4, a historic day in her career back in 1954, Google released a beautiful doodle in her memory. Illustrated by Divya Negi, the Google Doodle depicts Hamida Banu who is surrounded by colourful flora and fauna.
Hamida Banu: An extraordinary woman
Hamida Banu was born into a family of wrestlers in the early 1900s in Aligarh, India. She grew up wrestling and winning more than 300 competitions, against both male and female wrestlers, during her career which spanned in the 1940s and 1950s. Back then, women’s participation in sports, especially wrestling, in India was strongly discouraged and was considered against the social norms. However, Hamida stayed true to her passion and herself as she went to on to become India’s first professional woman wrestler!
Hamida competed against male wrestlers and defeated them too! She even issued open challenge to male wrestlers saying that whoever was the first to defeat her in a wrestling competition would win her hand in marriage. However, no one could defeat her!
Why is Hamida Banu being remembered on May 4?
May 4 is a significant date in her wrestling career as it was on this day in 1954 when she defeated the much-famed male wrestler Baba Pahalwan. Their bout lasted just for one minute and 34 seconds and Hamida won against Baba Pahalwan, after which the Baba Pahalwal retired from wrestling!
She also competed against Vera Chistilin– a Russian woman wrestler– and won in bout which lasted less than two minutes.
Hamida Banu: “Amazon of Aligarh”
Hamida was hugely popular back then and was widely covered by both Indian and international media. So much so that she was also nicknamed the “Amazon of Aligarh”, owning to her exceptional performance.
Hamida was 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 108 kgs, as per reports. A BBC report reads, “Her daily diet included 5.6 litres of milk, 2.8 litres of soup, 1.8 litres of fruit juice, a fowl, nearly 1kg of mutton and almonds, half a kilo of butter, 6 eggs, two big loaves of bread, and two plates of biryani.” While Reuters noted, “She sleeps nine hours a day and trains another six”.
At the peak of her career, Hamida seems to have disappeared from the wrestling scene. As per a BBC report, to stop Hamida from going to Europe her coach Salam Pahalwan once beat her so badly with sticks that it injured her legs and it took years for her to heal. In the later part of her life, she adopted a son and lived in Kalyan, Maharastra, where she made a living by selling milk, renting building, and selling snacks. She lived a difficult life during her last days.
However, “Hamida Banu was a trailblazer of her time, and her fearlessness is remembered throughout India and across the world. Outside of her sporting accomplishments, she will always be celebrated for staying true to herself,” reads a statement by Google.
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