Introduction To The Book 'Sportsmen Of Punjab (Vol. I)' By Sarwan Singh 

The Punjabis play games with the same vigour with which they plough their fields, watch sports with the same zest with which they join fairs. The Punjab has always been the land of stout hearts and healthy bodies. Since times immemorial, people here have talked of astounding physical feats. Our mythological tales tell of the doughty men who hit the earth with their knees to make water gush out of it, who wrestled with the moon and the sun, and elephants, hurled by them into the sky, never got back to the earth.

The climate of the Punjab and the food its people eat invest men with strength and stamina. Here cool breezes sweep the land as often as the hot dust-storms. The Punjab has rains as also droughts. Here the sultry August heat engenders thoughts of renunciation in the minds of the weeding farmer and the raging dust-storms of June level the mounds. Leave the man who has gone through the cycle of the Punjab's sea­sons anywhere in the world; he will not waver. Give the man, who has digested the Punjab's wheat, butter­oil and cane sugar, anything to eat; he will digest it. That is the reasons why the Punjabis have been to all parts of the world.

The Punjab is the land of prophets, seers and saints. It breeds agile and restless men who delibera­tely plunge into danger. The Punjabis do not like a life of comfort. They abandon arable fields to reclaim barren land; give up homes to venture into unknown climes. They have a strange urge within them, an ineffable trait in their character which never lets them rest. When work does not tire them, they must take to playing. And when they are tired, they still play. Easy games do not regale them, they play vigorous, aggressive games. They also do not take favourably to games, the outcome of which takes long to emerge.

They want quick results regarding victory and defeat. That is why only those western games which involve competition and agility and in which issues are settled instantly have found favour with the Punjabis. A game like cricket which takes six days to be played out does not attract many Punjabis; nor do games like badminton and table-tennis which involve little physical exertion. Hockey and atheletic games have held far greater charm for the Punjabis as a whole. Even though the Punjabis have excelled at the national level in games like volley-ball, foot-ball, basket-ball and rifle-shooting also, these games have not been their forte. It is the victories the Punjabi athletes and players of hockey have won in the Asian and Olympic sports meets that have secured to them a position of pride in the sphere of sports. That would explain why the bulk of the space in this book has been devoted to the Panjabi athletes and hockey-players.

The Punjab's old indigenous sports are wrestling, 'gatka' (fencing with long bamboo sticks in place of swords), 'kabaddi', 'saunchi'. horse-riding, lancing, tug-of-war, log-lifting,¹ weight-wielding, wrist-gripping and somersaulting. Of these sports, wrestling has been the most popular. The Punjab has produced world champions in wrestling. In 1892 A.D., the Punjabi wrestler, Karim Bakhsh, became the world champion by defeating England's Tom Cannon. In 1900, another wrestler of Punjab, Ghulam, accomp­anied Pt. Moti Lal Nehru to Paris and defeated Turkey's Qadar Ali to become the second world champion. There came, thereafter, the renowned Kikar Singh, Gama and Gobar whose prowess was acknowledged by the whole world. Gobar floored Adshanto in San Francisco in 1921 to become the world champion. Before this, in 1910, Gama had, by defeating the well-known Zbyszko. won the title of Rustam-i-Zaman (Rustam of the Times) and proved that the Punjabis have no equals in wrestling. In the 18th century, Muhammad Bakhsh and Khalifa Abd-ur-­Rahim,too, had won the title of Rustam-i-Zaman. The maestro Nur-ud-Din was of course, the acknowledged innovator of the times ; he had evolved no fewer than 361 wrestling tricks.

The roll of Punjab wrestlers· is very very long ineed ! At one time, the wrestling centres of Lahore Amritsar enjoyed the status of the Meccas of wrestling, Apart from the Rustam-i-Hind level wrest­ers like Sahib Singh, Alia, Buta, Kallu, Labhu, Gamun, Mani, Kala, Chhiba, Labh, Ahmed Bakhsh, Amam Bakhsh, Sohni, Gumma, Ganda Johl, Arjan Dhodi, Hamida, Harbans, Puran, Gurdawar, Kesar, Dara Singh, etc., the Punjab has produced Dev-i-Hind (Giant of India) level wrestlers like Chiragh­-ud-Din and Kikar Singh, and Sohrab-i-Hind level wrestlers like Rahim Sultani. One Sadiqa earned the title of Rustam-i-Sohrab and a wrestler named Ramzi won the title of Dehr-ul-Mulakab. Wrestler Ghulam Muhiy-ud-Din was honoured with the title of Aftab-i­-Hind (Sun of India).

In the game of hockey, India reigned supreme in the whole world for years on end till the start of the era of the Pakistani victories in 1958. For the last quarter of a century, the final match in practically all world tournaments bas continued to be played between Pakistan and India. You may well say it has continu­ed to be played between the two Punjabs, Pakistani and Indian. This final match may have been played in Malbourne, or it may have been played in Rome, Tokyo, Jakarta, Bangkok, Tehran or Kuala Lampur, it has been one Punjab against the other. Fifteen to twenty of the twenty-two players in the field being of the Punjabi origin, the language in the field has been "Nuriya dein", "Biriya dein".*