Kushti Wrestling

Kushti Wrestling from John Batdorff II on Vimeo.

Kushti Wrestler (1/250 at f2.8, 70mm at ISO 200)

I’ve been asked several times why I wanted to go to India.   Well, I’m here to tell you one of the major draws was “wrestling.”  Yep, you heard me right,  “wrestling.”  Not images of the Taj Mahal, but instead images of traditional Indian style wrestling called “Kushti.”  I remember first seeing images of “Kushti” on Mitchell Kanashkevick’s website and being fascinated.   Why wrestling?  Let me explain with a little family history.   My 90 year-old great-grandmother, (100% Bohemian if that explains anything) had a late afternoon routine of sitting down, drinking a 7 ounce can of Miller Lite, and watching “Big Time Wrestling.”  I remember being 12 years old and thinking I had the coolest great grandmother alive.  I mean how many 90 year-old grandma’s drink beer and watch wrestling?   Many years later I joined our high school’s wrestling team and did my fair share of flopping around on the mat. I took the district title two years in a row, but it never turned into my life’s pursuit.   Now I want to be perfectly clear….I don’t follow, nor do I have interest in “Big Time Wrestling.” It’s all an act, of course.  However, I can watch straight-up Greco Roman wrestling all day long, and now you can add Kushti to that list.

Moving forward:

I don’t claim to be an expert on India’s culture  (let alone Kushti wrestling) but I can share with you what I was told…  many of the wrestlers that I photographed in India work as dairy farmers, not unlike the farmers in my own hometown.  While some Hindu wrestlers do it for exercise, many more do it in an effort to advance financially.  It was explained to me that while the Caste system is no longer “officially” recognized in India, it’s still very much alive in rural communities.  With this in mind, successful athletes in India have more opportunity than other boys from the same background.  We were joined by a very successful “Kushti” wrestler who later retired from the sport to work for India’s railways, which is a very good job in India, and a step up from dairy farming.

Originally, I had joked that I would love to wrestle with these guys, but that’s back when I thought I was going to be wrestling guys like me—you know, slightly balding…love handles… the typical 40 year old guy.  Well, as you can tell from these photos, these young men are in great shape and take it very seriously.  They don’t wear headgear, nor do they sport a singlet— not to mention a cup!  Some people might look at these photos and try to simplify the sport by calling it  “mud wrestling,” but don’t be confused by our cheap American version.   These  guys are true athletes, competing in a raw environment, and honoring an age old tradition.    Frankly, these guys were some of the nicest folks I met during the whole trip.  I wish I could have spent a day learning more about the sport and of course taking more photos, but time was limited so I guess it will have to wait for a return trip.   I hope you enjoy the video and the photos.

Side notes:

As a way to honor the coach the boys bend down and touch his toes. Don’t worry, I won’t be expecting that of anyone visiting the blog. 

Kajsa and her brother joined me on the trip, and reliable sources have told me Kajsa may have blushed a few times.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 9:59 am. It is filed under Travel and tagged with India, kushti, kusti, wrestling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.