A bout for equality

Gaurav Kanthwal

Mahavir Singh Phogat has now become a household name in India, but there are many facets of his life which are still unknown. Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat by Saurabh Duggal takes a closer look at the life of a father-coach whose single-minded pursuit was to turn his daughters into wrestling champions. There is an even more important underlying theme of gender equality in society. 

As the coach of six international wrestler girls, he is a hard-taskmaster. He is unconventional in his approach and is headstrong. Phogat’s belief that his girls are no lesser than boys is enough for him to bulldoze his way through the patriarchal society in Haryana. The desire to see his girls win an Olympics medal fuels his drive to work incessantly on girls.

To achieve his goal, the former wrestler pushes kids of his extended family, even a seven-year-old, to the mud pit (akhada) dug up in the courtyard of his house. Then follows a torturous regimen day-in and day-out. Phogat trains the girls with the boys of same weight category. He takes them to village dangals, and pits them against boys amidst the glare of disapproving men. As studies begin to infringe in girls’ training, Phogat, in a bold move, pulls them out from a private school and gets them enrolled in a government school. 

Not satisfied with their fitness levels, the Dronacharya awardee gets a 400-metre mud track made on a leased land.  When he is not training the kids, he keeps a tab on the tractor-trolleys in the village, which often destroy the track. 

During the rainy season, to ensure that training sessions remain uninterrupted, he vacates the drawing room (baithak) and converts it into a makeshift wrestling hall.

Akhada is the story of a wrestler-father who wants to realise his dream of winning a medal at the world level through his daughters even though the society considers it an act of defiance. Phogat’s young years as an average wrestler, his stint with Haryana State Electricity Board and then with BSF, has been intimately described.

The 219-page book also notes that the Balali strongman, besides dabbling in local politics, has also seen the dark side of the realty business. In 1992, Phogat and an acquaintance were arrested and sent to judicial custody on the charges of murder in a land dispute. He was acquitted by the district and sessions court at Bhiwani after 11 months.

The book is not a biography in conventional terms but more of a tale of an extraordinary man in his own words. However, the book has played down some basic information such as the date and place of birth of its biographical subject.