Who is Hamida Banu featuring as doodle on Google home page?
Google on Saturday decorated its home page with a colourful doodle of Hamida Banu, believed to be India’s first female wrestler, to celebrate her victory in 1954 on this day against famous wrestler Baba Pahalwan.
Mumbai: Google on Saturday decorated its home page with a colourful doodle of Hamida Banu, believed to be India’s first female wrestler, to celebrate her victory in 1954 on this day against famous wrestler Baba Pahalwan.
Open Challenge
Hamida Bau - then in her early 30s, came to limelight after she issued an open challenge to all male wrestlers, wagering her hand in marriage to whoever defeats her in February 1954.
"Beat me in a bout and I'll marry you."
Soon after the announcement, Banu defeated two male wrestling champions - one from Patiala in northern Punjab state and the other from Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the eastern West Bengal state, according to BBC.
In May, she reached Vadodara in Gujarat for her third fight of the year where she was supposed to fight Chhote Gama Pahalwan, a wrestler patronised by the Maharajah of Baroda. Chhote Gama however withdrew from the fight at the last minute, saying he wouldn't fight a woman.
So Hamida Banu fought her next challenger, famed wrestler Baba Pahalwan. It was May 03, 1954. Hamida Banu defeated Baba Pahalwan in just 1 minute and 34 seconds.
Baba Pahalwan quit wrestling after the defeat while Hamida Banu’s career expanded to international arenas and her victories reported across the globe.
Hamida Banu Family History
Banu was born into a family of wrestlers in the early 1900s near Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. She grew up wrestling, winning over 300 competitions througut her career that spanned the 1940s and 1950s at a time when women’s participation in athletics was strongly discouraged.
Banu’s success in international matches gained her further acclaim. One of these matches was the one against Russian woman wrestler Vera Chistilin, who she defeated in under two minutes, according to PTI.
Having made newspaper headlines for years, Banu, who weighed 108kg and was 5ft 3in tall, came to be known as the “Amazon of Aligarh”.
“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,” according to BBC.
Reuters noted that she slept for nine hours and trained for six.
A “trailblazer of her time,” Banu not only fought fellow wrestlers but the norms of her times.
“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,” Google’s note read.
Interesting, Hamida Banu's namesake "Hamida Pahalwan" was a Pakistani wrestler. He was the former Rustam-i-Hind and one of the elite champions of the British era.
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