Enter the Dangal: Travels through India's Wrestling Landscape

Rudraneil Sengupta | Published By: Harper Collins India/ Harper Sports

Wrestling, kushti, rules the farmlands, as it has for centuries. It had pride of place in the courts of Chalukya kings and Mughal emperors. It was embraced by Hinduism and its epics, and has led its own untroubled revolution against the caste system. The British loved it when they first came to India, then rejected it during the freedom struggle. No, wrestling has never been marginal – even if it is largely ignored in modern-day narratives of sport and culture. Enter the Dangal goes behind the scenes to the akharas that quietly defy urbanization. It travels to villages and small towns to meet the intrepid women who fight their way into this ‘manly’ sport. Beyond the indifferent wrestling associations and an impervious media is an old, old sport. Enter the dangal, and you may never leave. HarperCollins/Harper Sports; pp.276; Rs 350.

https://harpercollins.co.in/book/enter-the-dangal/