By Prabhjot Singh | Opinion |

Sikhism is the youngest and most rational of the world religions. Although its adherents number just about 20 million, they have excelled in every field of life, including sports.

The Sikh philosophy of sports is beautifully summed up in this great quote from Gurbani :

ਨਚਣੁ ਕੁਦਣੁ ਮਨ ਕਾ ਚਾਉ ॥
nachan kudan man kaa chaau |
They dance and jump around on the urgings of their minds.
ਨਾਨਕ ਜਿਨੑ ਮਨਿ ਭਉ ਤਿਨੑਾ ਮਨਿ ਭਾਉ ॥੨॥
naanak jina man bhau tinaa man bhaau |2|
O Nanak, those whose minds are filled with the Fear of God, also have the love of God in their minds. ||2||

It is this philosophy that is exhibited at various Sikh religious festivals, foremost of which is Hola Mohalla at the birth place of Khalsa, Sri Anandpur Sahib.

On the last day of this annual religious festival, Nihangs, called Guru ki Ladli Fauj, take out a procession – Mohalla – through the streets of the historic town before holding their final show on the sandy bed of Charan Ganga river, which encompasses Sri Anandpur Sahib.

Year after year, they hold a spectacular show of horse riding, performing amazing tricks, besides displaying their skills in tent pegging.

Not many would know that horse riding, tent pegging, gatka (a martial art sport that remains an integral part of Vaisakhi processions or Sikh Day Parades the world over) and Kabaddi (Punjab style) have been sports the Sikhs have been traditionally following. They have taken these traditional sports with them wherever they have gone and settled the world over.

Adventurous as they are, they have immigrated to almost every country of the world and in all such lands they have made their mark. They are known for their spirit of adventure and endurance. Observing them from a close quarter, Bertrand Russell, the renowned philosopher, is reported to have remarked once that if any community survives the nuclear holocaust, it would be the Sikhs.

The Sikhs’ supremacy in all fields of life is rooted in their religion. The Sikh religion is essentially social and preaches the concept of an active life, dedicated to the service of the people, as of supreme religious merit. It strongly denounces a life of recluse or renunciation of social obligations. Its Gurus always laid particular stress on the positive aspects of life and strongly advocated an honest, honourable and humane life based upon the ideas of dignity of labour, mediation on God and welfare of fellow human beings.

They realize that a healthy body is as necessary as a healthy mind. The development of physical culture is, therefore, as much stressed in Sikhism as the elevation of the soul. A life of moderation and morality is religiously enjoined in Sikhism to promote the development of a healthy and happy personality.

Accordingly, therefore, while the Sikh Prophets stressed the need for an ethical life, they also encouraged sports as wrestling, horse riding, archery, lancing, hunting, swimming and some other manly sports. The last of the Sikh Gurus, Guru Gobind Singh, was particularly fond of these sports and right from his days, an annual sports meet is regularly held at Sri Anandpur Sahib, one of the five Takhts of the Sikhs, on Hola Mohalla. He could kill a lion single-handed and could throw at fantastic distances. Nobody could rival him in horse riding, archery, swordsmanship, swimming and some other sports. He humbled the mightiest of the day in these fields and had become the beau ideal of the people.

Lord Cunningham, a noted British scholar and solider, who had the opportunity to watch the Sikhs from very close quarters, referred to the profound effects of the teachings of their holy Prophets on them in these words: “A living spirit possesses the whole Sikh people and the impress of (Guru) Gobind (Singh) has not elevated and altered the constitution of their minds, but has operated materially and given amplitude to their physical frames. The features and external form of a whole people have been modified, and a Sikh chief is no more distinguishable by his stately person and free and manly bearing, than a minister of his faith is by a lofty thoughtfulness of look, which marks the fervour of his soul and his persuasion of the near presence of the Divinity.”

For these very reasons, the Sikhs have always been at the forefront of all spheres of life, including sports.

Of late, India’s most easily recognized community, the Sikhs, have been haunting newspaper headlines. India’s largest and vibrant democracy had Dr Manmohan Singh as one of its longest serving Prime Ministers, and the election of several Sikhs, including women, to the House of Commons in Canada, the community, a minute minority, has been finding more creative outlets to attract global attention. It has been hawking the world’s attention for its meteoric rise in the fields of agriculture, science, education and medicine. Now Sikhs with turbans sit in the House of Commons in Canada and New Zealand, besides India.

If Dr Manmohan Singh has given the Sikhs a respectable identity worldwide for his economic reforms and clean image, this buoyant and adaptable community has devoted the past centenary to finding new ways to express its separate identity – by getting rich. Though the Sikhs could be recognizable as Hassidic Jews, they are certainly far more versatile and less prudish than the rest of their countrymen.

Sikhs are not only one of the most enterprising and mobile communities from the South Asian sub-continent, but also have a global presence. Sikhs and potatoes look inseparable from the human population. So much so that when the first astronaut, Neil Armstrong, landed on the moon for his “small step for man”, the popular gibe goes, he bumped into a group of Sikhs strolling there. They explained they landed there after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.

With a humble origin from a small village – Sheikhupura – in undivided Punjab near the present Indo-Pak border in 1469, Sikhism has come a long way while introducing the concept of voluntarism, equality of sexes, casteless socialist society and the golden principle of “sangat in pangat” – congregation in queues – where every devout has to sit in a queue on floor to partake “langar” – vegetarian food. Also, Sikhism was the first to denounce smoking, besides introducing several scientific practices, including preservation of ecology by growing trees around all places of worship.

Going by the proverbial adage that a Punjabi – whether he is from East Punjab (India) or West Punjab (Pakistan) – can skip anything, including meals, but not a game of Kabaddi, corroborates the emotional bondage that Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular have with this mother sport.

Canada’s Asian community, in general, and the Punjabis, in particular, have been greatly enthused by the holding of major international kabaddi tournaments, including World Cups between April and November every year. These tournaments feature teams from India, Pakistan, England, the USA and other nations. There have been occasions when a team from the Sikhs’ highest temporal authority, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, too added sheen to these tournaments. This is the only team where players with unshorn hair have come out of India to play in an international tournament for the first time.

KABADDI

Kabaddi, though played the whole year, witnesses a series of prize money tournaments in Punjab during the winter months when hordes of game enthusiasts, including players, head for their homeland to exhibit their corporal endowment and skills in outpacing their opponents.

Though an internationally accepted version of the sport is called “National Style” where the playing arena is a much smaller rectangular area, what Punjabis cherish is “Circle Style” or “Indian Style” where a full circle marks the playfield.

Each team is divided into two parts – Raiders and Jaffis (hold backs or stoppers). When a raider from one team enters the territory of the other team, he heads towards “Jaffis”. One of the four Jaffis tries to hold back the “Raider” who keeps on chanting “kabaddi” without a break in his breath. The moment his chant is broken, he is considered dead, and his team loses a point while the team that succeeds in holding him back gets a point.

A blend of athletics, wrestling, gymnastics, and judo, this cheapest team sport with nearly 4,000-year-old history has been serving as a bond between the Punjabi Diaspora with its motherland, Punjab, the land of five rivers, in South Asia.

Though Punjabi claims Kabaddi to be their first love, it is the national sport of Bangladesh, while Iran imported an Indian coach before the 2006 Asian Games and has since then come up as a new force in the sport. The British Army, the British Police and the Irish Army had long been patronising this sport with a regular team.

Since the World Wars saw lots of Punjabis from the then undivided India fighting for the British forces, both in Asia and Europe, the sport travelled with them to different continents. It was one reason that during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, it was included as a demonstration sport.

Though it became a part of the National games in India in 1938, the sport got a major break in 1990 when it was included in the Asian games. But it was the National Style Kabaddi and not the Punjabi Style or Circle Style. Efforts are still on to get this sport included both in the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games.

In 1973, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India was formed, which has since them tried to rationalise the rules and regulations of the game but controls only the National Style. Subsequently, the Asian Kabaddi Federation was also formed.

Going by the popularity and its mass appeal, attempts as early as early 90s were made to hold the World Championships in Kabaddi. It was during this period that Channel 4 in England even ran a couple of documentaries about the origin and popularity of the sport.

In 2009, the Punjab Government introduced the World Cup with prize money. The hosts, India, won the inaugural tournament that featured teams from 12 participating nations, including Iran and Pakistan. The rest of the teams, including those from Canada, the USA, and Spain, comprised only expatriates. A couple of editions of the World Cup followed before they came to an abrupt end.

There was a time when Canada had a Sikh Sports Minister in Bal Gosal. Still, Kabaddi could not get recognition because of huge dissent between various groups claiming to control this “Maa Khed” (mother sport) of Punjabis.

Prabhjot Singh, is a Toronto-based award winning independent journalist, He was celebrated by AIPS, the international body of sports journalists, for covering ten Olympics at its centennial celebrations held at UNESCO Centre in Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games. Besides, he has written extensively about business and the financial markets, the health industry, the public and private sectors, and aviation. He has worked as a political reporter besides covering Sikh and Punjab politics. He is particularly interested in Indian Diaspora and Sikh Diaspora in particular. His work has also appeared in various international and national  newspapers, magazines and journals.

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