Phogat sisters

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Phogat sisters
Aamir Khan's guests at birthday bash for close friends and family.jpg
Phogat family in 2017
Current region Charki Dadri, Haryana, India
Place of origin Haryana, India
Members
Connected members Mahavir Singh Phogat (father)
TraditionsHindu

The Phogat sisters are six sisters from Haryana, India, all of whom are wrestlers. In order of their birth, they are Geeta, Babita, Priyanka, Ritu, Vinesh, and Sangeeta. [1] Geeta, Babita, Ritu, and Sangeeta are daughters of former wrestler and coach Mahavir Singh Phogat. Priyanka and Vinesh were brought up by Mahavir after their father (and Mahavir's younger brother), Rajpal Phogat, died when they were young. [2] Mahavir trained all six of them in wrestling in their home village of Balali in Bhiwani district. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Three of the Phogat sisters, Geeta, Babita, and Vinesh, are gold medalists in different weight categories at the Commonwealth Games, while Priyanka has won a silver medal at the Asian Championships. Ritu is a National Championships gold medalist and Sangita has won medals at age-level international championships. [6] [7]

The success of the Phogat sisters has attracted substantial media attention, particularly in light of prevalent social issues in Haryana such as gender inequality, female foeticide, and child marriage. [8] [9] Chandgi Ram's daughters, Sonika and Deepika, sowed the seeds of encouraging girls to take up women's wrestling in the 1990s; his protege Mahavir Phogat's daughters revolutionised wrestling, and then Sakshi Malik won an Olympic medal, which led to a big change in the mentality towards women wrestling. [10]

Background

Mahavir Singh Phogat is a former wrestler from Balali village in Bhiwani district, Haryana, who became a wrestling coach. His father Man Singh was also a wrestler. Mahavir and his wife Daya Kaur have five children: daughters Geeta, Babita, Ritu, and Sangita, and the youngest being son Dushyant. Mahavir's brother Rajpal's daughters Priyanka and Vinesh were brought up by Mahavir after the death of their father. Phogat family belongs to the Jat community. [11]


Mahavir was inspired to train his daughters in wrestling when weightlifter Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in 2000. He was also influenced by his coach Chandgi Ram, who had taught wrestling to his own daughters. [12] Kaur recollects, "I told my husband not to push the girls into the sport. I was worried about how they will ever get married as pehelwans wearing shorts and cutting their hair!" [13] Regarding the opposition by the villagers against training his daughters, Mahavir said, "Everyone said I was bringing shame to our village by training my girls, but I thought, if a woman can be Prime Minister of a country, why can't she be a wrestler?" [8] Deprived of proper facilities in his village where his daughters wrestled against boys, Mahavir enrolled Geeta and Babita into the Sports Authority of India center in Sonipat. [14]

Details

NameDate of BirthWeight class
Geeta Phogat 15 December 1988 (age 35)62 kg
Babita Kumari 20 November 1989 (age 34)52 kg
Priyanka Phogat 12 May 1993 (age 31)55 kg
Ritu Phogat 2 May 1994 (age 30)48 kg
Vinesh Phogat 25 August 1994 (age 30)53 kg
Sangeeta Phogat 5 March 1998 (age 26)55 kg

The Bollywood film Dangal , released in India on 23 December 2016, is based on the lives of Phogat sisters Geeta and Babita. [15] [16] Wrestler Pooja Dhanda was screened and originally selected to play the role of Babita Phogat in Dangal, which she could not play due to an injury. [17]

Related Research Articles

Charkhi Dadri is a city and the headquarters of Charkhi Dadri district in the Indian state of Haryana, about 90 km from the national capital Delhi. The town was made by joining the villages of Charkhi and Dadri after urban development. Charkhi Dadri is on NH 148B between Narnaul to Bathinda and NH 348B between Meerut to Pilani segment passing through the city.

Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana. Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of three former Haryana chief ministers: Bansi Lal, Banarsi Das Gupta and Hukum Singh. It is located 128 km west of national capital New Delhi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akhara</span> Place of practice for Indian martial artists

Akhara or Akhada is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a sampradaya monastery for religious renunciates in Guru–shishya tradition. For example, in the context of the Dashanami Sampradaya sect, the word denotes both martial arts and religious monastic aspects of the trident-wielding martial regiment of the renunciating sadhus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandgi Ram</span> Indian wrestler (1937–2010)

Chandgi Ram Kaliraman, often referred to as Master Chandgi Ram, was a freestyle wrestler from India. He won gold medal in the 1970 Asian Games and represented India in the 1972 Summer Olympics. Along with amateur wrestling, he was very active in the traditional Indian wrestling, where he had won all major titles, including Hind Kesari, Bharat Kesari, Bharat Bhim, Rustom-e-Hind and Maha Bharat Kesari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrestling in India</span> Overview of wrestling in India

Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in India. Several regional styles and variations in folk wrestling exists in the country. Indian wrestlers have won numerous medals at international competitions in freestyle wrestling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geeta Phogat</span> Indian freestyle wrestler (born 1988)

Geeta Phogat is a freestyle wrestler who won India's first-ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She is also the first Indian female wrestler to have qualified for the Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babita Kumari</span> Indian wrestler (born 1989)

Babita Kumari Phogat is a former Indian professional wrestler and a politician from the state of Haryana. She is a multiple Commonwealth Games medalist, winning the gold medal in 2014 Commonwealth Games, and silver medals at 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games. When she won the 2014 Commonwealth gold medal, she became the second Indian women wrestler to win a Commonwealth gold after Geeta Phogat, who had won it in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pooja Dhanda</span> Indian wrestler (born 1994)

Pooja Dhanda is an Indian wrestler from Budana village of Hisar district in Haryana, who won Bronze medal at the 2018 World Championships at Budapest in 57 kg weight class. She won Silver medals at 2010 Summer Youth Olympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in 60 kg and 57 kg category respectively. The grappler also won a Bronze at the 2014 Asian Wrestling Championship. Pooja has defeated Olympic and World Championship medalists. Government of India honoured her with the Arjuna award for outstanding performance in the field of Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinesh Phogat</span> Indian politician and former wrestler

Vinesh Phogat is an Indian politician and former wrestler, who is a current member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Haryana. She won the 2024 assembly election from Julana constituency representing the Indian National Congress. Previously as a wrestler, she was a multiple-gold medalist of Commonwealth Games, with her wins in 2014, 2018, and 2022.

<i>Dangal</i> (2016 film) 2016 film directed by Nitesh Tiwari

Dangal is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao under Aamir Khan Productions with Siddharth Roy Kapur under The Walt Disney Company India. The film stars Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, a pehlwani amateur wrestler who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to become India's first world-class female wrestlers. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra portray the adult versions of the two Phogat sisters, Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar their younger versions, Sakshi Tanwar their mother, and Aparshakti Khurana adult version of their cousin, Ritvik Sahore his younger version, all of them except Shaikh, Tanwar and Sahore in their film debuts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahavir Singh Phogat</span> Indian amateur wrestler and senior Olympics coach

Mahavir Singh Phogat is an Indian amateur wrestler, senior Olympics coach and politician. He is the trainer and father of the Phogat sisters. The Hindi biographical film Dangal is loosely based on his life.

Balali is a village in the Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana State, India.

Priyanka Phogat is an Indian female wrestler who won a silver medal at the 2016 Asian Wrestling Championships.

Ritu Kumari Phogat is an Indian mixed martial artist who competed in the Atomweight division of ONE Championship. She is also a female wrestler who won a gold medal at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship.

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<i>Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat</i> Autobiography of the Indian amateur wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat

Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat is the 2016 autobiography of the Indian wrestling coach and amateur wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. The book is his official autobiography by Saurabh Duggal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrestling Federation of India</span> Sport governing body

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is the premier governing body of wrestling in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and affiliated to the United World Wrestling (UWW), which makes it the internationally recognized wrestling regulation body of India. Currently headed by Sanjay Singh, the key role of the body is to organize the training and support of wrestlers across India for both domestic as well as international wrestling events. It also regulates wrestling in India as all other state-level wrestling federations across the country fall under its jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haryanvi people</span> Ethnolinguistic group of Haryana

The Haryanvi people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to Haryana in northern India. They speak Haryanvi, a dialect of Hindi, and other similar dialects such as Ahirwati, Mewati, Puadhi, Deshwali, and Bagri. The term Haryanvi people has been used both in the ethnolinguistic sense and for someone from Haryana.

References

  1. ↑ Rajpal, Hina (19 August 2015). "Stories Of Sisterhood: The Phogat Sisters". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Sengupta, Rudraneil (18 August 2016). "The Story Of These Six Wrestler Sisters From Haryana Is What You Should Read Today". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  3. ↑ Gupta, Gargi (10 August 2014). "Meet the medal winning Phogat sisters". DNA India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  4. ↑ Sengupta, Rudraneil (20 September 2014). "Gender: Six ways to break the shackles". Livemint. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Duggal, Saurabh (16 December 2015). "Wrestling league's power puff girls". Hindustan Times Mumbai. Retrieved 18 August 2016– via PressReader.
  6. ↑ Basu, Suromitro (16 May 2016). "An ode to sisterhood: Yet another Phogat sets the benchmark for Indian women's wrestling". Yahoo!. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  7. ↑ Kanthwal, Gaurav (31 July 2010). "But hey, this is family..." The Times of India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  8. 1 2 Udas, Sumnima (28 July 2016). "The Indian female wrestlers breaking taboos and making history". CNN.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Briggs, Simon (26 July 2011). "London 2012 Olympics: Phogat sisters are wrestling superstars in northern India". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  10. ↑ Women’s wrestling in India: Why Navjot Kaur’s gold medal is a watershed moment, Livemint, 31 March 2018.
  11. ↑ "Why getting Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia on board is a major win for Congress". Indian Express. 4 September 2024. Retrieved 6 September 2024. The two wrestlers, who joined the party at the Congress headquarters, are from the Jat community
  12. ↑ Joshi, Sonam (21 October 2016). "Meet Mahavir Singh Phogat, The Fascinating Wrestler Who Inspired Aamir Khan's 'Dangal'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  13. ↑ Agarwal, Stuti (29 August 2016). "Home-Schooling By Mr Phogat". Outlook India. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Biswas, Sudipta (23 December 2016). "Dangal: Who is Mahavir Singh Phogat ?". india.com. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  15. ↑ Basu, Hindol (14 June 2015). "The hero behind 'Dangal'". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  16. ↑ Singh, Sat (9 May 2015). "Aamir Khan to host family of Phogat sisters". The Tribune. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  17. ↑ Once a judoka, Pooja Dhanda wants to win laurels in wrestling, Times of India, 25 February 2018.
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