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Even today, Haryana remains woefully backward in accepting the changing times the modern age is bringing with it. Even today, girls from small towns do not wear jeans because it is still frowned upon. It has one of the worst gender ratios in the country and is infamous for it across the nation.
If it’s so bad today, imagine how bad it must have been 20 years ago. At least today due to the omnipresent internet and smartphones, people at least are aware of how free women are in the other parts of the country. But back then, it was considered shameful for a girl to wear shorts.
And here’s where Mahavir Singh’s struggle against the world started.
By just thinking about his daughters as wrestlers, Mahavir Singh ignited a revolution.
Contrary to what the movie Dangal says, Mahavir Singh always wanted a girl child. It was his wife who wanted a boy. Right here’s where Mahavir Singh stands apart from the conventional Haryanvi male.
When Geeta, his eldest daughter, was just 5, Mahavir decided to introduce her to the world of wrestling – something that was unheard of in his village of Balali in Haryana.
The Phogat family was ridiculed and boycotted by his villagers after they got to know that Mahavir is training his daughters to be wrestlers.
The best response and reactions Mahavir Singh got was ridicule. The villagers made fun of Geeta and Babita. The worst one was where villagers straight up thought Mahavir Singh was a madman. They boycotted him and his whole family. But Mahavir was used to such intimidating situations. During his Dangal years, he had faced opponents twice as bigger than him.
He used to feel intimidated but he always won.
If the villagers made it difficult for Mahavir Singh and his daughters, he didn’t show any compensatory softness in training. It made him train his daughters doubly hard.
“If we lost to the boys in a race or fell weak before them, father would hit us.”
Mahavir’s logic was if his daughters were eating as much as the boys, they should fight just as hard.
“If we faltered, he would hurl what he could at us, but he was also there to embrace us fondly when we did well. We owe much to him.”
Not to mention that there were absolutely no female wrestlers to compete against. So Mahavir pitted them against boys their own age.
It could not have been more brutal. It was also a lesson for the Haryana people. They never saw women as their equal, and now here was a man who was so confident of his daughters that he was willing “to risk their lives” by wrestling with boys.
Geeta and Babita ripped through the male bastion earning respect all around.
And if you thought that his work would be easier now that his daughters are famous wrestlers, hang on, the state sports federation is still there.
The Haryana government did not do anything for its star women wrestlers. They did not help even when Mahavir Singh went to ask them for funds.
But that did not deter Mahavir Singh. He took Geeta and Babita to Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Sonipat center where coaches took the daughters under their wings, and the rest is history?
Not yet. Mahavir Singh did not rest. He built a world class gym in his village with the latest equipment with his own money.
The wrestling mat he used however, was donated to his training center by a nearby college.
“Wrestling mats are expensive and I have written several times to the state government to provide me with one, but nothing has happened,”
So, is it finally time for Mahavir Singh to retire. He has achieved everything any coach and father would dream of. Both his daughters are international gold medallists, he was awarded the Dronacharya award by the government, he has been made the sarpanch by the same villagers who ridiculed him and he finished his training center too.
Nope.
He is training his two other kids – Sangita and Dushyant in addition to his niece Vinesh Phogat. He summons them to the ground at 3 AM sharp and puts them through an unforgiving training session even before the wrestling begins.
Mahavir Singh’s fighting did not end when he stopped wrestling. He fought to make his daughters able. He fought against the most patriarchal society in India. He fought to provide the best for his daughters. Then he fought the sports federation of his state.
He raised the glass ceiling and then his daughters broke it.
Fun fact – He trained Geeta’s and Babita’s male cousins too but they never made it. Ironically in the Phogat family, it’s the women who can hold their own in an Akhada.
Sources – The Times Of India, Hindustan Times
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