Patronised by the Marathas and the Peshawas, the game of kabaddi was in fact demonstrated
before Adolf Hitler and the Germans during the 1936 Berlin Olympics by a team of players
from the Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal (HVPM), Amaravathi, wherein Dr. S.K. Kane
delivered a lecture on the 'System of Indian Physical Culture'. Dr. Kane's speech and the
description given therein of the game is the first historical document of the game
published in the Olympic Congress Report of the year 1937.
A second international demonstration of the game was organised by HVPM at the Olympic
student and youth camp, Munich in 1972 and also during the Olympic Games. Played in
different parts of India under different versions, viz., Hu - tu - tu, Chedu Gudu, Gudu
Gudu, Do Do, etc., kabaddi is among the very few sports where a player has to literally
hold his breath while repeating the chant during play. The game envisaged as the torch
bearer of Indian culture carries the underlying message of 'physically fit, mentally alert
and morally correct'. Though Maharashtra is considered the 'Mecca' of kabaddi because of
its immense popularity in that state, a national-level kabaddi tournament is reported to
have been conducted at Bangalore in 1946.
Recognised by the Indian Olympic Association as a sport in 1938, the Amateur Kabaddi
Federation of India was formed in 1950 with Mr. S.S. Dhawan as the first general secretary
and the first national championship for men held in Madras in 1952. The first national
championship for women was held in 1955 at Calcutta. The first national junior
championship for boys was held in 1974 at Asansol and for girls in 1976 at Amaravathi. The
first national subjunior championships for boys and girls were introduced at Bhilai in
1983. The first zonal championship was conducted in 1977 and the Federation cup for men
and women introduced in 1981 at Coimbatore. Kabaddi in post-Independent India, however,
owes a lot to the former Union Defence Minister, Sharad Pawar, who was the president of
the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, as also Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation, which
was formed in May 1978.
Sharad Pawar and his dedicated band worked hard not only for popularising the game in
India, but also for making kabaddi a game of international repute. So much so, kabaddi has
become a part of the Asian Games movement. Ever since Kabaddi has been a great solace for
Indian sports as this one event in which the Indians have been winning gold medals
consistently.
Finding a mention in famous Kannada poet Pampa's 'Bharata', kabaddi has now become popular
in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Singapore, where Indian coaches have been
deputed to spread the game. Bangladesh, in fact, has declared kabaddi as a national game.
Professor Sunder Ram, an exponent of the game, visited Japan and Sri Lanka in 1979
followed by trips abroad by two men's and women's teams in 1981, which visited Singapore,
Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila and Japan. The idea behind the tours was to popularise the game
in the above countries through demonstrations.
The rules for the game were initially formulated by the Akhila Maharashtra Sharirika
Shikshana Mandali in 1928.
Apart from Sharad Pawar, T. Rajagopalachari, A.K. Saha, Omkar Prasad and Shankar Rao Salvi
dedicated their lives for the growth of the game at the national level, while at the state
levels kabaddi gained a lot of impetus due to the efforts of Gautam (Delhi), Gehlot
(Rajasthan), P.K. Walanj (Gujarat), Prabhakar Rao (Andhra), G.P. Nair (Kerala), Abdul
Razak (Tamil Nadu), Chandra Mouli (Karnataka), Ramesh Desai (Goa), Agrawal (Uttar
Pradesh), Mangal Singh (Bihar), Nandi (Indian Railways), S.B Patil (Vidharbha) and H.S.
Bullar (Punjab), who devoted over a decade for the cause of the game.
The evolution of the chant 'kabaddi' itself is steeped in mystery. According to one school
of thought, the chant could have evolved from the Hindi phrase, 'kaun bada' meaning who is
bigger or rather better in terms of agility. India has been the dominant force in the
Asian level championships, which have been held in Calcutta (1980), Bombay (1984), Jaipur
(1990) and Vijayawada (1992). The first 'goodwill' tour of an Indian kabaddi team was to
Bangladesh in 1974. And the first Test match in kabaddi was against Bangladesh in 1979 at
Calcutta. While India's first official participation abroad was in the 1985 South Asian
Federation Games at Bangladesh, the first international kabaddi tournament was organised
by the Hindmatha Sports Club in Bombay in 1993.
The honour of representing India at the III International Youth Festival in Moscow as an
individual invitee went to a kabaddi player for the first time in 1957. And the person to
receive this honour was Datta Milap of Maharashtra. Kabaddi has also been introduced as a
subject of Study at the Sports Authority of India's NIS Southern Centre, Bangalore.
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