Abstract :
This paper investigates the sudden decline that has befallen Pehalwani, the traditional wrestling practice that has prevailed in South Asia, via a case study on the City of Wrestlers, which has long been recognized as such, and in which the city of Gujranwala, found in Pakistan, still thrives. A practice which represented a soil in which physical prowess, goodness, and social belonging could be developed within the earth pit stadiums of the akharas, Pehalwani teeters on the edge of its disappearance from its native soil. Historical research and qualitative approaches, including biographical research focused on their heroes such as Rahim Baksh Sultani Wala, demonstrate that no natural process has caused the end that Pehalwani faces. The loss of patronage from royalty and aristocratic classes, as a result of colonialism, resulted in the loss of its economic base, and the contemporary socio-economic conditions made the wrestler’s costly and selfless lifestyle inconceivable. Moreover, westernization, sports mania, and lack of government support pushed the “akhara” system to the margins even further. This paper contends that “Pehalwani’s” decline signifies more than simply the death of a sport; rather, it symbolizes “the destruction of a special school of character, and something which stands for community’s own intangible heritage as well as something which symbolizes community’s own intangible culture.” This paper concludes that what’s left can only be salvaged with government and social acknowledgement and recognition, as well as incorporation within educational systems, of this intangible cultural asset.