Today is DARA Singhji’s death Anniversary. My heartfelt richest tributes. His original name was Deedar Singh.
Today is DARA Singhji’s death Anniversary,
My heartfelt richest tributes , He original name was Deedar Singh.
He has been a world famous freestyle wrestler of his time. He won the Commonwealth World Championship in 1959 by defeating former world champion George Guardianka. In 1968, he became the world champion of freestyle wrestling by defeating America’s world champion Lou Thesz. He wrestled till the age of fifty-five and did not see the face of defeat in any one of the five hundred matches. In 1983, he retired honorably from wrestling after winning the last bout of his life.
In the 1960s, his freestyle wrestling dominated the whole of India. Later he entered Hindi stunt films with the famous actress of his time, Mumtaz. Apart from acting in many films, Dara Singh also directed and wrote. He gained immense popularity by acting as Hanuman in the T.V. serial Ramayana. He originally wrote his autobiography in Punjabi, which was also published in Hindi in 1993.
He was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha by Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. From August 2003 to August 2009, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha for a full six years.
Dara Singh came to Singapore in 1947. While there, he won the Malaysian Wrestling Championship in Kuala Lumpur by defeating Malaysian champion Tarlok Singh in Indian-style wrestling. After that, his chariot of victory went to other countries and as a professional wrestler, he returned to his homeland India in 1952, having established himself in all the countries. Coming to India, in 1954 he became the Indian wrestling champion.
After this he toured the Commonwealth countries and also defeated the Oriental Champion King Kong. It is also said about King Kong that Dara Singh had uprooted the hair of King Kong’s moustache. He later received open challenges from wrestlers from Canada and New Zealand. Finally, in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship held in Calcutta, he defeated Canada’s champion George Guardianka and New Zealand’s John D’Silva and won this championship. This is an incident of 1959.
Dara Singh visited all the countries one by one where freestyle wrestling was fought. Eventually, on May 29, 1968, he became the world champion of freestyle wrestling by defeating America’s world champion Lou Thesz. He wrestled for fifty-five years and did not face defeat in any one of the five hundred matches. In 1983, he won the last bout of his life and retired honorably from wrestling, retaining the title of unbeatable wrestler from the hands of the then President of India, Giani Zail Singh.
He was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai after a heart attack on 7 July 2012, but seeing no improvement for five days, he was brought back to his Mumbai residence where he breathed his last on 12 July 2012 at 7.30 am. broke.
I fondly remember watching him often in Chanakyapuri near Chanakya Cinema where today is the Uttarakhand Sadan. This was during eighties the office of late Arjun Dass, metropolitan councillor and close confidante of the then former PM Indira Gandhi and also the chief of wrestling federation of India. Arjun Dass used to organise wrestling championships and, Dara Singh used to regularly visit this office of Arjun Dass conversing with him in an open compound.
Sunil Negi, Gopal Pahadia
