By Diptayan Hazra
New Delhi [India], August 5 : As Season 2 of the Pro Panja League returns with renewed energy, the league's co-founder, Preeti Jhangiani, stands at the heart of this unique sporting revolution, from her early days in Bollywood to now leading the charge for India's first professional armwrestling league.
Speaking ahead of the league's resumption, Jhangiani, who is also the President of the People's Armwrestling Federation India (PAFI) and Vice President of the Asian Armwrestling Federation (AAF), looked back at what drew her into this relatively untapped sport in India.
"Let me say that when I started working in Bollywood, I was very, very young. So, there was no definite focus. Like any young person, you're just going with the flow," she admitted.
"Coming into sport, that was a very conscious decision that Parveen (Dabas) and I took collectively. We already had our company together, which was producing films and everything, but we wanted to get into sports," she added.
"When we had a discussion together, I think we realised that arm wrestling is this sport which is largely undiscovered in India, yet is played at such a large scale. You wouldn't believe that even at an amateur level, arm wrestling was being played for more than 30 years in India," she explained.
"The teams were going for international competitions, the Asian Championships were happening, the World Championships were happening, and nobody knew about it. The athletes had no funds or money. They used to, with great difficulty, find individual sponsors, and even then, when they won medals, there was no press about it, no news, no accolades. Nothing," Preeti said.
"So we realised that this is a sport that firstly is a 'desi', 'Bharat ka khel', 'desi' sport. Every Indian knows about it. The entry level, the financial entry level, is very low to enter the sport. You don't need any special equipment to play. We collectively felt that this sport is waiting to burst into the Indian scene, for sure. We saw potential there for India, with its numbers, to own the sport in the world. We still see that potential in 'Panja', in arm wrestling. So we decided to come up with a league format. We decided to come to 'Panja' and make it into a league format with six teams," she noted.
As the President of the national federation, Jhangiani has personally travelled across India to identify and nurture new talent.
"We have 22 states under us and we make it a point during the district or state championships to attend as many as we can," she said.
"In the last two years, I think we have been to every part of the country, to every state, as many championships as we can attend, finding athletes who have talent but maybe not the resources to get ahead. We try and support and help the athletes wherever we can," she added.
The league has also adopted creative ways to popularise the sport, holding one-day tournaments in front of iconic Indian monuments, blending sport with tourism and entertainment to attract sponsors and state attention.
"In states like Meghalaya, Mizoram, when athletes win medals, they now get cash prizes by the state, even government jobs. Kerala is another state where armwrestling is recognised. When they win medals in international competitions, they get cash prizes, sponsorships or even government jobs," she shared.
"Plus, we're also bringing international competitions to India. This is something we're doing, which allows every Indian athlete to participate with just catching a bus or a train. They don't have to spend huge amounts on travelling to international countries by flight. Practically, the People's Armwrestling Federation India, by bringing these international competitions to India, they allow a large number of athletes from India to attend, thereby increasing, there's so many things now for Indian athletes to aspire to. So they work harder. They have a stage like the Pro Panja League, which they can aspire to. They have international competitions they can go for. They have huge national championships," she noted.
Accessibility is a theme that drives everything the Pro Panja League does, including athlete training. In 2022, they opened their first dedicated armwrestling academy in Gwalior, and since then, similar academies have sprung up across the country.
"So what we've done is, we've tried to open wherever our athletes are. In 2022, we opened our first armwrestling academy in Gwalior, dedicated solely to armwrestling. Since then, armwrestling academies have opened up in various states. Plus, we've provided tables in almost every gym. Plus, wherever we do events, competitions, the table that we take there, we leave it there, but we don't leave it just like that. We leave some of our athletes there. We'll man it. Those who know the rules, those who know how to train the younger athletes and you won't believe there's like, wherever we leave a table, there's a huge crowd that gathers around it and then a lot of kids who get used to it and come regularly for training there around those tables. So, now you'll see armwrestling tables are like a regular feature in so many gyms, even in Bombay, which you would think is a mainstream city in which there would not be that many athletes, but there are athletes from all over the country," said Preeti.
Her contributions were recognised on a continental scale when she became the first-ever female Vice President of the Asian Armwrestling Federation. It was a moment of pride but also a recognition of the work India is putting into the sport.
"What the Asian Federation and the World Federation saw is that India is working tirelessly. The level of production for armwrestling events and how we are glamourising and popularising the sport globally is unmatched," she said.
"A stage like Pro Panja League doesn't exist anywhere else in the world," she said.
"I think they saw all the relentless effort and the work we are putting into, also nurturing athletes and new and new athletes. I think since we've come in, this was the first time that India had a podium finish at the Asian Armwrestling Federation," she added.
"This was the first time that India came second at the Asian Armwrestling Championship. Last year, Abhas Rana won a gold at the World Championships, the first ever for us," she said.
When asked about how her journey can inspire other women in sports leadership, she was honest and refreshingly direct.
"I don't want to give words of inspiration to women. I just want women to get out there and do the work," she said.
"I just want women to get out there and do the work. When you get out there and you do the work and you don't feel encumbered, I think times are changing and families are supporting women all over. I myself have a strong support system because I have my mother, my sister, and my husband. Yes, he's as busy as me, but wherever we can, we support each other. It only works if the woman is treated as equal everywhere, whether it's work or office and it remains for the families and the men also to contribute in that," she noted.
"We fight for our women," she asserted.
"There are many times when we have to actually convince families, convince husbands," she added.
She recalled one incident that perfectly captured the power of sport to shift mindsets.
"One of our athletes from Haryana, her husband was absolutely refusing to let her participate in the league because it meant staying away from family for 17 days. He was telling our Haryana state head, Yogesh Choudhury, 'You're going to spoil my wife, don't take her and don't go,' but eventually, we convinced him," Jhangiani said.
"When she started winning matches and appearing on Sony Sports, he put up a huge screen in his village and called everyone to watch, proudly saying, 'Look, my wife is on screen and look at her and she's winning,' so many such inspiring stories," she added
"One of our female athletes told us, ' I don't have a place to train. I have no gym or anything close by, but I work in my house, and I do all my housework, and look, I'm stronger than anybody else here because of my housework.' So they take pride in their housework and they take pride in whatever work they do," she said.