Jatindra Charan Guha

Jatindra Charan Guha (13 March 1892 – 2 January 1972), popularly known by his ring name Gobar Guha, was an Indian professional wrestler trained in pehlwani wrestling. Guha spent most of his career wrestling internationally, defeating champion wrestlers Wladek Zbyszko, Renato Gardini, Ad Santel, and Joe Stecher. By defeating Santel, he became the first Asian to win a World Wrestling Championship in the United States.

Early life

Guha came from a family of wrestlers. The Guha family had been known for pioneering, promoting and popularising the art of pehlwani and physical culture in Bengal, for generations. His great-grandfather had set up an akhara at Masjidbari Street. His forebears included the legendary Ambu babu, and Khetu babu, who tutored Swami Vivekananda in the finer points of wrestling.

Career Guha embarked on a professional career in wrestling in 1910 at the age of eighteen. He debuted against Navrang Singh, the court wrestler of the Maharaja of Tripura, but he did not take any money. Next he defeated Jimmy Campbell, the highest-ranked wrestler of Scotland. His next bout was against Scottish strongman and wrestler Jimmy Esson of Aberdeen, who was described by the great strongman and wrestler Georg Hackenschmidt as 'the Scotch Giant'. Esson was at the receiving end throughout the fight and in the end resorted to illegal boxing punches. Guha defeated Esson, but was not given the championship as he was not British.

After World War I, Guha went on a third tour of Europe and the United States from 1920 to 1926. Some of this matches during this tour included:

4 April 1921: defeated Joe Schultz, Chicago Coliseum, 13 minutes 26 April 1921: defeated Mortimer Henderson, Boston, 13 minutes and 8 seconds 10 May 1921: defeated Tommy Draak, Buffalo, 27 minutes 11 May 1921: defeated Bob Wilkie, Buffalo, 12 minutes 15 May 1921: defeated Farmer Bailey, Chicago, 15 minutes 20 June 1921: defeated Wladek Zbyszko, St. Louis 25 June 1921: defeated Renato Gardini 7 September 1921: defeated , Wichita 27 October 1921: defeated Joe Stecher, Convention Hall, Kansas City, 1 hour and 17 minutes 29 December 1921: defeated John Granovitch, Chalmers Garage, Tennessee

During this tour, he fought the bout of his lifetime against catch wrestler and former World Light Heavyweight Champion Ad Santel on 24 August 1921 at the Coliseum in San Francisco. Billed for the "World Wrestling Championship", Guha defeated Santel after an hour. He became the first Asian to win a professional wrestling world championship in the United States.

In a following bout he was pitted against the famous Ed 'Strangler' Lewis. Lewis first tried his famous headlock on Guha but to little effect. After a few rounds, Lewis managed to floor Guha once, but the latter soon returned the compliment. Both fighters had registered two falls each, when Lewis resorted to foul play by hitting Guha with a boxer's punch. When the referee overlooked this offence, Guha turned to the judges to remonstrate, but at this moment, Lewis floored Guha with a resounding thump, causing him to hit his head on the boards and lose consciousness.

In 1929, Guha fought another memorable fight against the younger Gama at Park Circus, Calcutta in a bout that has since passed into the folklore of Indian wrestling. After a stirring fight which showcased all the moves of Indian wrestling, the older Guha finally lost on a technicality. The akhara that was established by his ancestors at Masjidbari Street was reincarnated by Gobar Guha at Goabagan in 1936. Gobar Guha retired from professional wrestling in 1944.

Legacy Gobar Guha developed his own style of wrestling with influences from catch-as-catch-can and Greco-Roman wrestling, which took Indian wrestling to new heights. His style included his wrestling holds like , , , , , pat, and which later became a part and parcel of Indian wrestling. He was famous for vicious chops known as . His achievements and success inspired Bengali Hindus to take up wrestling as a career which was seen as the traditional bastion of Muslims.

Not only wrestlers but the famous body builders like Manohar Aich and Monotosh Roy were inspired by his successes. His own disciples included his son Manik and his students Banamali Ghosh, Jyotish Charan Ghosh and Biswanath Dutta. His followers observed his birth centenary in 1992.

Goabagan Street in North Kolkata has been named Gobar Goho Sarani in his honour. His statue was installed and unveiled at the Azad Hind Bagh in 1996 by the then Governor of West Bengal, Late Raghunath Reddy. His akhara Gobar Goho's Gymnasium currently runs in Kolkata. The nearest prominent landmark is the Scottish Church College.