A wrestler in his own right

Imam Bakhsh Pahalwan was a Punjabi wrestler and the brother of Gama, the internationally known wrestler. A historical account of the two athletes describes their participation in a group of wrestlers travelling from India to England in 1910. His career deserves attention in its own right, including the contests and training networks associated with him in Punjab. Spellings of Bakhsh and Pahalwan vary across English-language sources, while honorific titles can be used inconsistently. Histories of wrestling often combine contemporary reporting with later recollection, so particular claims about titles and dates should be checked against the available records.[1]

Wrestling in Lahore

Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran’s history of colonial Lahore describes an Imam Baksh contest with Ghulam Mohiuddin in January 1919 near Bhati Darwaza and another with Goonga Pehalwan in the 1930s. It places wrestling in the city’s public culture, where akharas, promoters, musicians and spectators contributed to events. The account illustrates how a match was also a social occasion; it does not mean that every contest followed an identical format. Dates and identities should be compared with contemporary newspapers, especially where names or titles recur. Lahore’s wrestling history was shaped by many families and institutions.[2]

Family and later memory

A Dawn account of Lahore’s wrestling traditions identifies Imam Bakhsh as Gama’s brother and the father of wrestler Bholu. The report is a later piece of local historical writing, useful for understanding how wrestling families are remembered in the city. Family relationships do not explain an athlete’s achievements on their own: training, opportunities, patronage and competition mattered too. The akhara provided a setting for instruction and relationships among wrestlers across generations. Comparing local memories with tournament reports and sports histories helps preserve Imam Bakhsh’s individual career as well as the wider history of Punjabi wrestling.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Farid Azam, Wrestling-Titles.com. Gama Pehlwan and Imam Bakhsh ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Gama Pehlwan & Imam Bakhsh, opening biographical account. Accessed 2026-11-03.Historical research, institutional account or participant source inspected.Return to A wrestler in his own right, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran. Colonial Lahore: A History of the City and Beyond ↗Written source · Source date: 2017 · Locator: Wrestling in Lahore, printed pp. 95–97. Accessed 2026-11-03.Relevant book passage inspected; authors cite earlier accounts for the events.Return to Wrestling in Lahore, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Majid Sheikh; Dawn. Harking Back: Lahore’s old walled city and its wrestling greats ↗Written source · Source date: 2025-06-01 · Locator: Imam Bakhsh, Gama and Bholu. Accessed 2026-11-05.The publisher’s byline and date were checked. The column’s historical recollections are not independent proof of every wrestling claim.Return to Family and later memory, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-PEO-0287 · English edition · human review not performed