Bangle Martial Arts, a lost revered past. (Jobbarer Boli Khela)

The history of the art of fighting in the Indian subcontinent is exceptionally ancient. A predominant number of traditional marital art’s birthplace was in this particular land. Sadly, this old ancient warrior culture was omitted by the buzz of domesticated modern life. We love our comfort now. Martial art is only preserved for B-grade action movies. My passion for martial arts developed from these action movies, which day by day turned into an obsession. This obsession later helped me to shape and change my life in many ways, but that is a story for another day.

Today we are going to talk about our own martial arts. Some of you might raise your eyebrows a bit thinking, “martial arts in Bangladesh?”, Yes, we have our own martial arts, and there are several of them. My first encounter with our traditional martial was very sudden and unexpected. I was in high school and went to my friend’s village with him to pass my winter vacation. One of his plans was to familiarize me with the annual “Boli Khela” event. It was arranged in Cox’s Bazar, Eidgagh. By the name, I suspected it would be some silly traditional game, but boy I was wrong. As soon as, we neared the event premise, we saw a huge crowd gathered surrounding some giant man in shorts. A guy was throwing a whip to keep the crowd under control. By that point, I understood it is some kind of wrestling. When the bell rang, the wrestlers began to wrestle. This particular form of wrestling requires the participants to take down the opponent without any leg trip, only with the strength of the upper body and angle twist is applicable. I found a lot of similarities with Japanese Sumo wrestling. After all the initial bouts, there were two main bouts, for which all the viewers were waiting patiently. One was the championship bout was Champion Didar Boli who will defend his title against another wrestler whose name I forgot. The second bout was against an American Greacko Olympic wrestler, and I am not telling one bit of a lie. I could not believe my own eyes when I saw a big American Grecko Olympic Wrestler walking towards the middle of the wrestling field wearing his red shorts. Didar Boli won, as usual, his championship bout(he never lost), and refused to compete against the American Wrestler, instead of sending one of his trainees. His saying was if the American can defeat my trainee, I will compete with him. Fair enough.

But I had another shock when I saw the trainee,’ he referred. He is a very lanky short guy, fit, but very very short. No one would ever mistake him as a wrestler. Like myself, the American also got offended when he saw his opponent. I don’t blame him.

Then the bout started, and within seconds the first takedown occurred. The American took the lanky Boli player down. Everyone started roaring. What happened? The American tripped him by the leg. Though the American played unfairly, the first round went to him. He was warned not to do it again. The second round started. Now the interesting thing has started to begin. No matter how hard the American wrestler tries to triple or take the lanky Boli player down, he stays very close and tightly attached to the American Wrestler. Very sticky situation. Americans tried all of his techniques trying to pursue a good takedown, but takedown defense of the lanky guy was otherworldly. On that day, I understood the size of your opponent does not matter in a fight if you have the right strategy. The bout went on for another 5-6 minutes. The American got visually frustrated and all of sudden the lanky guy went with a fast twist that tripled the American. I was so happy seeing the defeat of America that day by my fellow Bangladeshi Boli Player.

This was one of the most memorable incidents of my life. I researched a bit regarding this magnificent art form and came to know this was developed in the 19th century by Kader Box to prepare the rebels against the British Occupation. After knowing this, my respect for this art doubled, and I promised myself that one day, I will train in this, and get it the real recognition it deserves. It is still practiced in Chittagong and every year a big event is being arranged in Chittagong.