As American as Gatka

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For the first time, the DC Independence day parade will include a gatka display, featuring the Miri Piri Gatka Dal (Texas) and the  Sikh Gatka Akhara (DC).

Gatka is a (the?) “Sikh Martial Art.”  A fighter swings his or her weapon (usually a stick, sword, or chain) in a fast, fluid, circular, flowing motion, while following a set footwork routine called the Panthra.  The result is both visually captivating and quite effective. Stylistically, gatka is more like kendo than fencing. Fencing was developed to train men for one-on-one duels; it’s linear and episodic, concentrating on lunges designed to penetrate armor. Gatka is designed so that one fighter can hold off multiple opponents and it relies upon continuous motion. The two fighting styles are different in all the stereotypical but true ways that East differs from West.

If you can’t make it, you might be interested looking at some video clips. My favorites include this one of a man with two swords, one man fighting multiple opponents, and this video-game style clip of two guys fighting. And yes, women do gatka as well [Windows Media Required].

At first I was concerned that the athletes demonstrating gatka would get a rude reception. After all, they’re swarthy, mainly male, dressed in salvar kameez, wearing round turbans. The men have long flowing beards. And this is the Fourth of July, a time for both patriotism and bigotry.

But I thought about it some more, and relaxed. After all, who would be dumb enough to mouth off to a bunch of Texans swinging swords like airplane propellers? Now that would be un-American.

24 thoughts on “As American as Gatka”

  2. Have they ever shown this in Indian movies? I am not big fan of hindi films so I’m just wondering…

  3. Please visit the definitive site on Sikh Martial Arts and the way of the Nihang:

    Shastarvidiya

    Gatka is a ceremonial derivation of this school.

    In the scriptures Guru Gobind Singh refers to God as a shastar, a sword.

  5. Sluggo, I’ve not seen gatka in any of the Bollywood films I’ve viewed. Here are some reasons why:

    1. Bollywood shies away from all the Indian martial arts (and indeed non-Indian martial arts) b/c if their actors had to spend a substantial amount of time training before each film it would slow down the assembly line.

    2. Bollywood generally shows Sikhs only as buffoons. They’re comic relief, coon style.

    3. Gatka isn’t well known inside India once you get outside of Punjab. After Punjab, the second best place to learn Gatka is probably Germany, where there is a cluster of some highly dedicated teachers. The first two clips I linked to were from Italy and Sweden.

    I don’t think it’s going to happen soon, but I would love to be proven wrong.

  6. There’s supposedly quite a bit of kalaripayattu (the martial art from Kerala) in the upcoming Jackie Chan film ‘The Myth’ i.e the one starring Mallika Sherawat. Hopefully, there’s be more interest sparked off in Indian martial arts after that.

    I trained with a very prominent Taekwondo school in Houston for 5 years, and we were always taught there, by the Korean instructors, that all eastern martial arts originated in India. Perhaps it is time that we reclaim that bit of our legacy which was destroyed by the Brits.

  7. techno-

    you are absolutely right, martial arts for the most part were originated in India. Many of the so called sensei’s don’t even know that which continues to make me laugh like a jolly sardar.

  8. There was a bit of martial arts in Asoka, though it wasn’t gatka:

    What [martial arts] is present, found mostly in sword fights, is well staged and should be of interest to martial arts fans for it’s depiction of Kalarippayat, one of the oldest forms of martial arts in the world. Experts were brought in to train the stars and perform as extras. Indian heartthrob Shahrukh Khan, who plays Asoka performs a fair amount of this style. Most memorable is his use of a “snake sword,” its blade made up of several very long and flexible tendrils that act much like a whip. In another scene he takes on several combatants who all dance around with curved sabers in twirling, fluid motion. [from kung fu cinema]

  10. anyone know if there are any Gatka practitioners in the Chicago area? Or any Indian martial arts schools in the area for that matter? I would sign up instantly. Please help out if you know.

  13. Kind of makes me want to go to DC this weekend to see it…

    I normally avoid these kinds of parades because of the whole nasty comments thing. But it would be fun to see the crowd reaction as a bunch of fighting Texan Sikhs marches past.

  15. I think this is cool to be able to see an ancient art like this in today’s time. I liked the video.

  16. If you actually look at the history of martial arts, most people believe that they developed independently from one another. As for Korean martial artists stating that all martial arts came from India, it is due to two things – the Bodhidharma legend and the fact that there is a lot of bitterness between Korea and China, especially after WWII. Same can be said of Japan and China. Neither side wants to admit that there martial arts came from China so they pick India as it is a neutral country. As for people stating that kalaripayattu is the mother of all martial arts, that seems to be a recent rumor being pushed mainly by kalaripayattu practioners mainly.

    This is from another website that has been discussing this matter:

    “As to kalaripayattu…. There is no association historically between kalaripayattu and shaolin kung fu or any other martial arts. This only came about recently and has been pushed strongly by practitioners of kalaripayattu as an association (i guess to try and generate interest in the art). Unfortunately, the general pracitioners of kalaripayattu are unwilling to admit (although Zarilli’s book and almost all other books on kalaripayattu reference this) that the earliest suggested birth of kalaripayattu is around 11th-13th century a.d. and that the earliest proof of kalaripayattu was from portuguese records in the 16th century a.d. No credible records of kalaripayattu exist before this.

    The association between indian martial arts and chinese martial arts is between the legend of Bodhidharma (an Indian or Central asian monk, depending on the legend you use) who founded the Shaolin temple. The rumor began in the 1600’s A.D. and was written by a Chinese Taoist monk who did not like the Shaolin monks….

    The first explicit association of Bodhidharma and the Shaolin martial arts is made in a text from no earlier than 1624 written by Zining Daoren (literally “Zining, the Taoist”) and it states in the text that Bodhidharma created the exercises that developed into Shaolin quan in a cave in China after staring at a wall for nine years without moving. Between the founding of the Shaolin temple (600A.D.) and 1600A.D. no association has ever been made about Bodhidharma and Shaolin Kung Fu.

    From this legend in the 1600’s A.D., kalaripayattu practitioners and other people have been trying to push that maybe Bodhidharma was a kalaripayattu practioner. If he was a kalaripayattu practitioner, then that must mean that kalaripayattu was created in the 600A.D. and is the progenitor of Shaolin Kung Fu and hence all martial arts! Of course, this disregards the other martial arts traditions in china that go back to before Shaolin kung fu by a few centuries.

    There is physical and written evidence in China that martial arts as practiced by the Shaolin monks predate the 6th century A.D. and that most martial arts in most countries developed to some degree independently of each other. The “Extensive Records of the Taiping Era” record that, prior to Bodhidharma’s arrival in China, monks practiced wrestling for recreation. Shaolin monastery records state that two of its very first monks, Hui Guang and Seng Chou, were experts in the martial arts years before the arrival of Bodhidharma.”

  18. You hit the nail on the head with the sikh sterotype. Which a catch up salt of the earth Punjabi Jat.
    However my boy I must take issue with

    3. Gatka isn’t well known inside India once you get outside of Punjab.

    Gatka is well known and feared here on the shores of United Kingdom of Desi. There are many groups here and they often showcase their skills in public, including in front of Royalty. Though I have to say that there is something very Indiana Jonesish about the bloke on this website Your dear uncleji’s prefered style though is the open handed dance floor clearing drunken bhangra style.

  19. gatka is similiar to capoira and aikido, both of which you use the body’s motion

    if you think about it, when you’re doing bhangra and all of a sudden you feel “chardi javani” — you’re spirit rising, you pretty much are a martial artist at that point

    anyone who’s bhangra-ed and al of a sudden you catch the spirit and you’re flying through your moves, i think thats what gatka teaches you how to do

    but then again, i’ve gatka-ed only a few times and don’t really know how

    but still

  21. how on earth did i manage to miss this?

    After all, theyÂ’re swarthy, mainly male, dressed in salvar kameez, wearing round turbans. The men have long flowing beards. if you as me, i’d rathe have that than oohh let’s be patriotic, have a drink off to loud country music.

  22. I really don’t think gutka should be encouraged.

    What’s that you say? It’s gatka? Well then.

    ========================================

    And why shouldnt it? You’d rather see a silly snake eating chinese man?

  24. Gatka and the related Sikh martial arts is / are beautiful to behold and their continued practice and revival is important to humanity. Same for all of the many other Indian martial arts, they are a vital and primal form of human expression, from which derive many forms of dance and forms of meditation. For example in China Taji or Tai Chi is at it’s core a form of fencing, which becomes a form of active meditation not greatly dissimilar to yoga.

    Speaking of which, most people believe the term ‘fencing’ refers to the kind of linear, stylized olympic-style sport fencing you refer to in your blog. Actually fencing means all forms of self deFENCE with weapons. And interestingly, the actual European martial arts, which just like the Hindu Arts are nearly forgotten to history, are not nearly as different “in the ways that East and West are” as you may have thought.

    Consider the Portuguese Jogu Du Pau, a stick-fighting form remnant from Renaissance Longsword fencing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSDSsereOdg

    Or the ancient German tradition of Dussack fighting http://arma-sfl.com/videos/dusack/meyer-dusack.wmv

    My own groups sparring isn’t nearly as elegant or energetic, but it also springs from a similarly ancient source.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D6Iw7iqzM0

    Peace out!