THE WORLD OF KABADDI
TYPES OF KABADDI
GAMINEE
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RULES
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Cricket and soccer have been popular sports in India since the colonial period. India’s national cricket team competes at the highest international level. Soccer is popular in eastern India. In central India men play a traditional Indian team sport, kabaddi, that requires quickness and strength. The oldest sport, one that goes back to the time of the Hindu epics, is freestyle wrestling. Wrestling clubs, presided over by a guru, feature a regimen of Hindu religious ritual and practice.

There are a number of traditional games played mainly by men. These include chess, which originated in India, and pachisi, which literally means “twenty-five,” after the number of spaces moved in one throw of the dice in the original Indian game. Card games also are common as is gambling.

Kabaddi is primarily an Indian game. Nothing is known for certain about the origin of this game. It requires both power and skill. It is quite simple and inexpensive and requires neither a big playing area nor any equipment. The game is very popular and regular Kabaddi Tournaments are held now. Its rules have been formulated and refined. Kabaddi was one of the demonstration games played at the time of Asiad 82.

This game is also known by other names like Hu-Tu-Tu, Hadudu, Chhu Kit Kit and of course, Kabaddi. There are two teams, each with twelve players. The main objective of this game is that each side tries to make as many players of the opponent's team out as possible. Finally, the team that has more players left wins.

In the process of eliminating the opponents, one member of the raiding team goes into the opposite camp, holding his breath and chanting a particular tune (like " kit kit kit kit" or "hu tu tu hu tu tu") His aim is to touch as many opponents as possible. Each person, whom he touches, becomes 'out'. However, if in the process, he gets caught by the opponents and loses his breath, he goes 'out'. But, if he manages to hold his breath long enough to drag himself across the mid-line and into his own side, all those who were catching him become 'out.' The two teams raid one another alternately; one member venturing forth at one time.

Indians with leisure time and money, such as the middle class, go to the cinema, or increasingly watch television. During school holidays families may visit relatives or go briefly to hill resorts where it is cooler. In rural areas, slack times in the agricultural cycle allow families to go on pilgrimage or attend weddings, which include much feasting. India has many religious festivals, which provide occasions for even more feasting and conversation, perhaps accompanied by music or a dance or folk theater performance.

India, officially Republic of India (Hindi Bharat), country in southern Asia, located on the subcontinent of India. It is bounded on the north by Afghanistan, China, Nepal, and Bhutan; on the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and the Bay of Bengal; on the south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mann?r (which separates it from Sri Lanka) and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan. India is divided into 28 states and 7 union territories (including the National Capital Territory of Delhi). New Delhi is the country’s capital.

The world’s seventh largest country in area, India occupies more than 3 million sq km (1 million sq mi), encompassing a varied landscape rich in natural resources. The Indian Peninsula forms a rough triangle framed on the north by the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, and on the east, south, and west by oceans. Its topography varies from the barren dunes of the Thar Desert to the dense tropical forests of rain-drenched Assam state. Much of India, however, consists of fertile river plains and high plateaus. Several major rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Indus, flow through India. Arising in the northern mountains and carrying rich alluvial soil to the plains below, these mighty rivers have supported agriculture-based civilizations for thousands of years.

With more than 1 billion inhabitants, India ranks second only to China among the world’s most populous countries. Its people are culturally diverse, and religion plays an important role in the life of the country. About 83 percent of the people practice Hinduism, a religion that originated in India. Another 12 percent are Muslims, and millions of others are Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. Eighteen major languages and more than 1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken in India.

The Indian economy has also evolved since independence. Once heavily dependent on agriculture, it has expanded in recent years into the realms of industry and services. Economic reforms in 1991 dramatically altered economic policy to privatize state-owned enterprises and to promote competition and investment. The economic focus of the country has since changed from one based on self-sufficiency to one based on trade with other countries.

India’s people inherited a civilization that began more than 4,500 years ago, one that has proven capable of absorbing and transforming the peoples and cultures that over the centuries have come to the subcontinent.