Lathi Khela
লাঠি খেলাBengali combat and display art with the bamboo stick lathi. Lathiyals served as the armed force of landowners. Today lathi khela is on Bangladesh's national heritage inventory.
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About Lathi Khela
Lathi khela is a Bengali combat and display art with the bamboo stick lathi, literally a game with a stick. Bangladesh's national inventory of intangible heritage lists it under the names lathi-khela, lathi-bardi, sardar-khela and nurdi-khela and calls its practitioners lathiyal. We have not found a founder or a year of origin. According to the encyclopedia Banglapedia, the lathiyals were a special social group in pre-British and British Bengal who made their living fighting with a special bamboo stick. According to it, every zamindar and taluqdar kept an army of lathiyals led by jamadars, mridhas and sardars. The lathiyals settled disputes between zamindars, punished rebellious peasants, and guarded and escorted couriers with money. According to Banglapedia, their role declined from the sixties of the 19th century with police reform, and with the abolition of the zamindari system in 1951 they lost their livelihood. According to Banglapedia, lathi khela became a very popular folk game in the 19th century. According to the national inventory, Gurusaday Dutta brought the art back to prominence with the Bratachari movement, which he founded in 1932. According to the inventory, it is still practised, but almost without support, and the country's only organization of lathiyals, Bangladesh Lathiyal Bahini, held a festival in Kushtia in 2016.
History
According to the encyclopedia Banglapedia, the lathiyals of pre-British and British Bengal were a distinct rural social group who made their living fighting with the specially prepared bamboo stick lathi. A lathiyal sold his skill to landlords and others for payment in kind or in money, and according to Banglapedia he must not be confused with the barkandaz, a lathiyal formally appointed by the local authorities. Every zamindar and taluqdar kept an army of lathiyals, led by jamadars, mridhas and sardars, more strategists and teachers than fighters, who were rewarded with service land. Lathiyals settled disputes between zamindars, punished rebellious peasants, served as guards and escorted officials carrying money to the treasury. According to Banglapedia, every indigo planter also kept lathiyals.
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Their role declined from the sixties of the 19th century, when the police were reorganized, in the seventies a village police of chowkidars was introduced and many former sardars of the lathiyals became chowkidars. With the abolition of the zamindari system in 1951 the lathiyals lost their livelihood as a class, but according to Banglapedia they continue in altered form in remote areas under the protection of the rural upper classes. The Bangladesh national heritage inventory states that in medieval Bengal lathi khela was a highly skilled art, because most feudal lords employed groups of lathiyals to defend their estates. According to the inventory, Gurusaday Dutta, a colonial official, brought the art back to prominence with the Bratachari movement, which he founded in 1932 to protect regional culture.
How it differs
According to the Bangladeshi national inventory, lathi khela is also called lathi-bardi, sardar-khela and nurdi-khela. According to Banglapedia, lathiyals performed practice bouts between groups at social festivals, including the punya festival at zamindars' offices. In Martial Arts of the World, Green mentions lathi only as an Indian police stick about five feet long, which in his view shows considerable influence of the long-stick techniques taught to police in the United Kingdom, the USA and India.
Technique
According to Banglapedia, the lathi was a cudgel, usually of male bamboo, sometimes shod with iron rings in short sections. According to the International Centre of Martial Arts under UNESCO auspices (ICM), sticks are usually of bamboo or rattan and slightly longer than the practitioner's height. ICM also mentions the stick-twirling technique banethi. According to the daily The Daily Star, trainer Mohammad Kabirul Islam demonstrated the forms ashor bondona, dolathi and upar nichey in 2010.
Competition
According to the Bangladesh national heritage inventory, the Bangladesh Lathiyal Bahini association held a two-day festival at a government college in Kushtia in January 2016, with 500 lathiyals from 25 groups from districts such as Narail, Jhenaidah, Pabna, Natore, Meherpur, Chuadanga and Jashore. The Daily Star wrote in December 2010 about a camp at a stadium in Kushtia, where a thousand lathiyals from fifty groups from various districts gathered, including several women. According to the same paper, the Cholo Lathi Kheli project was to culminate in a nationwide event on Bengali New Year, 14 April 2011.
Today
The Bangladeshi national heritage inventory lists lathi khela in Kushtia district as a traditional martial art with bamboo lathi sticks. According to the inventory, it is still practised, but with little or no support and almost no systematic preservation of knowledge. For most lathiyals it is a side income, and they come mainly from marginal groups such as landless people, carpenters, bier bearers and bricklayers. According to the inventory, a woman, Monjurin Sabrin Chowdhury Ruponti, whose reputation spread in 2016, also stands out as a lathiyal. According to The Daily Star, the project Cholo Lathi Kheli to support lathi khela was organised in 2010 by the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and the Shadhona centre. Lubna Marium of Shadhona then said that the popularity of the art was declining. The International Martial Arts Centre ICM states that lathi khela is usually practised by men, but in Narail near the Indian border women have joined too, and that performances are accompanied by music.
Did you know
According to Banglapedia, the word lathi is Prakrit, with the Sanskrit form yasti, stick. According to it, proverbs in all South Asian languages, Bengali included, say that law or power belongs to whoever holds the lathi. According to Banglapedia, the most sought-after, and so the dearest to hire, were the lathiyals from Bakarganj and Faridpur.
Frequently asked questions
Who were the lathiyals?
According to Banglapedia, a special social group of rural Bengal who made their living fighting with the bamboo stick lathi. They served the zamindars as an armed force and guard.
Is lathi khela on the national heritage inventory?
Yes. Bangladesh's national inventory of intangible heritage lists it in Kushtia district as a traditional martial art with bamboo lathi sticks.
Where is lathi khela practised today?
Bangladesh's national inventory lists it in Kushtia district. The association Bangladesh Lathiyal Bahini held a festival there in 2016 with 500 lathiyals.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.