On April 3, 1914, a crowd of five-hundred gathered at the Dominion Hall on Main Street, Vancouver for a wrestling match. The matchup had been splashed across newspapers in British Columbia in the weeks leading up to the main event – Pat Connolly of Ireland was to face Dalbagh Singh of Punjab, with a wager on whether the Irishman could pin Singh down twice within an hour. The purse was set at two-hundred dollars.1 Among the five-hundred spectators, “one-third” were fellow Indians, who a Vancouver Daily World reporter described as “dusky, turban-topped mat fans.”2
This story comes to us by way of The Hindustanee, the official publication of the United India League, a Vancouver-based organization founded by revolutionaries Taraknath Das and Guran Ditt Kumar that aimed to protect the rights of Indian workers in Canada.3 The Connolly vs. Singh
match managed to grace the front page of the fourth issue, which was a change from the more explicitly political fare that the newspaper published. To give the newspaper (and fight) some context, the same issue included news of Gadar Party-founder Har Dayal's arrest in California, as well as editorials on "Asiatic immigration" and the "Woman Problem in India." Two months later, The Hindustanee extensively covered the Komagata Maru affair in the Vancouver harbor, with a cover image of Bhai Gurdit Singh and passengers aboard the S.S. Komagata Maru.4The Hindustanee provided a few details about Dalbagh Singh. He came from Raipur Dubba in Punjab, and had secured several titles in Punjab. Connolly, on the other hand, was described as a "home ruler Irishman," and "well-known grappler in the city." Profiles of both Singh and Connolly's profile were featured on the cover; and with captions deeming the two wrestlers as the champions of India and Great Britain, the stage was set for a colonial rumble.5
The match, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype. After a minute of sizing one another up, Connolly produced a “lightning-like shift” and got behind Singh, executing a series of moves – a "hammerlock," a "half nelson," and a "bar arm" -- which might mean more to a seasoned wrestling fan. Connolly had pinned Singh to the floor, before four minutes had passed. The Vancouver Daily World described the rest of events, which unfolded even more rapidly:
The second fall came even quicker as Singh still seemed to be in a daze. Anyway, he literally fell for one of the simplest tricks... – a trick that must have originated away (sic) back about the time that Jacob had his all-night catch-as-catch-can handicap match with a number of angels. Pat and the Hindoo sparred for a couple of minutes before Connolly worked in closer and got a quarter-nelson while still in a standing position. A quick sidestep to get a backheel, which was almost simultaneous with a flying cross buttock, sent Singh heavily to the mat with Connolly on top of him and both of the Hindoo’s shoulders down as flat as a pancake. Time, three minutes.The wrestling match between Connolly and the Hindoo had drawn to a close, far more quickly than anticipated. Singh got up from the mat, and “greeted his conquerer (sic) with a somewhat sickly smile.” Meanwhile, Connolly gave the crowd a fifteen-minute long
exhibition for fans who had expected a longer show.1. "Connolly to Meet a Hindoo Wrestler." Vancouver Daily World 11 Mar. 1914: 12.
2. "Hindoo Wrestler is Very Easy for Connolly." Vancouver Daily World 4 Apr. 1914: 10.
3. See Johnston, Hugh J.M. The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar. Vancouver: UBC Press: 26., and Singh, Jane. "The Gadar Party: Political Expression in an Immigrant Community." Asian American Studies: A Reader. Eds. Jean Yu-Wen Shen Wu and Min Song. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press, 2004: 35.
4. See Komagata Maru: Continuing the Journey
5. While wrestling matches during this period were not the staged spectacles that took hold of the sport by the 1950s, these matches still seemed to embody a racial, colonial, and even immigration spectacle. Connelly, for instance, would eventually face other wrestlers like Demetral “the Greek,” Yousiff Hussane “the terrible Turk,” Yankee" Rodgers and the world champion, August John Schoenlein, better known as simply "Americus."
