Change is inevitable

Public opinion in these times is veering away from blood sports. Nothing, for example, is heard these days about pig-sticking... Even fox-hunting, for long a traditional sport in Britain, has come in for criticism. How does change in mindset come about?... Change or evolution in every sphere, whether slow or quick, is inevitable.For Emperor Ashoka, according to history, legend and lore, the battle of Kalinga was an epiphany; he changed from a warrior king to an apostle of peace, piety and morality.

Comparison and competition -- not unrelated in concept -- in most areas of activity and endeavour, are perhaps ingrained in the human psyche. It is not enough for some to excel in absolute terms only; excellence must also be relative to others. It is a plausible enough contention that competition brings out the best in an individual. As Andrew Carnegie -- who began life as an impoverished Scottish lad working in a cotton factory in Pennsylvania for two cents an hour and went on to become one of the biggest names in US steel -- put it, while the law of competition "may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department."

There is, to be sure, a downside also. Comparisons, it has been asserted in different languages and by the likes of Swift, Shakespeare, Donne and Cervantes, are odious. And competition of the "devil take the hindmost" variety has much that is patently undesirable. Indeed there is the view that if excessive pressures to excel relative to others are eased, an individual may just as easily achieve his or her potential by a less exacting process and with greater equanimity of mind. Bertrand Russell, I believe, at one time had tried to set-up an avant-garde school for children to study and learn without having to compete. In sports or athletics, of course, the elements of competition or comparison are inescapable. Performance in such areas can only be measured against some criteria or individual.

Gladiatorial contests of yore epitomized competition and comparison at its most intense and for the highest stakes possible. These were a form of entertainment of those times.The sight and smell of gore and violence -- as gladiator fought gladiator or when gladiators engaged in mortal combat with fang and claw -- were a lure rather than repugnant. On films such themes or contests are still popular. Recent movies like Gladiator -- more quasi-history perhaps than fact -- received critical as well as popular acclaim and picked up a few awards as well.

Most blood sports, such as dog fights, bull fights, fox-hunting, cock-fights and pig-sticking, though increasingly limited in practice and in decline, are not without their adherents, to whom these are a sport with a long and honourable tradition. Opponents would assert that pastimes, where the purpose is to inflict pain and visit violence, more than the display of prowess and proficiency, are more a reflex of some primeval or atavistic instinct.

The nearest thing to gladiatorial contests today would be boxing and also professional wrestling. Boxing is big business and a bruising sport. Stars of the likes of Tyson and Lennox Lewis earn astronomical amounts each time they step into the ring. This may well explain why top boxers tend to continue in the profession beyond the time when they should call it a day. The only heavyweight to have retired with a perfect record -- 49 fights and 49 wins -- remains Rocky Marciano. He was small man compared to the heavyweights of today -- his fighting weight never exceeded 190 pounds. One wonders how he would have fared against the bigger, stronger and often faster fighters who followed him; Ali, Liston, Tyson and perhaps Holmes.

Ali will always be an icon for many, as much for his boxing skills as for his human qualities.He was unceremoniously stripped of his title at the peak of his powers, when he declined to be drafted. Vindicated by the courts, he returned to the ring after a long gap, which must have taken away some of his speed and reflexes. And yet he remained good enough to defeat convincingly a younger and bigger opponent to regain the title.

Professional wrestling today would be more entertainment than sport. It is also big business with a following that is almost worldwide. There is a touch of irony in this, given that wrestling represents not so much a test of skill or strength as a world of make-belief. It affords thrills and excitement with -- unlike boxing -- minimal risks to the athletes. The top stars of wrestling are skilled and strong with magnificently sculptured bodies. They are also not without acting ability, playing with equal facility the roles of "good guys" and "bad guys," victor and vanquished. The super star of wrestling in recent times has been Hulk Hogan, later known as Hollywood Hogan, after he acted in films.

The one wrestler who has achieved renown in an unrelated field is, of course, Jesse Ventura. After his wrestling career, Ventura became an entertaining and incisive wrestling commentator on television -- where also acting skills are helpful -- before moving to politics and election as governor of Minnesota, the State that had sent Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale to the Senate.

There was almost certainly a time in the early years of the last century when wrestling was a serious sport. Or in other words, more a test of skill and strength than make-belief or simulation. That was also the time when the Great Gama of the sub-continent was at the height of his powers. Nat Fleischer, editor and publisher of The Ring magazine, and dean of boxing writers and archivists had in 1962 rated 10 best boxers in different weight divisions. This was before the time of Ali and Tyson. Fleischer's interest extended to wrestling and he also ranked among six best wrestlers of "modern times." Although the character of wrestling may have changed, his list continues to be of academic interest.

Fleischer's boxing list placed the first African-American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson at top and included Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey and Marciano at No. 10. Among wrestlers he rated Frank Gotch, US heavyweight champion, 1904, as the greatest wrestler of "modern times," with George Hackenschmidt in second place and the Great Gama at No. 4 with the proviso that Gama was the only wrestler of "recent years" who could have been the master of both Gotch and Hackenschmidt. If wrestling today is different from the times of Gama and Gotch it is only to cater to changed wishes and preferences of audiences.

Public opinion in these times is veering away from blood sports. Nothing, for example, is heard these days about pig-sticking -- a sport in which Field Marshal Lord Wavell himself indulged in his younger days. Even fox-hunting, for long a traditional sport in Britain, has come in for criticism. How does change in mindset come about? Something acceptable and even pleasurable does not simply become anathema overnight.

Change or evolution in every sphere, whether slow or quick, is inevitable.For Emperor Ashoka, according to history, legend and lore, the battle of Kalinga was an epiphany; he changed from a warrior king to an apostle of peace, piety and morality. At the other end of the spectrum we have Thurgood Marshall's frustration at the slow pace of change. Marshall, the first African-American to be appointed to the US Supreme Court, was eminent as a civil rights activist and lawyer. In the late 1950s, responding to President Eisenhower's call to blacks to be patient he had commented famously, "I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think 90 odd years is gradual enough." A very persuasive perspective of change is to be found in the autobiography of Max Planck -- Nobel laureate for Physics, 1918. Planck wrote, "-- A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it". Planck was, of course, writing about scientific truths. One is almost persuaded that it applies to social spheres as well.