Wrestling in time of coronavirus: How the pandemic impacted India’s traditional dangal circuit With the forced cancellations of all the competitions in 2020, there has been a severe impact on the traditional way of life for the Indian pehelwan. Updated Jan 14, 2021 · 06:52 pm A wrestling match during the farmers protest on the Delhi border. | PTI akharas in Delhi’s alleys and by-lanes resumed operations too. However, as the world adjusted to the pandemic, India’s traditional wrestling form of kushti remained stuck. The pandemic has left the grounds of India’s dangal circuit, which usually attract thousands in a tangle of locks and limbs, barren. Since all the competitions on this circuit, which wrestlers rely for daily wage and food were cancelled in 2020, there has been a severe impact on the traditional way of life for the Indian pehelwan.