KUSHTI
Photography
Kushti documents an ancient Indian wrestling discipline built on repetition, control, and obedience.
Life inside the akhara is cyclical: train, eat, sleep, repeat. Boys enter young and remain into their thirties. The rules are strict - no alcohol, no meat, no sex. The body is shaped entirely for endurance and compliance.
What begins as preparation carries long-term weight. The system produces strength, restraint, and readiness. When wrestlers leave, they are physically conditioned, socially contained, and accustomed to authority. Many are later recruited by the police for these exact qualities.
The work looks at the space before outcomes are realised - the routines, the waiting, the quiet shaping of bodies for future use.