CHENNAI: Author John Zubrzycki brings out the impact of Indian enchantment on the western and eastern parts of the world in his new book.“When you trace the history of magicians in India, Madras naturally has its own place. The men in south India have a physique that is more supple and dexterous. It helps them perform the tricks with ease and singles them out. Secondly, Madras was one of the three major ports for the East India Company.
The ships would come in and go out. It was always filled with snake charmers and jugglers who showcased their magic acts to interact with the Europeans and Americans,” begins John Zubrzycki, the author of the book Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India. The book tells the story of how magic in India descended from the domain of the gods to become part of the daily ritual and popular entertainment. It traces the journey of the art and its transformation from the street to the stage culminating with the rise of the great PC Sorcar Sr, an internationally acclaimed magician. The books also explains how caste and economic strata drove many magicians into this profession.
John Zubrzycki is a Sydney-based author. He has a degree in South Asian history and Hindi from the Australian National University, and has worked in India as a foreign correspondent, diplomat and tour guide. The author has written two books so far — The Last Nizam: An Indian Prince in the Australian Outback and The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond merchant, Magician and Spy. However, for the latest book, John’s connection with India explains why he picked up a subject that has not been written about extensively in the past. Considering the vastness of the topic and varieties in performing magic, we ask him what his major focus was on. “The line between performance and ritual magic is blurred. I have extensively spoken about entertainment magic that involves snake charmers, rope tricks, jugglers, animal handlers, puppeteers, impersonators, ventriloquist and story-tellers. The minute you take up ritual, you need to talk about religious aspects by going down into the deeper origins of supernatural elements,” he tells us.
We learn that the art of performing magic was predominantly a family business. “The old street magicians I approached mentioned that the trade secrets were passed on to them by their ancestors. Most of these peoples’ ancestors had performed during the Moghul empire and in the court of royal patronage. They performed during important events and religious festivals together as a family — the grandfather, the father and the son. It takes 10-14 years for a person to master the tricks. The boys are not allowed to perform until they complete 18. This is primarily to keep themselves out of trouble and police harassment. There were a few female magicians. They restricted themselves to physical activities like acrobatics and gymnastics,” he says.
When asked about the challenges in sourcing information, John says, “One of the problems was that there were not many mentions of the existence of these magicians even in the census report. Sometimes they’d travel abroad to earn a living by performing in exhibitions. After their return, they’d address the grievances in court due to mistreatment and several other problems experienced there. This is how we got to know about their presence most of the times. Some of them slyly moved to other countries and settled there as well”
John Zubrzycki’s next book is on mysticism in India.