NEW DELHI: From his childhood days, the sight of police dreaded Madari Ishamudin. He must have been about seven years old when Ishamudin saw his street magician father getting beaten up by two policemen for not being able to pay them bribe. “This happened in Jind (Haryana).
"It was early in the day. Two cops came and asked him to pay a bribe of Rs 2 for performing on the street. He hadn’t made any money. He told them he would be able to pay them only by the end of day… depending on how the day would turn out. They beat him brutally. I stood bewildered in fear,” the 48-year-old said, adding he felt a huge difference in attitude of the police when he got the chance to travel to France about two decades later.
“I thought of doing this little experiment. I opened my stuff under Eiffel Tower. About 400 to 500 people gathered to witness my show. Police came and interrupted the performance. I was scared to death. They asked me for my passport, frisked me and politely told me to pack up as it wasn’t allowed to perform at Eiffel. They gave me a list of places where it was allowed to present street arts and apologised to me for interruption,” he said, underlining the difference between the mind-set of India and European countries.
In his country, the laws don’t allow his ilk to use animals for performing tricks. There are struggles, but he cannot think of another profession. “This is our ancestral occupation. As a child in the family of street performers, I wasn’t so intelligent to look for any other job. We grow up with the feeling that this is all we have in our fate.”
Despite the struggles, his profession is Ishamudin’s pride and so he insists to be described as Madari Ishamudin. It was in 1990s that Ishamudin gained fame courtesy The Great Indian Rope Trick.
About five years ago, he started ‘Indian Street Performers Association Trust’ which boasts of more than 500 street artists such as acrobats, jugglers, snake charmers, masqueraders and street magicians as it members. “It is a registered trust but we don’t receive any funds.”
“The problem is with the mentality, with the system. I have nothing against any political party. I have nothing against the police either but there is no acceptance for a man in a Pathan suit with beard to perform at the posh localities of Delhi,” he says adding that no government took initiative to save these arts.The recent demolition of the Kathputli Colony also took away people’s jobs, Ishamudin laments.
A few years ago when youngsters started gathering in Connaught Place to play instruments for earning money, Ishamudin found it “strange’’ that the police just passed by. He finds it amusing when he juxtaposes his trade practitioners who fail to get acceptance from the society.
Ishamudin, who received international acclaim at an early age, has now “given up”.
“My community has got no recognition on papers. We don’t even exist for the government. The future is bleak. I have made all efforts but in vain as the cultural problem can be questioned only after there is a recognition given to these communities,” he says with a resigned lot.
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