Reported By:
| Edited By: Gargi Gupta |Source: DNA |Updated: Jan 27, 2019, 06:15 AM IST
In the early years of the 19th century, much before the British had consolidated their hold over India, there was an Indian, a low born juggler from south India called Rama Samee (probably Ramaswamy), who crossed the kala pani to go to England. There, he became quite a star for his tricks – swallowing the sword being the 'piece de resistence', and even travelled to Europe and, across the Atlantic, to Washington and Philadelphia. Forgotten entirely in his country of birth, John Zubryzcki, Sydney-based author, journalist and researcher, excavates the story of this extraordinary man in 'Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns', a fascinating history of magic in India. While magic has been an integral part of India – there are references, Zubryzcki has found in Harappan culture, in the Vedas, in Jahangir's memoirs. This is the first systematic, comprehensive account of the subject in popular historical writing. 'I wanted to make Indians aware of their magical heritage and how important and rich it is.' Edited excerpts from the interview:
Through my second book, The Mysterious Mr Jacob, which was about Alexander Malcolm Jacob, one of the most famous diamond merchants, jewelers in the late 19th-century. Jacob also dabbled in magic, in fact many people thought he was a master of the occult.
There is definitely a science to it. I call magic the "artful performance of impossible effects". The magician derives his power into making the audience suspend their disbelief that what they are seeing is trickery. They know they are being tricked but yet they think that what they are seeing in real.
I did learn some magic, but to do a trick convincingly, even a simple one, takes a lot of practice. Watching the tricks of magicians became an integral part of my research. I wanted to find out what made them tick.
The Indian basket trick performed in Alipurduar, West Bengal, in the late 1970s. It began with a magician plunging a knife into a basket that held a small child. The knife was covered in blood and the child would be screaming. At the climax, the magician would lift the child out of the basket with the knife through his neck. It ended with the child emerging from the basket unscathed.
Yes absolutely. Western magicians copied and also stole a lot of tricks from India and incorporated them into their shows. India was seen as the land of magic and mysticism and this appealed to Western audiences.
I think it has a future, because even in this disenchanted world seeing a magician perform actual feats of magic on stage without the benefits of CGI is amazing.
No. There's a whole generation of magicians using close-up magic without props because they know that makes it even more effective.
I'm a journalist by training and a historian by inclination. India is full of such wonderful stories waiting to be told, needing to be told. I wanted to make Indians aware of their magical heritage and how important and rich it is.
