privacy policy

Inscrutable Subalternity: Street Magicians of Colonial India

Presenter:

· Sugata Nandi West Bengal State University (Kolkata, India)

Timeslot:

07/26 | 17:30-17:50 UTC+2/CEST

Abstract

This paper seeks to introduce street magicians of colonial India as a significant new subject of subaltern history. It argues that British imperialists and Western supremacists manipulated their image to Orientalize India as an essentially magical hence pre-modern land and also to attribute inherent criminality to the subaltern. During colonial rule street magicians of India, ubiquitous, itinerant, nameless, and mired in poverty and illiteracy were made world famous. From early nineteenth century Europeans who had been to India wrote detailed anecdotes of their inexplicable tricks in newspapers, periodicals, popular literature, memoirs and travelogues in ever increasing numbers. Feats of a few such entertainers who performed in Britain, other European countries and the USA in early nineteenth century immensely aided their popularization. By the 1850s they had become stereotypes in the emerging English crime fiction and adventure stories. Modern magicians of the West tried to appropriate a few of their tricks. A popular belief that they had supernatural powers had gained ground. Their art appeared incomprehensible to western scientists and to many their tricks seemed superior to those of western magicians aided by latest technology. This drove the leading western magicians, often supported by influential European officials in India, scientists, journalists and amateur anthropologists, to debunk Indian magicians as frauds and their tricks as hoaxes. They highlighted their poverty and illiteracy to argue that they managed to intrigue Westerners with performances due to their innate deceitful and criminal character.