Where Are The Jinn?

Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinn by John Zubrzycki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Magic has long been the mainstay of India. Jugglers, conjures and tricksters line the street performing their stunts in order to get you to part with your hard earned money. India has long been considered by many to be the home of magic.

From the beginning it is hard to distinguish between a legit holy man who can do things like swallow swords, lay on a bed of nail or walk across hot burning coals and a jadowallah who does the same thing. After all both have similar techniques, pray to the same gods and perform. The same abolutions.

Even Indias rulers were taken with these juggler and jadowallahs. They would often times stroll to the park in disguise in order to see the performers perform their tricks. The relationship between the rulers and. performers gets even more complicated than that. Often times the rulers would invite troops of performers to perform in their court. At other times the performers would be used as spies.

Western interest in the Indian magicians grew under the British colonialization of India. Western audiences were blown away by sword swallowers, snake charmers and jugglers. This lead to promoters promoting the tours of Indian magicians to Europe and the west. Some of these magicians became really well known. Some would not come to the west for fear that crossing an ocean would cause them to lose their. Power. As they came in droves two things happened . FIrst was a sense of sceptisim. Enough searching lead to people discover that some of the Indian magic was tricks or sleight of hand. Other things like firewalking were real but could be explained by science.

Another problem caused by these roaming performer is that promoter would not pay them and often times left them stranded trying to find a way home. This caused lots of problems.

Nowadays it seems craft of the Jadowallah maybe in danger. As the government cracks down on certain practices and destroys the haunts of these magicians one is left to wonder.

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