Kirjahaku

This work is an original and pioneering exploration of not only the social history of the subcontinent but also of performance and popular culture. The domain of analysis is entirely novel and opens up a bolder approach of laying a new field of historical enquiry of South Asia. Trawling through an extraordinary set of sources such as colonial and postcolonial records, newspaper reports, unpublished autobiographies, private papers, photographs and oral interviews the author brings out a fascinating account of the transnational landscape of physical cultures, human and animal performers and the circus industry.

This is a unique collection of images, spanning across centuries and continents, from the personal and professional albums of the circus community in the Indian subcontinent, embodying both personal memories and global histories. Curated with historical, aesthetic and emotional sensibility, each photograph is either a touching moment or breathtaking action frozen in time, clicked by colleagues, friendly strangers or professionals assigned by the company. These photographs, from the early twentieth century to the present, showcase the many layers of the spectacular and everyday circus lives of animals and humans. This book offers a fascinating visual journey through an extraordinary life world, bridging a lacuna in the remembrance and archiving of subaltern pasts.