Thought you might like to know this. I play Mrs Goodwin at Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth NH

Thanks for posting links to my sword swallowing site (www.swordswallow.com and http://www.swordswallow.com/halloffame.php). I have been searching for this supposed tribe of sword swallowers in Andhra Pradesh ever since I lived there in 1978. I would appreciate any help you might offer as I would like to do a video documentary of sword swallowing with these people. Please contact me with any information you might have at Halfdan@aol.com.

Thanks!

Dan Meyer Halfdan@aol.com Dan@swordswallow.com Executive Director Sword Swallowers Association International http://www.swordswallow.org http://www.swordswallow.com

Mir Sultan Khan was in the employ of a Maharaja, but I don’t think he was illiterate. May be he did not speak or write English very well. But I believe even before he left for England in 1929, he was a Ustad (Master) in Shatranj/Chathuranga (the original Indian form of Chess).

In the four years he lived in England, he not only defeated people like Capablanca, and won the Championshp twice, he also played the top board for England in two olympiads.

According to today’s ratings system, his ELO rating would have been upwards of 2550, making him Asia’s first grand master.He was from that part of Punjab, which lies in today’s Pakistan. Incidentally, another servant of the same Sargodha Maharaja, Miss.Fatima, won the British Woman’s Chess Championship in 1931, but never got the recognition that Mir Sultan Khan got.

Madaris are still there but I feel their number is decreasing .Every year in winter hundreds of Madaris descend to Eastern part of India with truckloads of paraphernalia. They put up camps on open spaces. They show all kinds of magic. They claim to cure all types of diseases(with expertise lying in curing hydrosil and erectional dysfunction as per my information). Then from bigger groups they split into smaller ones visiting every locality and neighbourhood in the town.They usually have a langur with them.PETA has started a campaign against them.

When I was a kid the beating of a Madaris dugdugi brought terrific excitement in me. Nothing could hold me back from reaching the Madari. When I reach there along with my sister ignoring warnings from my Mother I would find hundreds of people already there. Then I would push and jostle through the crowd to get the best vantage point. And the show began thereafter.

They showed juggling,magic,gymnastics and what not! But the show with animals(dogs,monkeys,birds)were the biggest draw for us.

But I have not seen them do sword swallowing.The Dommarollu travel as a group of 1 or 2 families. It is the children who do most of the tricks, while the elders play supporting roles, playing the ‘dappu’ (small percussion instrument), singing songs and collecting the coins from the audience. In the evenings, some of the Dommari women go from door to door, begging for food. These days, these Dommari performances have become very rare. I have seen similar performances in Tamil Nadu towns as well.

The sword swallowers are generally seen at folk festivals in various parts of the country.They are typically either tribals or Saivaite sadhus/fakirs.The Kumbh Melas are the best places to find practitioners of these almost extinct arts.At the Maha Kumbh Mela at Prayag in UP(considered the largest human gathering in History), one can see literally dozens of these people, doing all these feats, and not expecting any thing but appreciation, and may be some food from the generous pilgrims.

Amardeep, the next Maha Kumbh Mela would be in January 2007.So, if you or any one else is interested, you could plan a visit to India to coincide with the Kumbh and can see all this and much more.

On the INA and Netaji, a recent book that talks about that chapter of Indian history is The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. It’s a little on the long side, but there’s lots of good stuff there about the Indian connections to Burma as well as the diaspora in places like Malaysia.

Swati, thanks for the info. and the link. That’s very helpful!

This is a really interesting piece; I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and checking out the links. Do write more about such people of South Asian descent who have been pushed to obscurity. They were, after all, the flag-bearers of the South Asian Diaspora! Moving on, could someone suggest any books written by Indian authors, about fighting for the British or INA? I have read N.N Pillai’s Autobiography entitled Njaan, meaning: Me in Malayalam. He was a prominent actor and playwright, besides being a “freedom-fighter”; he fought for the INA against the Japanese and his experiences seemed to happen in a surreal world far removed from where I exist. I would appreciate your valuable suggestions. Peace.