Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

How Indian magic came of age

by Amit Roy

THE Indian word for magic is jadu and no jaduwallah – magi­cian – was more suc­cessful or flamboy­ant than PC Sorcar.


Now a new book tells of how Sorcar had to overcome rac­ist western attitudes to become one of the greatest magicians in the world.

Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic is pub­lished by Hurst, which – from the Asian point of view – has one of the most rele­vant catalogues in Britain.

Author John Zubrzycki makes the point that Sorcar lived in a time when “Indian magicians were looked down upon by their western counterparts as being crude and unskilled”.

When I asked why he had written the book, Zubrzycki re­plied: “I was drawn to the sub­ject by Sorcar’s continuing hold on the Indian imagination. He was a complex figure. He worked hard to achieve what he did, but earned a lot of enemies along the way. He did not play by the rules. He divided the western magic community and endured much prejudice. My book is the first to tell Sorcar’s story from both sides.”

Zubrzycki is a Sydney-based author, journalist and diplomat, specialising in south Asia, in particular India. He picked out a paragraph from the book which summed up Sorcar: “He chal­lenged how the world saw Indi­an magic and proved that a man born in a small Bengali village could compete with the interna­tional giants of the craft.

“His most enduring legacy is the pride that most Indians feel when they remember him. More than anything, more than all the controversy over who really was the world’s greatest, Sorcar loved being a magician and giving his audiences what he believed they wanted and deserved.”

Sorcar called himself “the World’s Greatest Magician,” but he only became a superstar after appearing on Panorama on BBC TV on April 9, 1956. He sawed his 17-year-old assistant, Dipty Dey, in half but could not revive her by the time the programme end­ed. The last viewers saw of the girl was a sombre Sorcar placing a black cloth over her face.

Believing they had just wit­nessed a murder, “the phone lines at the Lime Grove studios went into meltdown”. The pa­pers the next day screamed mur­der with headlines such as ‘Girl cut in half – Shock on TV’.

It was a PR stunt, of course and ensured that his season at the Duke of York’s was sold out.

Sorcar's death from a heart attack in Japan on January 6, 1971 at the age of 57, prompted worldwide eulogies.

As the respected historian Da­vid Price noted, he had arrived on the magic scene just as India needed a great Indian-born master to take on the big names in the west.

Thanks to him, “Indian magic had come of age, magically speaking, and would have to be reckoned with by magicians around the globe”.

More For You

One year on, Starmer still has no story — but plenty of regrets

Sir Keir Starmer

Getty Images

One year on, Starmer still has no story — but plenty of regrets

Do not expect any parties in Downing Street to celebrate the government’s first birthday on Friday (4). After a rocky year, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had more than a few regrets when giving interviews about his first year in office.

He explained that he chose the wrong chief of staff. That his opening economic narrative was too gloomy. That choosing the winter fuel allowance as a symbol of fiscal responsibility backfired. Starmer ‘deeply regretted’ the speech he gave to launch his immigration white paper, from which only the phrase ‘island of strangers’ cut through. Can any previous political leader have been quite so self-critical of their own record in real time?

Keep ReadingShow less
starmer-bangladesh-migration
Sir Keir Starmer
Getty Images

Comment: Can Starmer turn Windrush promises into policy?

Anniversaries can catalyse action. The government appointed the first Windrush Commissioner last week, shortly before Windrush Day, this year marking the 77th anniversary of the ship’s arrival in Britain.

The Windrush generation came to Britain believing what the law said – that they were British subjects, with equal rights in the mother country. But they were to discover a different reality – not just in the 1950s, but in this century too. It is five years since Wendy Williams proposed this external oversight in her review of the lessons of the Windrush scandal. The delay has damaged confidence in the compensation scheme. Williams’ proposal had been for a broader Migrants Commissioner role, since the change needed in Home Office culture went beyond the treatment of the Windrush generation itself.

Keep ReadingShow less
Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh

Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh’s ‘Sapphire’ collaboration misses the mark

The song everyone is talking about this month is Sapphire – Ed Sheeran’s collaboration with Arijit Singh. But instead of a true duet, Arijit takes more of a backing role to the British pop superstar, which is a shame, considering he is the most followed artist on Spotify. The Indian superstar deserved a stronger presence on the otherwise catchy track. On the positive side, Sapphire may inspire more international artists to incorporate Indian elements into their music. But going forward, any major Indian names involved in global collaborations should insist on equal billing, rather than letting western stars ride on their popularity.

  Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh

Keep ReadingShow less
If ayatollahs fall, who will run Teheran next?

Portraits of Iranian military generals and nuclear scientists, killed in Israel’s last Friday (13) attack, are seen above a road, as heavy smoke rises from an oil refinery in southern Teheran hit in an overnight Israeli strike last Sunday (15)

If ayatollahs fall, who will run Teheran next?

THERE is one question to which none of us has the answer: if the ayatollahs are toppled, who will take over in Teheran?

I am surprised that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, has lasted as long as he has. He is 86, and would achieve immortality as a “martyr” in the eyes of regime supporters if the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, succeeded in assassinating him. This was apparently Netanyahu’s plan, though he was apparently dissuaded by US president Donald Trump from going ahead with the killing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Comment: Talking about race isn’t racist – ignoring it helped grooming gangs thrive

A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs, outside the council offices at City Centre on January 20, 2025 in Oldham, England

Getty Images

Comment: Talking about race isn’t racist – ignoring it helped grooming gangs thrive

WAS a national inquiry needed into so-called grooming gangs? Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer did not think so in January, but now accepts Dame Louise Casey’s recommendation to commission one.

The previous Conservative government – having held a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse – started loudly championing a new national inquiry once it lost the power to call one. Casey explains why she changed her mind too after her four-month, rapid audit into actions taken and missed on group-based exploitation and abuse. A headline Casey theme is the ‘shying away’ from race.

Keep ReadingShow less