JIAS wishes to congratulate Nisha Poyyaprath Rayaroth, a 2020 Writing Fellow, for the publication of her book titled “Jumbos and Jumping Devils: A Social History of Indian Circus” by Oxford University Press, India.
This book is a fascinating historical account of the humans, animals and objects in the circus industry in India, spanning over the last hundred and fifty years. It explores in detail a wide range of amazing tales from the evolution and blooming of circus acrobatics in the early twentieth century Malabar to the exciting legal battles following the ban of trading and performance of wild animals and children from the circus ring in the twenty-first century.
