In India snake charming has lost its charm. Thousands of snake charmers are barely making enough money to survive. The reason, India is changing and changing fast.
Different reasons are seen as the cause of the declining trade. One is the popularity of nature documentories. Films about snakes are greatly liked amongst a population that until recently had little access to TV. The snake Charmers once thought of as been close to god because of their ability to control the cobras are...
more »In India snake charming has lost its charm. Thousands of snake charmers are barely making enough money to survive. The reason, India is changing and changing fast.
Different reasons are seen as the cause of the declining trade. One is the popularity of nature documentories. Films about snakes are greatly liked amongst a population that until recently had little access to TV. The snake Charmers once thought of as been close to god because of their ability to control the cobras are now seen as cheap tricksters as the Indian television audience gets to see a variety of exotic snakes handled by men across the world. This crossed with a country that is obsessed with reinventing itself and a society that increasingly aspires to western ideals means few have the time or the inclination to stop and watch the cobras dance as the snake charmer plays his bean flute.
If it wasn't bad enough already for the snake charmers with society rejecting them, they now run the risk of seven years in prison if caught charming. More often than not if caught they will either have their snakes taken from them or pay a large bribe in order to keep them, either way it makes for a depressing situation.
But it is not just the charmers and their families who are losing out, there are several festivals in India which are based around the cobra. The Hindu god Shiva has been associated with cobras for several thousand years, festivals celebrating Shiva and fertility give hundreds of thousands of Hindus cause for joy each year, such festivals are threatened with closure as the authorities say they cause cruelty to the cobras that are used in them.
So what is the future for the snake charmers of India. Nearly all of them realise it's a dying craft, their children don't want to carry on the family tradition, they aspire to employment in computer industries. It seems that snake charming, like much of the West's perception of India, is outdated and soon to be banished to the history books.
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