I spent about a month in India in 2007, shooting a documentary about snake charmers, known as "sapera" in hindi. The snake charmer is a stereotype, a tourist attraction, a faded image on old postcards. He is also a man struggling to survive in the face of stringent animal conservation laws that make his profession illegal.
In 1972, India passed the Wildlife Conservation Act. As a result, saperas can no longer ply their trade legally. Capturing and keeping any of the animals on the protected list is illegal. The law was passed in an effort to protect India’s endangered animals from poachers and skin traders. Prior to 1972, millions of snakes were caught killed and exported every year. While the law has done much to reduce that amount, it has also criminalized a community that makes it living from live snakes, a community that says it would never kill snakes. Snakes are revered in India, probably more so by them than by anyone else. But every day, saperas who are caught with snakes have them taken away from them. They are often beaten and put in prison.
Many of India's hardcore wildlife conservation groups like Wildlife SOS believe that the saperas are actively involved in the skin trade, that the snakes they do keep are mistreated and that all snake handling on their part should be discontinued. They should walk away from their traditions, be rehabilited, assimilated into modern society and work as drivers, typists, and computer operators. Since most sapera are uneducated and unskilled in other areas, they cannot find work. In a rapidly developing society, many of the younger generation of saperas are willing to put the traditions aside, but access to education is difficult to come by, especially in the rural areas. Added to this is the fact that the sapera community is quite poor. Many of these snake charmers now work as day laborers. Some of the more elderly have grown their hair long and have dressed as ascetics to beg for food.
One conservationist, Bahar Dutt, conservationist, believes that such expectations of “rehabilitation” are unrealistic and unfair. Not only do the sapera not have access to the kind of education needed for “rehabilitation” because of their poor economic status, she believes that the fiercely proud saperas want to maintain their traditions and ways. She wants to redirect the saperas’ knowledge in a way that is in compliance with the law, but that lets them keep their traditions and make a living.
She says that saperas should be employed in the rural areas as “bare feet conservation educators.” Sapera centers should be set up for them, which could be used for teaching people about snakes through lecture demonstrations by the saperas, promoting related livelihood practices like dairy farming, cultivation of medicinal plants and musical ensembles that use traditional sapera instruments like the been.
Whether or not Dutt’s goal will be realized, remains to be seen. But in the meantime, as the older saperas continue to work and live on the fringes of society, on the wrong side of the law, and more and more of the younger saperas move toward menial work, with no touchstone to their past, there is a fear that within a few generations, another tradition, steeped in history, mythology and wonder will vanish from the face of the earth.
Please enjoy a clip from Sapera: The snake Charmers of India below.
While shooting, our crew spent a lot of time in the rural areas of Haryana, in sapera villages like Wazirpur, where a sapera by the name of Ramdiya Nath is the local healer. Rural villages such as this one often do not have the amenities that we take for granted. Food, for instance, is often cooked over small fires that use dried cow dung as fuel. On one our visits with Ramdiya Nath, we had a lunch consisting of dry-fried okra, known as bhindi masala, and chapati, cooked in this way. I've recreated the recipe below.
BHINDI MASALA
INGREDIENTS
1/2 lb okra
1 small onion, diced
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee
Pinch of asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (or less if you prefer a milder dish)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon mango powder
1 tablespoon gram flour (optional)
salt to taste
COOKING
Wash the okra and pat dry. Make sure to completely dry the okra, otherwise it will turn sticky.
Cut off the both ends of the okra, and into 1/2 inch slices. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat.
Add the cumin seeds and asafetida. When the cumin seeds crack, add the ground coriander, cayenne pepper and turmeric and fry for 15 - 20 seconds.
Add the onions and sautee until they turn light brown, add the okra.
Add the okra and stir for a minute, then reduce the heat to medium and cover, cooking for two or three minutes.
Add gram flour (if using) and continue to stir-fry until the okra is tender.
Add the salt and mango powder. Cook for another minute. Add salt to taste and serve with chapati.
DAL
One of the staple foods of Indian cooking is dal, a thick spicy stew (for lack of a better term) made of lentils that have been stripped of their hulls and cooked until tender. Beans are often added, most notably in a dish known as dal makhani. Dal recipes can range from very simple to quite elaborate (in the case of dal makhani), but most preparations consist of lentils that have been boiled with turmeric and ginger, with a spice preparation known as tadka added at the end. A popular dish in Northern India is dal fry. It's filling, nutritious, and has a rich earthy flavor that is difficult to describe, but essential to taste. Try the recipe below. You won't be disappointed.
DAL FRY
INGREDIENTS
1 cup toovar dal, masoor dal or channa dal (or any combination of the three)
4 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoom turmeric
1 slice ginger slightly crushed
1 or 2 small dried, red chilies
1 tbsp chopped coriander
FOR TADKA
2 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds (or black mustard seeds if you prefer)
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded and diced (or 3 tbsp canned,crushed tomatoes)
1 cup fresh, roughly chopped spinach
COOKING THE DAL
Rinse dal and pick over to remove any foreign matter.
Cook dal in water over medium heat until dal is soft (usualy around 45 minutes, adding water if dal begins to look too dry)
Using a whisk, blend dal until smoothReduce heat to low while preparing the tadka
COOKING THE TADKA
Heat oil or ghee in a separate pan
Add cumin or mustard seeds and stir until they begin to pop
Add tomatoes and fry gently until oil starts to separate
Add spinach and fry until well wilted
Stir tadka into lentils and heat an additional few minutes
Sprinkle chopped coriander over dal and serve with chapati, naan or rice.
