Asian Ethnology 83-1 | article Circus Routes Representing India from the Perspective of an Itinerant Profession

Eléonore Rimbault

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Indian big top circuses carry an ensemble of people, animals, and infrastructures over long distances. Interviews with circus managers and owners about their itineraries suggest their representations of India elude some regional conceptions of space that are widespread and prevalent in South Asian studies. While regions bind together nearby places with a history of exchanges and common practices, circus routes are one modality by which distant places and regions can be defined and connected through the history of the people traveling through them. This article surveys some of the spatial features that managers and owners consider when determining circus routes. Circus routes highlight dynamic and business-oriented ways of thinking about India’s territory, factoring in monsoons and droughts, ground availability and prices, and competition with other itinerant businesses. Building on ethnographic material, I show that business acumen in the circus community is primarily defined by a reading of space that successfully factors in this information. Ultimately, the development of circus geographies that do not readily map onto national, international, or subnational scales demonstrates how time and space can be configured in a specific way by one’s belonging to a professional community.