Jews and India: Perceptions and Image

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Routledge, Feb 22, 2008 - History - 160 pages

Exploring the image of Jews in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this book looks at both the Indian attitudes towards the Jewish communities of the subcontinent and at the way Jews and Judaism in general have been represented in Indian discourse.

Despite the fact that the Indian Jewish population constitutes one of the country’s tiniest minorities, the relations of the local Jews with other communities form an integral part in the history of Indian multiculturalism. This has become increasingly apparent over the last two centuries as Judaism and its image have been incorporated into the discussions of some of the most prominent figures of different religious and nationalist movements, leaders of independent India, and the Indian mass media. Furthermore, recent decades witnessed mass adoption of Israelite identity by Indians from two different regions and religious groups.

Being a topic that has received little attention, Jews and India seeks to rectify this situation by examining these developments and providing a fascinating insight into these issues. This volume will be of interest to scholars of Jewish and Indian cultural studies.

 

Contents

1 Introduction
1
2 Jewish topics in British India
9
3 Indian attitudes towards antiSemitism
31
4 Jews politics and society in independent India
61
5 Jews as an Indian minority
81
6 Varieties of Jewish expression in independent India
105
7 Conclusion
129
Notes
133
Bibliography
137
Index
147
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