User:Dakotta/sandbox

Jews_of_India
www.thejewsofindia.com

This is a personal and philanthropic project started by Dakotta .J.K. Alex to educate and bring awareness to more people on the diversity of the Jewish diaspora. Most people think of Jews as Caucasian looking individuals, i.e. Ashkenazi_Jews heritage. Today, over 20% of Jews in the world hail from Africa, Asia, South America, India, and non-European locals.

HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN INDIA
The history of Jews in India reaches back to ancient times. Essentially, there are mainly three distinct groups of Jews that experienced acceptance in ancient Indian society without persecution or assimilation in their adopted country, this is process is called acculturation since these groups did not have to change their ways of living. These groups are comprised of the Cochin Jews, the Bene Israel and lastly the Baghdadi Jews. Though there is a controversy as to exactly when these groups arrived in India, it is a fact that they all arrived at different times.

The Cochini Jews
It is widely thought that the Cochini Jews of the Malabar Coast (Kerala state) were allowed into India by the Hindu ruler of Malabar as far as the 4th Century CE. Other sources suggest that it may be as late as 1000CE. This group claim that they descended from a larger group of Jews fleeing persecution after the second temple in 70CE.

The Cochini Jews were further divided into two smaller groups: The White Jews, who were most probably descendants of the European and Middle Eastern Jews who migrated in the 16th and 17th centuries. The second group was the Malabaris also called the Black Jews, who claimed to be descendants of the original settlers. These two communities were only married among themselves and always worshipped in their own synagogues.

Most of the Cochini White Jews were involved in the business, mainly spice trade and while others were professionals. The Black Jews were mostly petty traders, buying and selling small goods like fruit and fowl. .

The Bene Israel
The Bene Israel Jews also called the “Children of Israel” are believed to have arrived in India between the 6th century BCE to the  7th century CE. They however commenced their influx into Bombay in the eighteenth century, mostly coming from the Konkan coast, south of Bombay City.

The Bene Israel community has mostly been the largest Jewish group in India. They took on some of the customs and dress codes of their Muslim and Hindu neighbors. They also started speaking the local Marathi language and in the process forsaking some of their Jewish practices such as Hanukkah and the Hebrew language. They however kept observing some significant Jewish traditions, such as circumcision, Kashrut (the dietary laws) and abstention from work on Sabbath.

The Baghdadi jews
In the 19th century, a smaller group from the Middle East (mostly Syria, Iraq and Iran) escaping persecution entered India and settled in the coastal cities of Bombay and Kolkata (Calcutta). They were later involved in trade and manufacturing where they dealt mainly with cotton and tobacco processing. They were very vocal in the civic life of India but were least influenced by the ways of their neighbors. They however identified themselves with the British rulers and they ended up embracing English language and culture and helped maintain the British rule in India. One of the most prominent of the Baghdadi Jews was David Sassoon (1792-1864).

The Jewish population in India grew over the years. For instance, in 1881, there were 12,040 Jews in India. These number reached its peak in the 1930s, where in the 1931 Indian census it was recorded to be just over 24,000 and 35000 prior to world war II. However, this scenario soon changed especially after India got its independence in 1947 from the British and the state of Israel was established in May 1948. This led to the rapid drop in the number of Jews in India with most of them emigrating to Israel and to the Western world and the East, including Singapore and China.

By early 1970s less than 6,000 Jews remained in India, this trend has continued and very few Jews are now living in India.