Jews came to India over thousands of years primarily to escape religious persecution and to pursue trading opportunities. Major waves included ancient settlers (Cochin/Bene Israel) arriving as merchants, later communities (Paradesi) fleeing European persecution, and Baghdadi Jews seeking safety from Middle Eastern tyranny. They found a welcoming, tolerant environment.
It is thought that the first Indian Jews were members of the biblical “Lost Tribes of Israel,” having settled on the Malabar coast after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in the ninth century B.C.E. This includes the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews, and the Bnei Menashe.
Therefore, in this study by adding large number of Indian Jewish samples and groups, we reconstructed their history and showed that they have inherited their ancestry from Middle Eastern and Indian populations.
There are many reasons why Jews were not persecuted in India. Some of these reasons include: India's long history of religious tolerance: India has a long history of religious tolerance and pluralism.
Judaism. Although a tiny minority in modern India, Jews have a long history on the subcontinent, and in fact, it is home to several distinct Jewish communities. The first to arrive, possibly in the last centuries BCE, were the Jews who settled in Cochin (now called Kochi), in south India.
Jews Arrived In India 2000 Years Ago, Never Faced Persecution | Homeland
What are Jews called in India?
The three main communities of Jews in India are the Cochinis, the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis. The Cochin Jews claim their ancestry to Jerusalem, fleeing the Roman invasion and the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D (Katz 2000).
Judaism came first, with its origins tracing back to Abraham (c. 2nd millennium BCE) and Moses (c. 1200 BCE), establishing the first monotheistic faith, while Islam emerged much later, in the 7th century CE, with the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, building on the same Abrahamic tradition but as a distinct religion. Muslims view Adam as the first Muslim, but historically, Judaism was practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia for centuries before Islam's founding.
Common Jewish surnames in India include Sassoon and Joseph. Since many Indian Jews were of Baghdadi origin, other surnames tend to be of the Shephardic style. It is rare to hear of Ashkenazi surnames in India. Other surnames include biblical names.
According to Halakha (Jewish law), as derived from the Talmud, marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew is both prohibited and considered void under Jewish law.
There are many common aspects between Islam and Judaism. As Islam developed it gradually became the major religion closest to Judaism, both of them being strictly monotheist religious traditions originating in a Semitic Middle Eastern culture.
There are some who profess a belief in both religions: they regard themselves as Hinjew, a portmanteau of Hindu and Jew. Many Jews take vipassana and yoga as a supplement to traditional Hasidic musical meditation and dynamic meditation.
When India became independent from Britain in 1947 and Israel declared independence in 1948 and with the heightened nationalism and emphasis in the Partition of India of Hindu and Muslim identities, most of Cochin Jews emigrated from India. Generally they went to Israel (made aliyah).
Israel has the largest Jewish population, with over 7 million people, followed by the United States, which has the second-largest community, with approximately 6 million Jews, making these the two countries where the vast majority of the world's Jewish population lives. France and Canada also have significant Jewish populations, with tens of thousands or more, but Israel and the U.S. are the clear leaders.
The Jewish people have a very ancient history in the land known both as Palestine and the Land of Israel. The Jewish claim to indigeneity is based on a three-thousand-year-old continuous history and the status of the land since ancient times as the focus of Jewish life and yearning.
Later, Islam arrived in the northern inland of Indian subcontinent in the 7th century when the Arabs invaded and conquered Sindh. It arrived in Punjab and North India in the 12th century via the Ghaznavids and Ghurids conquest and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage.
The Jewish people as a whole, initially called Hebrews (ʿIvrim), were known as Israelites (Yisreʾelim) from the time of their entrance into the Holy Land to the end of the Babylonian Exile (538 bce).
Maharashtra (part of erstwhile Bombay State) has always been home to a majority of Indian Jews, it today has 2466 Jews out of the all-India total of 4,650 Jews.
The wars commenced a long period of violence, enslavement, expulsion, displacement, forced conversion, and forced migration against the local Jewish population by the Roman Empire (and successor Byzantine State), beginning the Jewish diaspora.
Below Yahweh and Asherah were second tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees.
In 1517, the Turks conquered the country and ruled it until the end of the First World War. Throughout this period, the Wailing Wall continued to be a place of devotion for the Jews. In late 1917, British forces occupied Palestine.
Over time, the belief that Jews have a moral and historic right and need for self-determination in Palestine became the dominant Zionist view. The Zionist claim to Palestine was based on the notion that Jews had a hereditary right to the land that outweighed the equivalent nationalist claims of the local Arabs.
Jews had lived in the area for almost 2000 years prior to the Romans. Before them, there were various tribes - known as the Canaanites. These either assimilated in the Jewish people or were dispersed during the various “big power” conquests e.g. by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Following the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the entire Palestinian Jewish populace was absorbed by Israeli citizenship law. Since then, the term "Palestinian Jew" has largely fallen into disuse, though some Israeli Jews may refer to themselves as Palestinians in historical or political contexts.
