The Unknown Community

India is perhaps the only country in the world where Jews have not faced discrimination or persecution at the hands of the majority community.

- Jaideepa A. Prabhu

COMPARED TO THEIR brothers in faith in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, very little is known about the Jewish community in India. Three immediate reasons come to mind for this: the first is the minuscule size of the group, which peaked at approximately 30,000 around the time of Indian independence. A second reason for the relative nondescript status of the Jews of the subcontinent might be that they have left behind fewer records than their co-religionists around the world. This may partly be because India did not discriminate against its Jews to warrant separate laws or other instruments which may have left behind a paper trail. The third reason could be that the Jews of India have not had any spectacular achievers as were seen in Europe—Baruch Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, Niels Bohr, Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud, and the like.

It is not clear when the first permanent Jewish settlement in India was established. There is evidence that Jewish merchants have come to the subcontinent for trade in teak, ivory, spices, peacock, ginger, and other items for at least 3,000 years. However, the first Jews to immigrate to India are thought to be the Bene Israel who were shipwrecked off the Konkan coast around 175 BCE. Others say that the first wave of Jewish immigrants was even earlier, in the eighth century BCE. This is supported by Biblical references to connections with India.