Nathan Katz
JEWS AND INDIA
MUTUAL INFLUENCES OVER TWO MILLENNIA
New Delhi, India: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2023, ISBN: 978-939426-2423
Reviewed by Sayan Lodh1
Most Indians are aware of the close partnership between the State of Israel and the Republic of India in contemporary times. Yet, only a few know about the rich cultural ties between Judaism2 and Indic3 religions stretching back to ancient times. Interactions between Jewish and Indic cultures even gave birth to new languages such as Judaeo-Malayalam and Judaeo-Marathi. Nathan Katz’s Jews and India: Mutual Influences over Two Millennia fills this gap in knowledge. It is perhaps the first work to compare Judaism with Indic religions (Hinduism and Buddhism) while providing details about the history, culture, and unique customs of Indian Jews. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book consists of sixteen chapters arranged in three thematic parts: “Indian Jewish Communities,’ Individual Jewish Lives,” and “Interreligious Dialogues.”
In the Foreword, Vasudha Narayanan provides a brief glimpse into Indian Jews, Hinduism, and Judaism, themes that dominate the book’s narrative. The Introduction offers the context of the work, alongside a summary of its contents. The absence of antisemitism (the book uses Anti-semitism) from the Indian psyche is reiterated. This absence allowed the Jews to reside freely and thrive in India amidst a multi-religious society without ghettoization or persecution. Katz notes the diverse experiences of the three historical Indian Jewish communities: Cochini were “acculturated, but not assimilated”; Bene Israel “emerged from assimilation into acculturation”; and Baghdadis were “aloof”. (380)
The first part consists of five chapters. The Historical Traditions of the Jews of Kochi narrates the tale of Cochini Jews from the moment of their arrival in Cranganore/Shingly after the destruction of the Second Temple until contemporary times with reference to ten images unveiled during the program to commemorate the four hundred-year anniversary of the Paradesi synagogue, which was attended by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Katz further compares their origin legends to those of the Christians, Muslims, and Hindus of Kerala. The unique customs or minhagim (in contrast to Jewish religious law halacha), Jewish festivals, and the methods by which the Cochini Jews navigated and obtained high socio-economic status within the hierarchical Indian caste system while complying with the halacha are discussed in the second chapter. The Cochinis incorporated the Brahminical symbols of ascetism and purity from the priestly Namboodiri (Brahmins) in their Passover observances, and Nair (upper-caste elite) symbols of nobility-royalty in their Simchat Torah and marriage customs.
During Passover, even Jain food which is stricter than vegan became impure for Cochinis. The Koder family accommodated non-Jews at their Seder table by keeping two separate tables under the same tablecloth (77-81). In the 1930s, Cecil Koder introduced water fights, akin to the Hindu festival of Holi, in Simchat Torah observance. The Jew Town in Cochin became a virtual battleground with people throwing pails of water at each other (86).
The third chapter compares the experiences of Jewish communities in Cochin, now Kochi, and Kaifeng in China. The open nature of Chinese society, which allowed entry for foreigners in the civil services, led to the Sinicization of Jews and the community’s ultimate demise through assimilation. The closed and complex caste system in India allowed for a diverse society with every religion being accommodated as a caste-like group within the hierarchy. Hence, the Cochini community could thrive and finally make aliyah post-1948.
The fourth chapter is dedicated to the Baghdadi Jews of Bombay and Calcutta, alongside their offshoot communities in Rangoon, now Yangon, Myanmar, and Malay Peninsula, now Malaysia and Singapore. The discriminatory attitudes of Baghdadis towards their Bene Israel co-religionists are mentioned. The gradual development of the study of Indian Jewish communities, i.e., Indo-Judaic Studies, through a multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary approach across five different waves of scholarship starting in the twentieth century is traced in the fifth chapter.
The second section comprises five chapters. The sixth chapter analyzes the seventeenth century mystical Yogi-Sufi saint of Armenian-Jewish descent, Sarmad Kashani. Sarmad is known for his eccentric lifestyle and controversial views on contemporary religions. His dargah near Jama Masjid in Delhi, is a revered site. Katz, in the seventh chapter, explores the central role played by the Prophets and mystics in Indian Jewish communities akin to that of grama devata or “village deities,” among Hindus for fulfillment of vows: Nehemiah Mota (Cochini), Elijah the Prophet (Bene Israel), and Ezra the Scribe (Baghdadi). The tomb of sixteenth century Kabbalist Nehemiah Mota functions as an object of veneration for local Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Jews. The Bene Israel Malida complex rite consists of offering food and prayers to Elijah, possibly derived from Hindu method of worship, coupled with rituals for realization of wishes. Baghdadis routinely invoked Ezra for aid in any dangerous works and patronized his shrine at Al-Uzair. Katz notes that these practices act as “a method for acculturation into the local society” (190).
The tripartite division of Cochin Jewry into White (Paradesis), Brown (Meshuchrarim), and Black (Malabaris) groups under the influence of the Hindu caste system is explored in Chapter 8 aptly named “Jewish Apartheid and a Jewish Gandhi.” Like Hindu upper-castes, the White Jews discriminated and adopted exclusionary practices against the colored ones, even going beyond halacha, such as denying them access to synagogues. A.B. Salem, “Jewish Gandhi,” adopted Gandhian non-violent methods such as sit-ins and hunger strikes, to protest for the rights of the colored Jews. Ultimately, these discriminatory practices were fully abolished only in the 1970s after continuous struggle by members of Salem’s family.
Chapter 9 is based on a rabbinic text noting the interactions between Rabbi Abdallah Somekh of Baghdad and his nephew Yehezqel Gabbai of Bombay regarding Jewish ethics and business dealings in the Malabar pepper trade. It is interesting to note that Gabbai’s Hindu agents are referred to as B’nei Noah, “Sons of Noah’”, indicating their acceptance, in place of the pejorative term for non-Jews, ovdei avoda zara or idolators or pagans. The experience of American Jewish soldiers in Calcutta during the Second World War through the eyes of Tech. Sgt. Gross is looked at in tenth Chapter.
The third portion of the book is divided into six chapters. In the eleventh chapter, Katz discusses the 1990 Jewish-Buddhist dialogue at Dharamshala, convened by the Dalai Lama to understand the “Jewish secret” for preserving their traditions over a two millennia-long exile. This dialogue was attended by eight Jewish Rabbis and scholars, as well as other Tibetan leaders. Katz observes that such exchanges are not new, as demonstrated by the Sanskrit loan words in the Hebrew Bible and similar legends surrounding King Solomon and Buddha. In response to the Dalai Lama’s question regarding the lesser prevalence of Jewish esotericism, Moshe Waldoks remarked that more than 80 percent of Jewish Rabbis and teachers were killed during the Holocaust: “Our esoteric teachings died in Hitler’s ovens, too” (282-283).
An English translation of the Tibetan language pamphlet An Outline of the History of Israel (1973) by Jamyang Norbu forms the next chapter. In the thirteenth chapter, Katz traces the Jewish-Buddhist relations from ancient to contemporary times. Home-centered Judaism evoked diverse responses from Asian nationalisms: mixed (Hindus), absence (Buddhist), negative (Thai), and idealized (Tibetan). Katz introduces the term “JuBu” for Jews who have adopted Buddhist practice while retaining their Jewishness.
In the fourteenth chapter the parallels between Advaita Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism are discussed with respect to the ideas of philosopher Maurice Friedman. According to Friedman, interreligious dialogues should consist of three aspects: “mutual respect, openness, and a focus on the concrete” (346). Katz addresses the Hindu-Jewish encounters that have developed in contemporary times based upon two common features: “primacy of orthopraxy over orthodoxy,” and “symmetrical” social position in the penultimate chapter (354). He borrows concepts from Martin Buber and Leonard Swidler to lay down the tenets of dialogue. Diasporization and modernization are explained with reference to Tibetans and Jews, among others. A brief glimpse into Jewish history, sacred texts, Zionism, mysticism, theology, customs, festivals, and calendar-based and life-cycle rituals is offered in the concluding chapter. The divisions within Judaism according to culture and ethnicity, e.g. Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi, and observances of religious rituals and laws as in Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox are discussed. In some places, parallels are drawn with Hinduism, such as the bride circling the bridegroom seven times during the marriage ceremony.
The instance of thriving Jewish communities in India over the past two millennia challenges the dominant narrative in Jewish studies – the normalization of the persecution experienced by European Jews across the global Jewish diaspora. The book offers a nuanced understanding of the diversity among Jewish communities in India, their experiences in altering their rituals and customs to suit Indian society while at the same time staying within the norms of halacha. The accommodation of the discriminatory and hierarchical aspects of the caste system in Judaism, and Abrahamic religions in a larger sense, in Kerala, even straying beyond Judaic norms, offers a new perspective on Indian society. The cross-cultural encounters between non-proselytizing religions such as Judaism and Hinduism, which enrich both, are beautifully displayed in the book.
The book will serve as an introduction to Judaism for most Indians, who often equate Judaism with the State of Israel, i.e., perceiving all Jews across the world to be Israelis. The book combines varied themes into a lucid volume: history, unique rituals, and the socio-religious lives of Indian Jewish communities; a few individual Jews who left their mark on India’s history, such as A.B. Salem; and the emerging interreligious dialogues between Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Katz raises the point of the Bene Israel Jews becoming a “crucial reference group” for the Judaizing movements of India, Bene Menashe and Bene Ephraim. Despite its name, the book also provides information about the Jews of Kaifeng, as well as the Christians, St. Thomas Christians, locally called Nazrani Mapillas, and Muslims, Jonaka Mapillas, of Kerala. Mapilla is a respectful Malayalam term meaning son-in-law, indicating the accommodation of Christians and Muslims within the local society.
Jews and India does not have any major shortcomings as such. The discussion about the Bene Israel Jews and the Judaizing movements could have been a little more detailed. One shortcoming noted by Katz himself is that the book does not discuss the recently emerging Jewish-Jain dialogue. The repetition of some ideas across chapters is understandable, given that each of these has been previously published. A cheaper paperback version would make the book more accessible to Indian readers, as previously noted by Aravindan Neelakandam.4
In contemporary times, Indian Jews are “doubly marginal’” (68) as Jews in India and Indians within world Jewry. In the next couple of centuries, Judaism may become extinct in India, given its minuscule numbers. In such a situation, works like Jews and India are important to preserve the memory of a Jewish community in a society whose dictionary lacks the term “Antisemitism.” Overall, the book by Nathan Katz, one of the founding figures of the discipline of Indo-Judaic Studies, is a well-researched and easy-to-read work with ideas flowing freely across the chapters. It will be extremely beneficial for scholars across various disciplines in humanities and social sciences, and laypersons who wish to know about the sojourn of Jews in India, interreligious dialogues, the caste system, Indian society, and Judaism in general.
1 Sayan Lodh is a PhD candidate at the Department of History, Presidency University, Kolkata, India. His proposed thesis will be on the Judaizing movements in India, i.e. emergence of Jews among communities without any past association with Judaism. His primary areas of interest are Indo-Judaic Studies, Antisemitism, and mass violence with a focus on India.
2 There are about 5000 Indian Jews out of the total population of 1.2 million according to the 2011 census. Moreover, unlike Islam or Christianity, the history of Judaism is more or less absent from primary or secondary levels of education, except CBSE and ICSE boards. Even at tertiary level, only a few institutes, such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, O.P. Jindal Global University, and Presidency University, offer courses related to Israel and/or Judaism.
3 The Indic family of religions comprises of Hinduism, also called Sanatana dharma or eternal religion/law, and its sister religions that branched out of it such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Among them Jainism has the strictest dietary requirements.
4 Aravindan Neelakandam, Swarajya Magazine, Aug 11, 2024.