Jews And India : A Complex Civilizational History

Jews and India: Mutual Influences over Two Millennia. Nathan Katz. Manohar Publishers & Distributors. Pages 416. Rs 2,043

For many Indians Israel and India are natural friends because they face the same existential threats. But beyond that they never much think about the cultural and spiritual bonds that may exist between the two ancient civilizations through history.

Nathan Katz, Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Florida University who teaches Jain studies is also the founder editor of the Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies.

A heartful and scholarly life-time study of the two civilizations has been condensed into the book, Jews and India Mutual Influence Over Two Millennia (Manohar Publishers, 2023).

The book explores in 16 chapters, divided into three main parts, the history of Jewish heritage in India, interaction between Indians and Jews through individual experiences and the future of Indian-Jewish relations as well as inter-religious dialogues between them with an open-hearted discussion of the possibilities and challenges.

The book covers the entire Hindu family of religions, which mainly includes Hinduism and Buddhism. It also crosses the boundaries of India and covers the larger Indian land mass.

For those who are interested in the myth of St. Thomas in India the book provides quite some interesting and curious data. More important is the way early Jews in the western coasts of southern India adapted themselves to Indian culture with their own intricate theological values.

The localised practice of Judaism, the minhagim of Cochin Jews evolved over a millennia, Prof. Katz points out. Understanding it properly needs appreciation of Indian culture as well as understanding of Judaism.

Usually visitors to the Cochin Jew Town lack knowledge of either one of them. Here is a sample of how lucidly the author explains the delicate interplay of Jewish religion in a Hindu land:

The discussion of caste hierarchy and Cochin Jewish society is another important aspect of the book.

An important critique of the dominant Western approach to caste system, that of Louis Dumont (of the notorious Homo Hierarchicus description of Indian society) is given here. Though in the context of the Jewish community finding a place in the larger ‘Brahminical’ society, the critique can be actually extended to almost all Hindu castes and their place in the Varna matrix.

While the parallels between the Jews and the Namboodiris and Nairs might look to affirm Dumont’s ‘attributional’ approach wherein ‘a caste’s rank derives from the characteristics of its way of life, high or low according to the criteria of collective purity’, the author favours in the context of Kerala Jews ‘an ‘interactional’ approach’ by which the ‘...castes are ranked according to the structure of interaction among them...[especially in] the ritualised giving and receiving of food’ where emphasis in ranking of castes is more on transactions than on qualities. (p.66)

This transactions model was the theory proposed by sociologist McKim Marriott who intensely studied Indian society and was perhaps one of those rare Western scholars who came to understand Hindu society through Hindu categories.

In a strange coincidence, as I chose to write this review in July of 2024, on the third of this month Marriott has passed into eternity. Unfortunately while the multidimensional model of Marriott has been largely ignored, it was the work of Dumont that enjoys a superior position in Indian curriculum.

One will also learn about very interesting Jewish characters even in late medieval Indian history and that too far from the south.

One such name is Sarmad. The book beautifully explores his life, blending historical narration with the mystical dimensions of his journey, examining the interplay between monotheism and non-dualist monism.

There is a debate between the relation between the mystic experience, monism and theism. The author quotes Steven Katz who while arguing for multiple mysticisms as there are religious traditions, also emphasizes that the extra-linguistic (‘ineffable’) experience becomes intelligible subsequently through the language of the mystic’s tradition (p.172).

It is in this context that the author situates Sarmad, the Jew born mystic who moved through the porous boundaries of all sacred spaces -from synagogue to masjid to mandir – finally to be killed by Aurangzeb.

Katz quotes what he calls a ‘puzzling quatrain’ of Sarmad and states:

In the quatrain in question Sarmad says how he abandoned Judaism to come to Islam and then for whatever shortcoming he found in it, he turned away from them and became the disciple of Rama and Lakshmana.

Though Katz states that despite this quatrain no biographer or scholar had ascribed a Hindu identity to Sarmad, there indeed is a scholarly work by Lakhpat Rai who was the honourable editor of Kalyana Kalpataru of Gorakhpur Gita Press.

Sarmad His Life & Rubais is a surprisingly scholarly and even a secular work from the publishers Hanumanprasad Poddar Smarak Samiti. The book, a result of eight years of intense research and love, brings out through commentaries a universal mystic experience that exudes in every quatrain of Sarmad.

In his commentary on the above said quatrain Rai remarks:

In the back cover of the book Rai writes:

Yet Rai also did not emphatically call Sarmad a ‘Hindu’. But this work is definitely one of the finest works on Sarmad and his Rubais with commentary that includes perspectives from not only Bhakti literature but also from sources as diverse as Dhammapada.

My own visit to the grave of Sarmad was propelled not only by this book but also by the social media posts of Prof. Katz who takes regularly a group of students of cross-cultural studies to various places in India which almost always includes the tomb of Sarmad. It is now a very regular Muslim Dargah.

Coming back to the book, the chapter on interfaith dialogue is a very useful guide for non-expansionist non-monopolistic religious scholars and activists.

Katz clearly exposes the evangelical agenda that is present even in the supposedly enlightened framework of Vatican-II. Coming from an erudite scholar of religion, this is a major statement on agenda-based inter-religious dialogues.

One of the most beautiful parts of the books is titled ‘The Dalai Lama’s Jewish Secret’. It is a chapter that shows us the beauty of the innate spiritual strengths of our religious traditions irrespective of all the variations that may even be cerebrally irreconcilable.

Here is a small paragraph that describes an end of a summit meeting between Dalai Lama and Jewish delegates:

That is what this book is also all about. Opening the doors of our hearts widely – to let in all the diversity while acknowledging our limitations and being anchored in our identities and then learn with love and mutual respect.

The dark realities of the swords of Aurangzeb and ovens of Hitler cannot contain or murder the indwelling light of the collective spiritual heritage of humanity.

A must read for any student of Indian as well as Jewish history, culture, sociology and any student of any religion interested in inter-religious dialogue with mutual respect and love. The hardcover is too costly for an average Indian reader, a paperback can make this important book reach a wider audience.