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I read an interesting story about Jews in Mumbai in last week’s issue of Outlook.

One statement stood out in the story…

What enabled the Bene-Israeli Jews, India’s largest and oldest Jewish community, to maintain their faith in isolation from Jews worldwide? Esther David calls it “nothing short of a miracle”. India is the only country in the world, she adds, where the Jews escaped persecution of any sort.

Intrigued, I Googled for confirmation of this ‘fact’ from other sources… and found this article by one Dr. Shalva Weil in the Online Museum of the Jewish People. This was the first paragraph in the article…

The Bene Israel are probably the only Jewish community in the world today which did not experience anti-Semitism. Living in harmony with their Indian neighbors for two thousand years, they were free to practice Judaism and develop as a community.

and this as the starting quote in another article in the online news magazine The South-Asian..

“Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Indian Jewish experience is the complete absence of discrimination by a host majority. The secret of India’s tolerance is the Hindu belief which confers legitimacy on a wide diversity of cultural and religious groups even as it forbids movement from one group to another.” - Raphael Meyer

The same article goes on to add…

India has, historically, been a refuge and sheltered people of all religions, creeds and beliefs – Zoroastrians, Jews, Sufis, and more recently Bahais - all were granted protection and security when they sought it. They were accepted into the fold of the mainstream society, given land and equal opportunity to excel in their profession of choice – and remain Indians. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism are religions of the land – all were born in India. The central Asian invaders brought Islam. The colonial powers brought Christianity. India remained a large-hearted host to all, enriched its cultural heritage – and became a truly secular nation. People from all communities rose to become eminent citizens of the land.

**For those who want to know more, I suggest you start at Wikipedia’s main page on Indian Jews.

I would not have blogged about this but for yesterday’s outrage. I decided to be positive after yesterday’s lapse (which I will not edit).

Here are a few words in praise of India by some famous people:

• “India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.” Mark Twain
• “So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.” Mark Twain.
• “India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.” Mark Twain again.
• “India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all”. Will Durant.
• “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.” Albert Einstein.
• “If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.” Max Müller.
• “If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.” Romain Rolland.
• “India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.” Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA.

and finally an anonymous ‘Rough Guide to India’..

“It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does humanity present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues. Enriched by successive waves of migration and marauders from distant lands, every one of them left an indelible imprint which was absorbed into the Indian way of life. Every aspect of the country presents itself on a massive, exaggerated scale, worthy in comparison only to the superlative mountains that overshadow it. It is this variety which provides a breathtaking ensemble for experiences that is uniquely Indian. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India would be to describe or understand India completely. There are perhaps very few nations in the world with the enormous variety that India has to offer. Modern day India represents the largest democracy in the world with a seamless picture of unity in diversity unparalleled anywhere else.”