One of the most extraordinary facts about Indian Jewish history is the near-complete absence of antisemitism on the Indian subcontinent. While Jewish communities in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa endured centuries of persecution, expulsion, forced conversion, and mass murder, the Jews of India lived in peace alongside their Hindu and Muslim neighbors for nearly two thousand years.
A History Without Pogroms
The Bene Israel of Maharashtra, the Cochin Jews of Kerala, and the Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta and Bombay all tell the same story: Indian rulers, from the ancient Chera kings of Kerala to the Mughal emperors and the British colonial administration, consistently granted Jewish communities the freedom to practice their religion, maintain their customs, and build their synagogues without interference. Not a single pogrom against Indian Jews is recorded in the historical literature.
The Chera King and the Copper Plates
The most famous symbol of this tolerant relationship is the Jewish copper plates of Cochin, dated around 1000 AD. Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Manukuladitya granted the Jewish merchant Joseph Rabban and his descendants special privileges: the right to collect certain taxes, to ride in palanquins, to be carried on an elephant, and to have trumpets blown before them. These were the same rights given to local Hindu nobility. No other Jewish community anywhere in the ancient world received comparable royal recognition.
Why India Was Different
Scholars point to several factors behind this unique historical record. Hindu theology has no tradition of blaming Jews for the death of a god, and Hinduism’s pluralistic philosophy left room for religious difference without demanding conversion. India also had no Inquisition, no crusading movements targeting non-Christians, and no state apparatus committed to religious uniformity. Jewish traders brought valuable goods and commercial knowledge; they were economically useful and socially integrated, not scapegoated.
A Legacy That Endures
This history shapes how Indian Jews themselves remember their time on the subcontinent. Many who emigrated to Israel carry a deep affection for India alongside their Jewish identity. The Indian government has maintained consistently warm diplomatic and people-to-people ties with Israel, and scholars of Jewish history regularly cite India as the one major civilization in which Jews experienced genuine and sustained welcome.
Source: History of the Jews in India – Wikipedia