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- Convenors:
-
Heinz Werner Wessler
(University of Uppsala, Dept for Linguistics and Philology)
Boaz Huss (Ben Gurion University)
Shimon Lev (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- Location:
- 13L11/13
- Start time:
- 25 July, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
The panel examines transformations of Jewish Identities in South Asia and the dynamics of the encounters between Jews and Non-Jewish South Asia. We focus on the Jewish communities in South Asia, on the intellectual exchange between Jews and Hindus, and on questions of intercultural dynamics.
Long Abstract:
The panel examines the diverse transformations of Jewish Identities in South Asia and the cultural dynamics of the encounters between Judaism and South Asian cultures in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
The migration of Jews into South Asia in the 19th and 20th century, as well as the mass migration of Jews to Israel in the mid-20th century had a significant impact on the identity of the Jewish South Asian communities. Old forms of Jewish identity were redefined and new forms constructed. At the same period, various forms of cultural interactions occurred between Jewish and South Asian cultures. In this context, the interactions between prominent Indian leaders and intellectuals such as Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru with Martin Buber, Hugo Bergman and others play an important role in the intellectual history of the 20th century.
In the framework of the suggested panel, we would like to investigate diverse aspects of Jewish identities in South Asia, since the 19th century to our days and to explore their political, literary and religious expressions. We would also like to discuss the dynamics of the cultural exchanges between of Jews and non-Jews that took place in the colonial and postcolonial eras in the context of the parallel growth of their respective national movements. We invite scholars from different disciplines, who are interested in the social dynamics of South Asian Jewry and the cultural encounters between Jewish and South Asian cultures to propose lectures for the panel.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Boaz Huss (Ben Gurion University)
Paper short abstract:
The lecture will examine S.S Cohen road from the Theosophical Society to Ramanashram, and analyze the significance of the encounters between the Theosophical Society, modern Hindu Spirituality and Jewish Nationalism.
Paper long abstract:
In 1952, S.S Cohen, who described himself as "A Jew Living in an Ashram", wrote a letter to the editor of the journal "India and Israel", concerning the question of dignity of labor in Judaism and Hinduism. Cohen, who resided at the time in Ramanashram in Tiruvannamalai, included in his letter an enthusiastic description of the recently established Jewish state and its accomplishments.
The author of the letter, S.S Cohen was born in Iraq in 1895. He arrived as a young man in India, became active in the Theosophical Society and was one of the founders of the Association of Hebrew Theosophist, in Adyar in 1925. In 1936, Cohen visited Tiruvannamalai, and became a close disciple of Sri Ramana. Cohen, who died in 1980, and was buried in Ramana's Ashram, published several books on Sri Ramana and on Advaitic Sadhana.
Notwithstanding his Theosophical convictions, and later, his adherence to Sri Ramana, Cohen was very much involved in Jewish matters, and an enthusiastic sympathizer of Zionism and the state of Israel. Cohen wrote on the persecution of the Jews in Germany, on the plights of the Jews in Poland, and on what he described as "unprecedented and unparalleled" heroism of the Jews in Israel.
The lecture will describe S.S Cohen and his road from the Theosophical Society to Ramanashram, examine Cohen's integration of Theosophical ideas, the teaching of Ramana, and Zionism, and analyze the significance of the encounters between the Theosophical Society, modern Hindu Spirituality and Jewish Nationalism.
Joachim Oesterheld (Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
The paper will examine the scope and content of cultural, intellectual and social interactions of German Jewish refugees in India between 1933 and 1945/47.
Paper long abstract:
In a first part the paper will deal with the problems German Jews faced while trying to find refuge in India. After briefly reconstructing the Government of India's role in permitting entry of Germans and in particular of German Jews to the country, the paper looks at Indian reactions towards the asylum seekers. While it seems obvious that the colonial power and the freedom movement as major actors defined to a certain extent the possibilities and quality of interaction taking place between German Jews and Indian communities before and after arrival, individual support by Indians of different faith and social standing plaid a certain role as well.
A second part of the paper will focus on the daily life of the German Jewish refugees. Regarded as enemy aliens they could not escape internment during the first years after the outbreak of World War II. Due to efforts by Jewish organizations and prominent individuals in India and a less strict internment policy by the colonial power, the majority of Jewish refugees remained at large during the war. An attempt will be made to specify the different professions and the living conditions of German Jewish refugee families, couples and individuals. In their interactions with Indian society what role plaid Indian Jewish communities? To what extent German Jews familiarized themselves with other Indian cultures and what have been the repercussions on their Jewish identity? Is there some kind of legacy German Jews left in India?
Heinz Werner Wessler (University of Uppsala, Dept for Linguistics and Philology)
Paper short abstract:
The presentation tries to analyze the latest novel published by the single living Jewish author of fine literature writing in Hindi. The novel is on the problem of defining and maintaining Jewish identity in contemporary India.
Paper long abstract:
In her third novel in Hindi, Sheila Rohekar (born 1942) for the first time goes into her own identity as a Bnai Israel Jew. Miss Samuel finds herself in an isolated situation between a father who dreams of emigration to Israel, but never realizes it, and a brother who overstates his Indian identity, downplaying or even negating his Bnai Israel identity. The family members remain isolated from each other as well as from their surrounding society, which puts them either together with Muslims, Parsis or with Christians, but fails to recognize her "difference". However, she sticks to her belief that "one day this difference will bring the change into the story". Completely isolated at the age of 70, Miss Samuel in her rest home lives off from her memories, trying to put the different strings of her life together, ending up in a dreamless and lonely presence.
Shimon Lev (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Paper short abstract:
In my presentation, I will discuss and demonstrate how through the connections and encounters of Gandhi and especially Tagore with the Jewish world, and their different approaches of Judaism, it is possible to examine the reciprocal understanding of the Indian and Jewish cultures at the time.
Paper long abstract:
Long Abstract
The most prominent Indian personalities in the Indian-Jewish cultural encounter were Mahatma Gandhi, and the poet and prose writer Rabindranath Tagore , who became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. Both Gandhi and Tagore had close and long lasting relationships with prominent Jewish personalities, but their conceptions of Judaism and of Zionism were different. Gandhi's closest supporters in the time of his struggle in South Africa were Jews, such as Herman Kallenbach and Henry Polak. In the late 30th , Gandhi even considered to mediate between Jews and Arabs. Still, he consistently objected Zionism. On the other hand, Tagore, within the context of his exploration of East-West relations, was supportive of Zionist ideals, and expressed interest in the unique role the Jewish people might play in bridging the gap between East and West. Tagore had a wide social network, which included personal contact with Jewish individuals, such as the Sanskrit scholars Moriz Winternitz, Sylvian Levy, The Yiddish author Peretz Hirshbein, Hebrew kindergarden teacher Shlomit Plauom, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, and many others. In my presentation, I will discuss and demonstrate how through the connections and encounters of Gandhi and especially Tagore with the Jewish world, and their different approaches of Judaism, it is possible to examine the reciprocal understanding of the Indian and Jewish cultures at the time.
Anton Zykov
Paper short abstract:
The essay studies a new phenomenon of Judaisation among Indian untouchables in the context of its relations with social hierarchy and state politics of caste. Focused on the Bnei Epraim community in Andhra Pradesh, the essay uses the fieldwork data gathered by the author and personal interviews.
Paper long abstract:
The paper discusses two aspects of the Judaising movements in India with regard to the Bnei Ephraim community of Telugu untouchables in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. Based on the existing research (primarily Yegorova and Shahid studies) and author's field work in the village of Kothareddypalem conducted in November-December 2012, this essay considers the impact that "Judaisation" of the concerned Madiga untouchable group has made on its social and hierarchical status in their native village and beyond.
Further, the paper also researches the legal aspect of the issue with potential circumstances that Judaisation movements among India's socially backward communities has created for the state and its caste policies, with a special view on the reservation issue. The work approaches the history of Bnei Ephraim as an untouchable community claiming the status and rights that characterize other Jewish communities of India, but at the same time being a subject of reservation.
Among the work's major themes is the emergence of India's Judaising movements and its self-identification in the framework of social hierarchies and politics of caste on the local and union levels. Particular attention is drawn to the social change caused by the development of these movements as well as both local and international reaction on its activities.
Navras Aafreedi (Gautam Buddha University)
Paper short abstract:
Exploration of how Jews and non-Jews are portrayed in each other's fiction in India. While it is hard for the Jewish fiction to escape non-Jewish characters, it is surprising to find Jewish characters in the non-Jewish fiction, given the insignificant numbers of Jews in India.
Paper long abstract:
The paper explores how Jews and non-Jews are portrayed in each other's fiction in India in its various languages. It is probably hard for Jewish writers in India to not have non-Jewish characters in any work of theirs even if it is focused on the Jewish life in India, for the Jews in India are miniscule in numbers and surrounded by a huge sea of non-Jewish population. On the other hand the fact that Jews figure as characters in some works of non-Jewish fiction of India is itself surprising for most of the Indians never come into any direct contact with Jews because of their small numbers. Their perceptions of Jews are largely based on what they come to know about them through secondary sources, mostly unreliable. It is also interesting considering the fact that most of the Indians are ignorant of Jews and tend to mix them up with Zoroastrians (another tiny religious community in India but much larger in numbers than the Jews there) and sometimes even with Christians and Muslims. This is in spite of a continuous Jewish presence in India for possibly two millennia and at least twelve centuries.
Curiosity in the depiction of non-Jews in India's Jewish fiction arises as a result of the fact that anti-Semitism has been unknown in India, making the Jewish experience in India different from their experience anywhere else in the world.