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Nationalism, religion and community: A. B. Salem, the politics of identity and the disappearance of Cochin Jewry*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

James Chiriyankandath
James Chiriyankandath
Affiliation:
Department of Law, Governance and International Relations, London Metropolitan University,Calcutta House, Old Castle Street, London E1 7NT, UK E-mail: j.chiriyankandath@londonmet.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article considers how the existence of an ancient community, the Jews of Cochin on India’s Malabar coast, was transformed by the force of two powerful twentieth-century nationalisms – Indian nationalism and Zionism. It does so through telling the story of a remarkable individual, A. B. Salem, a lawyer, politician, Jewish religious reformer, and Indian nationalist, who was instrumental in promoting the Zionist cause and facilitating the mass migration of the Cochin Jews to Israel. Salem’s story illustrates how the prioritization and translation of kinds of identity into the public sphere is fluid and contingent upon a variety of circumstances, personal as well as the outcome of changes in the wider world.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 21 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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