ABSTRACT
The process of identity formation was more complex for the Bene Israel, who had been part and parcel of the Indian environment for many centuries, than for the Baghdadis, who adamantly resisted being considered Indian. Especially after 1870, serious cleavages between the Baghdadis and the Bene Israel appeared. By the end of the nineteenth century the ambiguity of the relations between the Bene Israel and the Baghdadis was reflected in Bene Israel periodicals. The Indian conditions of caste, color, and, espe-daily in this period, community may have become more important than the Baghdadis' concerns over religious observances, since even they had grown more lax in that area, though religious objections were still raised. Although most politically aware Bene Israel in Bombay seemed preoccupied with nationalist and communal problems in 1917, the Friend of Israel, at least, manifested some interest in Zionism.
