ABSTRACT
I would like to begin my discussion of Jewish themes in modern India by considering the way the Jewish topic was represented there in general. In dealing with this question, attention will be paid to the socio-religious discourses of the nineteenth century and the Indian nationalist discourses of the later British period. The sources of the first group will comprise mainly the writings of Christian missionaries and of Hindu reformers. It may be suggested that it is these sources that are the first to cast some light on the Indian notions about the Jews and Judaism. The spread of Protestant missions in British India represented an important factor in the creation of the Indian perceptions of the Jews on a more or less large scale, as it was due to them that Indians were introduced to the Bible and, in the absence of a sizeable Jewish community, for many in India the Bible was the first and only source of knowledge about the Jews. Writings by Christian missionaries also provide references to these first responses of Indians to Jewish topics. Jewish themes appear also in works by Hindu reformers and Indian nationalists. In this chapter I shall consider how the Jews were portrayed in the sources in question and in what contexts Jewish topics appear, and I shall try to determine whether there was any continuity in the way Jews were presented in the reformist and nationalist discourses.
