ABSTRACT
In 1931, Bene Israel and Baghdadis in Bombay convened a joint public meeting to consider whether Jews of India needed to have seats reserved for them in the provincial and central legislatures. Some of the conflicts between the two communities had already begun to subside. Zion's Messenger, the Baghdadi paper, had reported favorably on the Bene Israel Conference held in December 1921, stressing the loyalty resolutions and the Bene Israel pride in the selection of Lord Reading as viceroy of India. Facets of the interaction between the two Jewish communities in Bombay can be understood by examining the relationship of the Bene Israel to Baghdadi institutions such as the schools and the Sassoon mills, although the mills might not ordinarily be considered an institution. The government in India, in both cases, echoed the decision made by the government in England: no distinctions were to be made between Jews for political or any other purposes.
