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0:00 Intro
0:50 Are there any native Jews in India?
2:14 Origin of Jewish communities in Southern India
3:26 Etymology of 'Paradesi' Jews
4:09 Jewish presence in European outposts in India
5:15 Arrival of the Jews in Madras
5:56 The Jewish neighborhood of Madras
6:46 Prominent Jewish families of Madras
7:10 Decline of the Jewish community of Madras
7:40 Jewish vestiges in Chennai
According to the 2011 census, the total number of Jews in India is 4650 people.
They belong to very different communities with different origins.
Among these different groups we find the the Paradesi Jews.
They are the descendants of Sephardic Jews groups coming from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) who were forced to flee from a discriminatory background made of forced conversion, persecutions and expulsions during the 15th and 16th centuries.
They dispersed in different areas of the world, from Northern Europe, to the Caribbean, and even to Asia.
In India they mainly relocated to two areas:
- in Kerala, where they took the name of Cochin Jews, as they had their center in the coastal city of Cochin (Kochi). This was the first community of Jewish Paradesi to settle in India. Their presence here has been recorded since the last years of the 15th century. Over time, this community specialized in the spice trade;
- in Tamil Nadu, in the city of Madras (Chennai), following to which they took the name of Madras Jews. The Jewish Paradesi flocked here immediately after the foundation of the English settlement of Fort St George in 1639, which was founded by the British authorities to undermine the Portuguese monopoly on the trade in diamonds and precious stones from the Golconda mines.
In fact, the Jewish Paradesi community of Madras specialized in the trade of diamonds, precious stones and corals. Their presence grew in number and importance throughout the following century.
With their role, the Madras Jews thus contributed to the fortune and the city of Madras and its role as a British outpost for the progressive expansion in the Subcontinent.
However, since the second half of the 17th century, as the Golconda mines started to run dry, they began to relocate elsewhere to continue their occupation in trading diamonds and precious stones. That market the begin of the decline of the Madras Jews.
Today, they are reduced to one single, last family.
This is the story of the last foreign Jewish Paradesi family of Madras.
I would like to thank two people:
- Siona Benjamin, an Indian-American Jewish artist, whose wonderful works have been of big source for the graphics of this video ;
- David Levi, one of the last few native Jews of Chennai, whose efforts in transmitting the legacy of his community and the history of his city, inspired me to make this video.
And....Thanks to Sanjana Ranjit ( / sanjanaranjit.art ) for the stunning thumbnail artwork!
#Paradesi #Chennai #IndianJews
Негізгі бет The last Indian Jews of Madras (Chennai)
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