India’s ties to Israel have generally gotten stronger since the Narendra Modi administration took office in 2014. Israel has been informing India for some time that there is a discrepancy between the bilateral relations and their expansion on the multilateral track, according to the assumption that India and Israel have become their closest allies.
Racism faced by Indian Jews in Israel
The Jewish community of India is only one of many different communities that have settled there after migrating from outside the nation’s current territorial boundaries.
The Indian Jews assert a 2000-year history in the area. They discovered a place to call home and an identity in India, which they treasured for years to come. According to scholars, India is still the only country in the entire world where Jews have not encountered anti-Semitism.
Given that Indian Jews were not a monolithic community, it is important to evaluate the Jewish emigration from India to Israel and how they settled there. In India, there are four primary Jewish sects.
There were substantial disparities in ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural practices among the four Jewish groups in India. Naturally, there were also fundamental areas where the four branches diverged and denigrated one another. Particularly during the first several decades of migration, the Indian Jews experienced a relatively problematic reception due to internal conflicts among them and color prejudice from Jews of European descent in Israel.
According to reports, the Bene Israel, who hail primarily from Maharashtra, experienced the worst persecution when they first arrived in Israel.
Modi’s Stance on ties with Israel
The foreign policy advisors of the Modi administration have resolutely resisted giving in on this issue. On October 7, five days after Hamas entered Israel from the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) broke its silence. India reiterated its long-running Arab-Israel policies at the global level when MEA Spokesman Arindam Bagchi did so.
In the meantime, Modi told his Israeli colleague Benjamin Netanyahu, who called New Delhi on October 10, that India is “standing in unity with Israelis during this tough time” on the bilateral front. Since Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao reestablished complete diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, this ‘long-standing’ policy has been in effect.
The Palestine conflict may have been sidelined by the rest of the world, but the Security Council of the United Nations still discusses it once a month. India reinforced its long-standing Arab-Israel stance throughout its previous two-year UN UN Security Council membership in the organization, which Bagchi has recently recommitted MEA to.
RSS on Israel – Palestine Conflict
As an original founder of the Jan Sangh and an affiliated member of the RSS, Upadhyaya wrote a book, The title was “Integral Humanism,” which the Jan RSS and later the BJP embraced in 1965 as its official doctrine. It is still regarded as the BJP’s political philosophy.
Upadhyaya’s connection is the source of the unparalleled show of support for Israelis currently from Indians, not just in India but all throughout the world.
Minister of Israel to India Naor Gilon noted in an interview that there were so many Indians who volunteered to help Israel that the latter could practically build an additional branch in the Israel Defence Force (IDF) despite thanking India and Modi’s cooperation.
A quick glance at social media would reveal that the majority of the BJP’s supporters in India are responsible for this onslaught of general support.
At its core, Savarkar’s viewpoint plays a significant role in why BJP followers swarm X (previously Twitter) with tags like “India with Israel” and the national flag icons of the two countries.
