Indo-Judaic Studies

Nathan Katz, editor-in-chief; Ranabir Chakravarti, Braj M. Sinha, and Shalva Weil, eds. Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A View from the Margin. New York and Houndsmills, Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Pp. vi + 257.

Nathan Katz, the Bhagawan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Florida International University, has overseen the production of an anthology which attempts two formidable tasks. First, Katz seeks to go beyond Hananya Goodman's and other preliminary overviews and define Indo-Judaic studies as a distinct field meritorious of scholarly inquiry.¹ Second, Katz seeks to provide an abundance of new information about Jewish communities in India and Indo-Judaic interactions. Similar histories and sociologies have been previously produced, notably the pre-1993 work of Shalva Weil, the late Walter J. Fischel, and Shirley Berry Isenberg. Three of the scholars represented in this volume—Joan Roland, Barbara Johnson, and Katz himself—all contributed to a 1992 Harvard University conference which compared the Indo-Judaic experience with that of China.² How does this volume define a new field? What new information and insights does it provide about the topic?

Contributions by Katz and Barbara A. Holdrege, cofounder of the American Academy of Religion's Comparative Studies of Hinduisms and Judaisms Group, hew closest to Katz's goal of field definition. According to Katz, "fresh and enlivening perspectives" have emerged from the 2002 Oxford University conference he organized and on which this volume is based (pp. 1–2). Katz defines the field as a multidisciplinary perspective "from the margin." A variety of Indic religions and Judaisms have been marginalized by a traditional Western emphasis on the study of Christianity. Input from the shared experience of Indic and Judaic traditions can inform broader studies of acculturation, assimilation, economic utility, missionizing, and other aspects of racial and religious convergence and conflict. Holdrege, a founding member of the Middle East and South Asia Comparative Studies Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, provides a mantra for Indo-Judaic studies. She argues that "just as comparative studies of South Asia and the Middle East can provide the basis for developing alternative epistemologies to Eurocentric paradigms, comparative studies of Hindu and Jewish traditions can provide the basis for developing alternative epistemologies to the Protestant-based paradigms that have served to perpetuate the ideals of Enlightenment discourse and colonialist projects" (p. 87).

Comparative and case studies support Katz's and Holdrege's definition of field as an alternative to European paradigms. Taken as a whole, these vignettes provide a comprehensive overview of the contacts between two cultures at opposite ends of Eurasia. The studies span several millennia, from biblical times through the near-simultaneous establishment of the modern Indian and Israeli nation-states in the 1940s. These chapters cover ancient and medieval histories of the two peoples; trade patterns; twentieth-century relations between the embryonic Zionist and Indian nationalist movements; and contemporary Judaism and its relations with Indic religious movements (of which Katz is one of the most active interlocutors, particularly with the Dharmsala-based Dalai Lama). The contemporary aspect of the Indo-Judaic relationship has a special relevance because, as of 2003, India has become Israel's second largest trading partner, just behind the United States and ahead of such traditional commercial partners as Germany, the UK, France, Turkey, Singapore, Thailand, and Jordan (p. 1).

Braj J. Sinha compares the mysticisms of Hinduism and Judaism with special reference to the symbolism of the cosmic tree. Margaret Chatterjee delves into cultural comparisons between India and Israel. She points to similarities in the near-simultaneous partitions of British India and British Palestine. In both cases, more Muslims chose to remain in an independent Israel and India than fled their ancestral homes. Both new nations emerged with Muslims as the largest and most significant, but hardly the only, internal minority (p. 239). Both countries have had...