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{{Original research|date=September 2007}}

'''Desi Jews''' are [[Jew]]s living in [[South Asia]] (or originally from this region, also known as the [[Indian subcontinent]]) who belong to communities that had been integrated into South Asian culture and society.

The term [[Desi]], found in most South Asian languages, is used by the South Asians to refer to themselves. It means "one of us, of our land", alluding to a common culture (the opposite is Paradesi or ''Videshi'' aka non-Desi, "foreigner", see [[Paradesi Jews]]). After the 1947 [[Partition of India|partition]], the term is also employed when it is intended to avoid any allusion to the specific state of origin, also when the topic involves all the [[South Asia|Indian subcontinent]]. Many outsiders tend to indiscriminately use the word "Indian" for South Asian people and culture. This might be considered offensive by non-Indian Desi (the state of [[India]] is just a part of the Indian subcontinent).

Unlike other areas of the world, the Jewish communities were accepted and integrated in the local society of the Indian subcontinent. Also, similar to the [[Parsi people|Parsis]], and other (originally) foreign communities, the preservation of group identity was facilitated by the [[Caste|caste system]]. In Desi society, a person's allegiance to a group, part of its fabric, is presumed and respected.

The Desi Jewish communities are some of the oldest in world, with more than 2000 years of continuity in the Indian subcontinent (such as the [[Cochin Jews]] and the [[Bene Israel]]). Most of them lived on the coast of the [[Arabian Sea]]. They were involved in trade in the [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]] area, also in the production of oil. A turning point was the arrival of the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] in the 16th century. They introduced the [[Inquisition]] on the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, persecuting the Jewish and [[Syrian Malabar Nasrani|Christian]] communities. The arrival of the Europeans facilitated the immigration of Jews with [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] and [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi]] backgrounds. In the times of the [[British Raj]] the arrival of the Sephardim and Mizrahim who were to be considered "Europeans" by the British authority, hence their name of [[Paradesi Jews]] ("White Jews") created some friction with the shunned older Desi communities.

After the mid-20th century, when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned and [[Israel]] gained independence, most Desi Jews [[Aliyah|emigrated]] mainly to Israel.

== See also ==
* [[Cochin Jews]]
* [[Bene Israel]]
* [[Baghdadi Jews]]
* [[Bnei Menashe]]
* [[Bene Ephraim]]
* [[Knanaya]]
* [[Judeo-Malayalam]]
* [[Judæo-Marathi]]
* [[Pakistani Jews]]

== References ==
* Dicţionar enciclopedic de iudaism, Editura Hasefer, București, 2000, {{ISBN|973-9235-99-9}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.rediff.com/us/2000/mar/08us2.htm Emigrants in New York]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060319035815/http://www.indiastar.com/wallia28.htm Who Are the Jews of India?]
* [http://www.the-south-asian.com/March2001/Jews_of_India-Intro.htm Jews of India]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060423090103/http://www.nhsf.org.uk/images/stories/HinduDharma/Interfaith/hinduzion.pdf Large collection of quotes by Hindu philosophers and writers against Anti-Semitism]

[[Category:Indian Jews| ]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in India]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Pakistan]]
[[Category:Pakistani Jews]]
[[Category:South Asian Jews]]

Desi Jews - Revision history

imported>Cewbot at 06:16, 23 July 2021