India and the Holocaust: Understandings and Representations.

Perhaps because there has never been any anti-Semitism in India on the part of the Indian people and the local Jews were not directly affected by the Holocaust, the subject of India and the Holocaust has been little studied. Yet, it has many facets, including Indian awareness of the Holocaust at the time; interactions between Jews and non-Jews with Central European refugees who arrived in India; and Jewish leaders` efforts to persuade Gandhi to speak out on behalf of the Jews. Today, many Indians, quite ignorant of the nature of the Holocaust, admire Hitler not, like modern neo-Nazis, for his racist ideology and his persecution of the Jews, but for the strong state authority he brought to Germany. Occasionally boutique businesses open using his name and Nazi insignia although these are quickly changed in response to international protests. The very few attempts to teach about the Holocaust in universities have sometimes elicited negative commentary in the Indian Muslim press. And yet, Indian writers frequently appropriate Holocaust terminology , re-contextualizing the vocabulary, to describe local atrocities, whether at the hands of tbe British or the inter-communal massacres occurring during Partition. This paper is an introduction to the responses to the Holocaust by Jews and non-Jews in India as it was happening and now, to education about the Holocaust, and to representations of it in modern Indian discourse. It is based on Indian archival material, the press and other commentary, educational materials , and interviews.