The Indian Independence from colonial rule and the cold war era tensions in the global polity forced Nehru, the First PM of India to adopt a Non-Alignment approach towards International Politics. These principles of Non-Alignment had its impact on the policies towards the Indian Diasporic communities spread across the world and in the case of the Indian Jewish communities that migrated post the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. Though diplomatic relations were formally established in 1992, a shift in the Indian Diasporic policy came in much later, with PM Modi being the first to officially visit Israel and meet those communities.
The rationale for such a study was a result of the changing diaspora policy by the Modi government and the lack of sufficient literature about the Indian Jewish communities post their migration from India. Being Indian, Being Israeli by Maina Chawla Singh, is considered as the most important book written about this topic. Thus, this paper tries to use an ethnographic approach to understand the questions of Identity and belonging surrounding the Cochini and Bene Israeli community, who migrated during the 1960’s and 70’s.
This paper identifies how the assimilation of these communities in the new land was challenging as they faced discrimination due to their skin colour and Asian Lineage. Though these incidents of discrimination were hampering their acceptance within the newly formed Israeli society, the community tried to retain their Identity of Indianness along with Israeliness, thus trying to find a right balance between the concept of “Mother India and Father Israel”.