While it is true that a large number of Indian Jews have left the subcontinent for Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom since 1947, the causes for this population loss are debatable. The writing produced by the Indian Jewish community, which includes fiction, theatre, poetry, and literature for young adults, tells many and nuanced stories of the community — and its decline. The majority of current Indian Jewish fiction comes from the historic Bene Israel group in Western India. While Bene Israel has seen the worst numerical decline of any of India’s Jewish communities (from around 20 000 in 1948 to less than 5000 now), it remains India’s most lively and well-organized community, both inside and beyond the subcontinent.
Meera Mahadevan’s novel Shulamith was the first work of fiction written in English by a member of India’s Jewish community (1975). Mahadevan, who was born Miriam Jacob, first authored the novel Apna Ghar in Hindi. Shulamith’s original title foreshadows the major question of the story: where are the Bene Israel Jews’ homes? As the tale begins (in the year 1955), Michael, the eponymous character’s spouse, has just left for Israel. His wife has made it clear that she will not accompany him. Shulamith’s determination to stay in India is based on three principles: her obligations to her extended family (she is frequently compared to the peepal tree that protects their home), her belief that the Bene Israel have been treated with tolerance and are thus a part of the Indian fabric, and the fact that her family was uprooted from Karachi during partition and should not be uprooted again.
Source: https://www.cafedissensus.com/2014/12/31/the-indian-jewish-fiction/
