Indian Jews have the distinction of being the world’s only Jewish community to have never endured any sort of racial persecution in their two millennia of existence on the Indian subcontinent.
Last Monday, the Maharashtra state government granted Indian Jews minority status, despite the fact that they are a small and old group. This official recognition by Maharashtra, the second state after West Bengal to do so, is critical to the Jewish community’s survival. Maharashtra (formerly Bombay State) has historically been home to the majority of Indian Jews; it now contains 2466 Jews out of a total of 4,650 Jews in India.
Because of large-scale immigration to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, community numbers have always fluctuated dangerously around 5000 in the post-independence era. As a result, the Indian Jewish community will benefit from being classed as a minority to preserve its religious and cultural traditions, educational and communal institutions, and distinctive legacy on the Indian subcontinent. The community’s prospects of being recognized as a minority by the federal government have risen as a result of this current status.
