Only one out of every 2,47,269 Indians is Jewish. The community is tiny, accounting for only around 0.0004% of the total population, yet it does not receive the perks that come with the government-issued tag that many other minorities do. It’s something that Ezra Moses, the Indian Jewish Federation’s honorary secretary, and Solomon Sopher, the president of the Indian Jewish Congress, are keen to change.
In April 2016, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptulla finally declared that the government was considering granting the 5,000-member community official minority status. The light of optimism arrives almost two years after Sopher originally wrote to the ministry in November, in response to a suggestion from Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, a major BJP leader. In April 2016, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Najma Heptulla finally declared that the government was considering granting the 5,000-member community official minority status. The light of optimism arrives almost two years after Sopher originally wrote to the ministry in November 2014, in response to a suggestion from Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, a major BJP leader. The Union Cabinet makes the final decision, and Moses is banking on the NDA government.
‘Our motherland is India, and our fatherland is Israel.'”
For thousands of years, Jews have lived in India without being persecuted by the Indians “Moses declares. “That is why we shall always refer to ourselves as Indians. We may not chant slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai, but we consider India to be our motherland and Israel to be our fatherland, both of which our Lord Almighty has promised to us. Our community leaders believed that because we were not a backward class, we didn’t require special treatment during India’s independence.”
