http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/israels-long-standing-goa-connections/articleshow/59431607.cms
Narendra Modi breaks new diplomatic ground yet again this week as he becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. There is huge symbolism involved, but also the cementing of very real strategic and trade links. It has been just 25 years since the two countries formed diplomatic ties for the first time, but in that relatively brief period India has become by far the biggest client of Israel's sophisticated defence industry. Meanwhile, there is an increasingly robust travel industry connecting the two countries, with Goa as one of its main hubs. Every year, tens of thousands of Israelis visit India's smallest state, while sizeable numbers of "Holy Land pilgrims" journey in the opposite direction. Both sets of travellers are retracing ancient connections that have linked their homelands for at least 2,000 years. Judaism has very deep roots in the Konkan and Malabar coasts of western India, which sustained millennia of lucrative trade with the Middle East. The community in Kerala (aka "Cochin Jews") almost certainly dates to the time of King Solomon, 3,000 years ago. Until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, they lived free of prejudice under the special fiat of Hindu kings. Meanwhile, another separate community (aka "Bene Israelis") flourished in villages and towns throughout the Konkan. This week, Narendra Modi will address a gathering of thousands of Indian-Israelis, whose forebears migrated from India's western coastline to participate in the building of the new Zionist state. What about Goa's ancient Jewish roots? They are somewhat masked, because of two centuries of inquisitorial intolerance. In fact, scholars like H O Mascarenhas suggest Judaism was a significant presence in Goa for many centuries before the colonial conquest. In parts of Tiswadi there are tanks that look very much like Jewish baptismal baths. In Siridao, the village chapel hints at a previous life as a synagogue. But those links are barely understood, because the Portuguese came to efface and impose their own beliefs. Ironically, when Albuquerque sailed up the Mandovi, he found Adil Shah's navy commanded by a Polish Jew (who was promptly converted, and later achieved fame as the interpreter Gaspar da Gama). Goa's earlier links with Judaism may be opaque, but there is no doubt the new Estado da India Portuguesa quickly became home to thousands of Jews as the Inquisition brewed darkly in Europe. Several of them became important culture brokers and intermediaries. The historian Jonathan Gil Harris writes, "A number of migrants came to Goa less as colonists than as covert religious refugees...habituated to underground lives in the countries they had escaped, and therefore comfortable at a safe distance from European religious and political authority, these refugees sometimes forged stronger ties with local peoples, languages and customs than they did with other Portuguese." By far the most important of these figures was Garcia de Orta, the towering giant of intellectual history, whose charming, idiosyncratic 1563 treatise on India's tropical plants and medicines immediately became a standard scientific text. Along with Vasco da Gama and Camoes, the scholar is now treated as a Portuguese national hero. But that is a relatively recent phenomenon. Though he died before the Inquisition was imported into Goa, his sister Catarina was still alive. Under torture, she confessed her family maintained its faith in "the law of Moses" for which she was burned alive. Her brother's remains were then exhumed, and similarly consigned to the flames of an auto-da-fe. Many Jews in Goa suffered similar fates. It is important to note that the Portuguese episode is the only time Judaism in India ever faced persecution. This is a matter of civilizational pride. After all, it is precisely the constant recurrence of atrocities in so many other places that makes Israel such an important — indeed existential — issue for the Jewish peoples. But there is even more to this potentially remarkable relationship. While sympathetic to Israel, to its immense credit India has also been one of the firmest friends the Palestinian cause ever had. Just last month, Prime Minister Modi hosted the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in New Delhi. In addition, India has superb working relations across the region — this state visit to Israel comes only after Modi has already dropped in to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and the UAE. These are extraordinary circumstances, which make India different. What is more, the connections with Israel have multiplied organically no matter which party has been in power in either country. They are not a partisan issue, while being massively mutually beneficial. It is true there is plenty of reason to be cautious about uncritically importing an inappropriate security state model to India's highly complex social environment. But this is a time-honoured cultural and social bond that definitely deserves an exciting new chapter.