Ethno-Religious Conflict in the Cochin Jewish Community: An Analysis of Jewish Life in Kerala through the Life Writing of an Indian Jewish Woman

Abstract

The migration of Cochin Jews from Kerala to the promised land of Israel can be traced back to the 1950s. Though the population of the Jewish community in Cochin is reduced to less than ten in number today, their past cannot be erased from Kerala history, especially the ethnic life of the Malabari Jewish community. Apart from folk songs and archaeological findings, Ruby Daniel, a Malabari Jewish woman, and the renowned ethnographer Barbara C. Johnson left behind an essential source of ethnographic data to explore the social life of Jew town. The significant ethnic life of the Malabari Jewish community and their attempt to claim and confirm their identity as the mainstream Cochin Jewish community continues even today among the remaining Malabari Jews in the Jew town. This article attempts to analyze the ethnic and social life of the Malabari Jewish community and the Cochin Jewish community through the auto-ethnographical narrative of Ruby Daniel.