Class 7 Social Science Chapter 17: India, a Home to Many

Migrants of a second kind

Many Indians can be called migrants in one sense, which an earlier book explained: they do not live near their birthplace, or near the community they came from.

This chapter is about migrants of another kind altogether. People who came from other parts of the world, settled here, and added one more dimension to the diversity. Many such communities have existed in India's history, right up to recent times, and only a few representative examples fit into one chapter.

Who the Jews are

A word first, because the definition is wider than you might expect.

The people, and the cultural community, whose origin is the ancient Hebrews of Israel are the Jews, and traditionally they are linked to the religion of Judaism. Descent from Jewish ancestry identifies a Jew, and so does conversion. Religion, culture, history or ethnicity: Jewish identity may be defined on the basis of any of them.

Waves, and why they came

Sanctuary in India is what Jews sought, and they sought it in several waves.

Persecution in various countries is what drove them, and fleeing their homes is what persecution meant in practice. India proved to be a safe haven, where their faith could be practised without fear.

The Bene Israel

Just south of Mumbai, on the Konkan coast, lived this Jewish community.

Around 175 BCE is when some scholars say they came, and the ancient Kingdom of Israel is where they came from. A storm caught their ship on the journey, and it was wrecked near the coast.

What the survivors kept

Settling in India is what the survivors did, and a new life is what they started.

Their holy books were lost. One thing they remembered: their prayer, which says that God is only one. Over time the Bene Israel grew into the largest of the Jewish communities here, and shortly after independence they numbered over twenty-five thousand.

The later arrivals

Between the twelfth century and the nineteenth, several more groups arrived.

Persecution in their respective countries was again the reason. Near Cochin, which is Kochi today, some of these Jews settled.

A grant with no end date

What the Raja of Kochi gave them is worth reading twice. Land, free of cost.

For how long? As long as the world endures, said the grant, and the sun, and the moon. A synagogue was then built, which let them practise their faith even while they became part of Indian society.

Vivekananda, at Chicago

At the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, Swami Vivekananda said something about this.

Proud to belong to a nation which had sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of every religion and every nation on Earth, is how he put it. He named the Israelites who took refuge in the south of India when they came, and he named the Zoroastrians too, whose remnant his religion was still fostering.

A gift for the Torah

One object in the Kochi synagogue makes the same point without words.

The Maharaja of Travancore, which was what the kingdom in and about Kochi was called then, gave an expensive gift to that synagogue for the Torah, which is the religious book of the Jews. Ask yourself why a Hindu king pays for the housing of somebody else's scripture.

A place of worship

Synagogue is the word, and it is worth having exactly.

A place where Jews worship is what it means, where religious services are held, and special ceremonies too, weddings among them.

The Syriac Christians

Now a second community, and a different century. From the fourth century CE, some Christian groups used, in their worship and their traditions, the ancient Syriac language.

Difficulties in West Asia is what those groups faced, and the difficulties came from two directions at once.

Heretics in one empire

Sometimes, under the Roman Empire, they were treated as heretics.

Why? Because some of their beliefs about Christ differed from the beliefs of the official Church. A heretic is a person considered to hold beliefs, especially religious ones, contrary to the dominant view.

Suspects in the other

In the Persian Empire the charge was the opposite kind.

Secretly helping the Romans is what they were suspected of, and the Romans were Persia's enemies. Persecuted as a result, says the chapter. Notice the trap they were in: too Roman for Persia and not Roman enough for Rome.

Eastward, along the trade routes

Escaping those persecutions meant travelling, and the trade routes gave them the way.

Eastward they went, and the Malabar coast of India is where they reached, which is Kerala today. Living and worshipping freely is what they could do there.

What they are called here

Syrian Christians is the other name they go by in India.

Several sects is how the community is divided. That is worth knowing, because a community is rarely the single block an outsider sees.

Persecution, defined

One more word to have exactly, since the whole chapter turns on it.

Hostility is what persecution is, arising generally from motives religious, ethnic, social or political, and often accompanied by harassment or by violence.

What integration looks like

Photographs in this chapter are evidence, and they are worth reading as evidence.

A Jewish family in Mumbai in the late nineteenth century. A Syriac Christian wedding ceremony. In both, the clothes, the setting and the customs are Indian, while the faith is what it always was. Integration does not mean giving up what you came with.

Why this matters for the chapter

Two communities, two centuries apart, and the same pattern in both.

Persecution elsewhere. Arrival by sea or by road. A ruler who grants not just shelter but the right to go on worshipping. And then centuries of becoming Indian without ceasing to be Jewish, or Syriac Christian. Hold that pattern: the rest of the chapter repeats it.

Scenario:

Two photographs of the same building at Kochi are shown to a class. One is of the interior of a synagogue. The other is of a plaque recording a gift. The gift was expensive, and it was made by the Maharaja of Travancore, who was the ruler of the kingdom in and around Kochi. It was given for the Torah. A student says the plaque must be a mistake, since a Hindu ruler would have no reason to pay for the holy book of another faith. Another says the community must have paid for it themselves and credited the king out of politeness.

Analysis:

A royal gift to a synagogue, and two students who cannot believe it.

Activity:

Find out whether any old place of worship near you was built by a community that came from elsewhere.

Title:

Read a photograph as evidence

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

The local list is usually longer, which is the point. A Jewish family photographed in Mumbai, or a Syriac Christian wedding, shows Indian clothes, settings and customs around a faith that has not changed. Integration is not the giving up of what you brought.

The Kochi grant was made for as long as sun, moon and world endure.

A Maharaja of Travancore gave the Kochi synagogue a gift for the Torah.

The Bene Israel kept their prayer after losing their holy books.

Bene Israel on the Konkan, Cochin Jews at Kochi.

Too Roman for Persia, not Roman enough for Rome.

Zoroastrianism

Among the oldest religions the world has, and founded in Central Asia by the prophet Zarathushtra.

One God is what it worships, and Ahura Mazda is that God's name. Choosing good over evil: that is an important aspect of this faith.

Why the Parsis left Persia

Followers of Zoroastrianism are the Parsis, and escaping religious persecution in Persia is what primarily brought them to India. Iran is what Persia is called today.

That persecution followed the Islamic conquest of Persia in the seventh century CE.

What they were leaving behind

Hold the scale of it in mind. Zoroastrianism had been the religion of state in the mighty Sassanid Empire, which ran from the third century to the seventh.

Arab Muslim forces brought that empire down in the middle of the seventh century. The persecution that followed took many forms: conversions to Islam by force, religious taxes called jizya, the destruction of their sacred fire temples, and marginalisation both social and legal.

A courageous choice

Fleeing Persia is what they were forced into, because practising their faith freely was no longer possible there.

Leaving their homeland, and sailing across the Arabian Sea, is the choice groups of Zoroastrians made, and the chapter calls it courageous. Between the eighth century and the tenth, several of those groups reached the western coast of India, in what is Gujarat now.

What they carried

Very little, is the answer, and the little is the point.

Their sacred fire they carried. And some hope of making a home where they had heard it was safe, which was India.

A jug of milk

Raja Jadi Rana was king of Sanjan, on the coast of Gujarat. According to the legend, the Parsis approached him for a safe place to stay.

Neither side knew the other's language. So a jug full of milk was what the Raja showed them, and what he meant by it was that his kingdom was full, with no room to accommodate more people.

A spoon of sugar

Then a spoon of sugar was taken by a wise man among the Parsis, who dissolved it into that milk.

Not one drop spilled over. Jadi Rana was pleased, and a secure place in his kingdom was what he provided them. Ask yourself what the sugar meant: a newcomer who sweetens what is there, and raises the level not at all.

The fire that is still burning

Udvada is a short way off from the place the Parsis first reached, and the ancient sacred fire continues to burn there.

Their ancient traditions they combined with those of the local culture. Today the largest population of Zoroastrians anywhere in the world is in India, and the Parsis go on living here and enriching many aspects of its society.

Reading a painting as evidence

Raja Ravi Varma painted a Parsi bride being decked for her wedding, and the painting is worth examining.

Many aspects of Indian culture show in it. What conclusion follows? That Parsi culture integrated here, as the Jews and the Syriac Christians did, without giving up what it was.

An old kinship: the cosmic order

Now the deeper part of this topic. Deep connections run between the philosophy of Zoroastrianism and the ancient Vedic schools of thought in India.

One example: one cosmic order, by which the universe is held together, is a concept the two share.

An old kinship: fire

Their rituals show similarities too.

Much importance is given to fire worship by both. So a community arriving with its sacred fire was not arriving with something unrecognisable.

Where the two differ

Interesting differences exist as well, and they are differences of a peculiar kind: the same words, with the values swapped.

Beneficial gods are what the devas are in the Vedas. In the Avesta, which is the Parsis' ancient sacred text, the daevas are evil gods, and chaos is what they drive towards.

Ahura, and the asuras

The Avesta's chief god is Ahura.

Here, after the Vedic period, the asuras came to be seen as harmful powers, or as demons. Same root, opposite sign. Two neighbouring traditions can share a vocabulary and disagree about who the villains are.

Two languages, one family

Old Avestan is the Avesta language, and Vedic Sanskrit is the other half of this comparison.

Many word roots the two share, and grammatical features as well. Three examples, with the Vedic word first: soma, a divine drink, is haoma; hotar, a priest, is haotar; yajna, a sacrifice, is yasna.

What the word pairs prove

Look at those three pairs again, because they are stronger evidence than any legend.

Sounds shift in a regular way between them: the s at the start of soma becomes an h in haoma, and the same shift turns hotar into haotar. Regular shifts are what related languages show. There are deep spiritual ties between ancient Iran and ancient India, and linguistic ties too, and much more than these three pairs to show it.

Why this matters for the chapter

Every community in this chapter was given shelter. This one is the case where the chapter also shows the kinship underneath the shelter.

A people arriving with a sacred fire, worshipping one God, speaking a language whose roots match Vedic Sanskrit: the welcome at Sanjan was extended to distant relatives, whether either side knew it or not.

Scenario:

A town meeting is held about a group of families who have arrived from elsewhere and want to settle. One speaker holds up a full glass of water. The town is like that glass, he says, and adding anything will spill it. A second says the newcomers cannot belong here. Their customs and their language are nothing like the town, he argues. A third says the town should take them in, but should ask them to give up their own festivals, so that everyone is the same. A student who has read this chapter answers all three.

Analysis:

A full glass, a claim of strangeness, and a demand to assimilate - all three answered by one chapter.

Activity:

Find out whether any language you speak shares words with another.

Title:

Test the sugar argument

Safety:

Wipe up any spills so nobody slips.

What You Notice:

The level barely moves, because the sugar dissolves into the spaces between the water. That is exactly the argument: a newcomer who sweetens what is there without displacing it. Jadi Rana accepted the argument and gave them a secure place.

India has the largest Zoroastrian population in the world.

The sacred fire the Parsis carried still burns at Udvada.

Raja Ravi Varma painted a Parsi bride being decked for a wedding.

Soma is haoma, hotar is haotar, yajna is yasna.

The jug says full; the sugar says sweeter.

Arab merchants, from the seventh century

Onward from that century Arab merchants came to India, and the west coast is where many of them settled, in places such as Karnataka, Gujarat and Kerala.

Spices they traded, and other goods besides. Local women they married. New communities were formed out of that.

The Mappila community, and a mosque

In Kerala those settlers became part of the Mappila Muslim community.

They also helped build the oldest mosque India has, which is the Cheraman Juma Masjid.

Traders, not conquerors

One sentence in the chapter is worth underlining. These early Arab settlers came as peaceful traders, and not as conquerors.

New ideas they brought, and culture, and religion. An important part in the history here of trade, and of cultural exchange, is what they played. Keep that apart from the Arab armies of an earlier chapter: the same region, a different kind of arrival.

The Siddis: a different kind of story

Now a story of another sort altogether, and the chapter says so plainly.

Of African origin are the Siddis. Enslaved in Africa, they were brought here as slaves, and Arab, Portuguese and British traders were the ones who brought them. Between the seventh century and the nineteenth this went on.

Soldiers, and briefly rulers

In the eighteenth century some Siddis gained prominence in the armies of Muslim rulers.

Parts of Bengal came briefly under their control. That is a remarkable sentence to sit beside the one before it: people brought in chains, commanding armies within a few generations.

A fusion identity

What their cultural identity represents is a fusion of African and Indian traditions.

A distinctive dance belongs to them, accompanied by drumming in the African style. Over time their language has been adapted to regional influences. African religious practices they have integrated with the faiths they adopted, whether Hinduism, Islam or Christianity.

Where the Siddis stand now

Designated as a scheduled tribe is what the Siddis are.

In economic terms their overall condition is still poor, however, and efforts are being made to give them better access to education, and to livelihood options. The chapter does not pretend otherwise, and nor should a reader.

Hirabai Lobi

One Siddi name is worth knowing. She was from the community that settled in Gujarat.

Hard work for the uplift of her community women is what she gave: connecting them with banking services, educating them in organic farming and in other livelihood options. In 2023 the Padma Shri was awarded to her, for selfless service to the community.

Where Armenia is

A relatively small country, and mountainous, lying between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and just north of Iran.

That is a long way from India, which makes what follows more striking than it looks.

Armenian merchants

Centuries ago they traded in Indian spices, and in fine muslins.

Some historical evidence exists that a first settlement of theirs was established on the Malabar coast in the eighth century.

Patronage under the Mughals

In the sixteenth century, while the Mughals ruled, many Armenians came from Persia and gained patronage from the emperors.

Settlements in India they then began developing. Agra held the earliest of those settlements, and the Mughal emperor Akbar gave them permission there to build a church and to follow their Christian religious practices.

Armenians in high office

Important roles came to them in the royal household of the Mughals, and in the army, and in the administration too, under several emperors.

Two examples the chapter gives. In the court of Akbar, Abdul Hai was Chief Justice. In the royal palace, Lady Juliana was a doctor.

Four cities, and what they built

Surat, Kolkata and Chennai were settled by the Armenians as well.

Schools they built, and churches, and cemeteries, and a lasting cultural impact is what they created. A major Armenian hub is what Kolkata became. The Armenian College and the Mother Mary Church there, both of the eighteenth century, continue to be active.

Madras, and the silk trade

Armenian merchants were drawn to the thriving trade routes of Madras, which is Chennai today, and around the middle of the seventeenth century they settled there.

Influential in commerce they became, dealing especially in silk, in spices and in precious stones. A lasting mark on the economic and the cultural history of the city is what they left.

What is left in Chennai

Their presence is memorialised by Armenian Street, in George Town.

A symbol of their faith stands there too, St Mary Armenian Church, built in the middle of the eighteenth century. Over the centuries the once-flourishing Armenian population has dwindled. A handful of families and some heritage groups still preserve the legacy, architectural and mercantile and spiritual.

Three arrivals, compared

Set the three side by side, because the comparison is the point of this topic.

Arab merchants came by their own choice, to trade, and married into the coast. Armenians came for patronage and prosperity, and rose into courts and commerce. The Siddis were brought, and brought as slaves.

Why that comparison matters

A community that chooses to come can negotiate its terms. One that is brought in chains cannot.

The Arab settlers became part of the Mappila community and helped build a mosque. The Armenians held offices of state and built colleges. The Siddis commanded armies in one century and are a scheduled tribe whose economic condition remains poor in this one. How you arrive is not the whole of a community's story, but it is never nothing either.

Scenario:

A school project asks three students to interview an elderly person from a community that came to India long ago. The first interview is with a family on the Kerala coast whose ancestors traded spices and married locally. The second is with a family in Karnataka whose ancestors came from Africa. The third is with a family in Chennai whose ancestors dealt in silk and precious stones. The students conclude that all three families have the same kind of history, since all three came from abroad and all three are Indian now.

Analysis:

Three immigrant histories, and students who flatten them into one.

Activity:

Find out whether any community near you arrived from outside India.

Title:

Sort by how they arrived

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

Arab merchants chose, Armenians were invited by patronage, and the Siddis were brought as slaves. All three achieved a great deal, including armies commanded and parts of Bengal held. The third column needed the most help afterwards, and the chapter says efforts are still being made.

India oldest mosque, the Cheraman Juma Masjid, stands in Kerala.

An Armenian was Chief Justice in Akbar court, and another a palace doctor.

Siddis commanded armies and briefly controlled parts of Bengal.

Arabs chose, Armenians were invited, Siddis were brought.

Mappila in Kerala, Siddi from Africa, Armenian at Agra.

A new religion in Persia

In the middle of the eighteen hundreds a new religion began in Persia, which is Iran today, and a man named Baha u llah led it. The Baha i faith is its name.

Unity among all people is what his teachings spoke of, and harmony between religions.

Branded heretics

The ruling religious leadership in Iran took a different view.

Heretics is what they branded the Baha is, on account of their different beliefs, and badly is how the Baha is were then treated.

Safer places to live is what some began looking for, and one of the first they came to was India.

Arriving here in the late nineteenth century is when the Baha is had started. Many Indians joined the faith over the years, and people of all religions and backgrounds are welcomed by the Baha is. Iranian Baha is came to escape danger; the Baha is here today are mostly Indians, who believe in the faith message of unity and of love.

A square in Warsaw

Visit the Good Maharaja Square in Warsaw, in Poland, and a monument there may surprise you. An inspiring story lies behind it.

During the Second World War, Poland was invaded, which ran from 1939 to 1945. Families in thousands were torn apart by it, and many a child was orphaned.

The Good Maharaja

Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja was the Maharaja of Nawanagar State, which is Jamnagar today, and the tragedy touched him.

The Red Cross he mobilised, and other organisations too, so that the children could be rescued and taken to Jamnagar. A safe place to stay he provided them, and food to eat, and he cared for them.

How many, and for how long

The saving of about a thousand Polish orphan lives, between 1942 and 1946, is what he is credited with.

Polish refugees in their thousands, in flight from other areas, were welcomed into the safety of his state as well. After the war ended the children, and the others, returned home safely.

Why there is a monument

Early in the twenty-first century recognition came from the President of Poland for what he had done for the Polish people.

The monument was then constructed in the Maharaja honour. A home away from home is what India had been for those orphaned children, even if only for a brief period.

Tibet, before 1950

Across the Himalayan range, on its far side lies Tibet, India northern neighbour, and the Land of Snows is what it is sometimes called.

A centre of Buddhism it became in the seventh century, when its king embraced the Buddha teachings. Despite a few setbacks, Buddhism expanded there gradually.

A debt in the other direction

Here is a connection worth holding on to, because it reverses the usual direction of this chapter.

Turko-Afghan military invasions in eastern India, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, destroyed Nalanda and other Buddhist centres of learning. Many monks left for Tibet, and precious manuscripts of Sanskrit texts went with them, often enough. India sheltered Tibetans later; Tibet had sheltered Indian learning first.

The Dalai Lamas

From the fifteenth century onward a greater role was assumed by the Dalai Lamas, each one said to be the reincarnation of his predecessor.

Spiritual heads is what they eventually became, and from the middle of the seventeenth century, Tibet rulers as well.

1950, and then 1959

From 1950 onward the People Republic of China came over Tibet in wave after wave, and annexing it is what eventually happened.

In 1959 a popular uprising broke out at Lhasa, which was then the religious and administrative capital, against the Chinese presence. The fourteenth Dalai Lama was advised to cross the Himalaya in flight, and to take refuge here, and asylum is what the government granted him.

An honoured guest

An honoured guest is what he has been since here, and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh is where he lives.

From there the Central Tibetan Administration does the work of a government in exile. His Four Commitments are what the Dalai Lama is known for: human values such as compassion, forgiveness and tolerance; harmony between religions; Tibetan culture kept alive; and a revival of India civilisational heritage, particularly karuna, which is compassion, and ahimsa, which is nonviolence.

What rehabilitation meant

Rehabilitating the Tibetan refugees is what the Indian government did, with education provided to their children.

The creation of Tibetan settlements was facilitated, so that this community could make a second home of India, and keep and promote its language and culture and heritage.

Monasteries, and a way of life

Many Tibetan monasteries were established here, in Karnataka particularly, patterned on the original ones in Tibet.

A space was created by that in which Tibetan Buddhists could follow their way of life, and their spiritual practices without fear, and without hindrance. Livelihood options have come from many non-government organisations too, and over time the refugees have become part of the society.

Sowa Rigpa

One thing the Tibetans brought is worth a card to itself. Soon after taking refuge here in 1959 they started propagating their traditional system of medicine, which is called Sowa Rigpa, or the Art of Healing.

A medical council held near Lhasa codified it in the eighth century CE, and it takes the ancient principles and practices of Ayurveda and blends them with inputs that came from Greece even, and from Persia, Central Asia and China.

Where Sowa Rigpa is now

Popular in Himalayan regions is what Tibetan medicine remains, Nepal and Bhutan included.

Men-Tsee-Khang in Dharamshala is among the Indian institutions practising it, treating chronic diseases and managing epidemics. It has also been integrated into the AYUSH programme of the Government of India, which supports traditional and indigenous systems: Homoeopathy and Sowa Rigpa, Siddha and Unani, Yoga and Naturopathy, and Ayurveda.

The whole world is family

A culture of acceptance and inclusion is what these stories give us a glimpse of, and it is part of the Indian ethos.

Vasudhaiva kutumbakam means the whole world is family, and the chapter insists it is not just a slogan: a practice for millennia is what it has been. Core teachings of many Indian schools of thought said the same. Sarve bhavantu sukhinah is rendered may all creatures be happy, in the usual rendering. Atithi devo bhava is a guest is like God. The Karaniya Metta Sutta puts it beautifully: as a mother protects her only child with her life, so should one cherish all living beings with a boundless heart.

Indian values beyond India

One more thing is striking, and it runs the other way.

Similar values have been carried and practised abroad by the Indian expatriate community. It has been perceived as a minority that adds to the economy and settles well into the society around it. Wherever a sizeable community of Indians lives today, it is seen as peaceful, law-abiding, progressive and prosperous.

Conquered instead

There are also many cases of people who came intending to conquer India and were conquered themselves instead.

What conquered them was the diverse culture here, the rich philosophy and knowledge traditions, the unique geography and climate, and the thriving economy. The Indo-Greeks and the Kushanas were two such cases, and there are more. One of India core civilisational values is the fundamental unity of humankind, and it can help the world with crises it faces today: wars, climate change, inequality that keeps increasing, and discrimination.

Scenario:

A visiting researcher is told that India has a long culture of sheltering the persecuted. She is sceptical. Ancient cases cannot be checked, she says, since a grant of land in 175 BCE leaves only a legend behind it. She asks for evidence from within living memory instead: something with a date, a number, and an institution still standing. She adds that she will not count anything India merely said about itself, and wants recognition from outside as well. A student answers her from this one topic.

Analysis:

A sceptic who will accept only recent, counted and externally confirmed evidence.

Activity:

Find out whether any refugee community lives in your state today.

Title:

Build a proof table

Safety:

No hazards here.

What You Notice:

The Polish row is strongest, because it has all four: a date of 1942 to 1946, a number of about a thousand, a monument still standing, and recognition from the President of Poland. The Tibetan row comes close, with 1959, asylum, Dharamshala and Sowa Rigpa inside AYUSH.

A square in Warsaw is named for a Maharaja of Nawanagar.

Sowa Rigpa blends Ayurveda with Chinese, Persian and Greek inputs.

Tibetan monasteries in Karnataka are patterned on the original ones.

1950 overrun, 1959 uprising, asylum granted.

Sowa Rigpa: the Art of Healing, now in AYUSH.