Exploring Society II · Chapter 5 — India, a Home to Many

Think of a family in your street that moved in from another state. They may speak a different language at home, cook different food and keep different festivals, yet after some years they are simply your neighbours. Now stretch that idea across many centuries and across oceans. That is the story of this chapter.

Two kinds of migrants. In Grade 6 you read that many Indians are migrants in one sense: they live away from their birthplace or their original community. This chapter looks at another kind of migrant: people who came to India from other parts of the world and settled here. They added one more layer to India's diversity. There are far too many such communities to cover, so the textbook picks a few examples.

Why did people come? The reasons fall into two broad groups.

• Escaping persecution. Persecution means hostility, often with harassment or violence, because of a person's religion, ethnic group, social position or politics. Jews, Syriac Christians, Parsis, Baha'is and Tibetans all came to India partly because they could not live or worship safely at home.
• Seeking opportunity. Arab and Armenian merchants came mainly to trade and then chose to stay, because India offered a good living.
• Brought by force. One group, the Siddis of African origin, did not choose to come at all; they were brought as enslaved people.

A useful classroom exercise. The textbook asks you to imagine a stranger knocking at midnight in heavy rain and asking for shelter. Your family would weigh the risks against the duty to help. A country faces the same kind of choice, on a much larger scale, when refugees arrive at its border. Keep this scenario in mind as you read each story and ask: what did India gain, and what did the newcomers bring?

What to look for. For every community, notice three things: where they came from, why they left, and how they integrated, that is, became part of Indian society while keeping parts of their own faith and customs. Pictures in the chapter, such as wedding dress or places of worship, are clues to this mixing.

A famous line. In his 1893 speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda said he was proud to belong to a nation that had sheltered persecuted people of all religions and nations, naming the Jews who came to South India and the Zoroastrians as examples.

Imagine surviving a shipwreck, losing all your books, and still remembering the one prayer that matters most to you. According to tradition, that is how one of India's oldest migrant communities began.

Who are the Jews? Jews are a people and a cultural community that trace their origin to the ancient Hebrews of Israel. They are traditionally linked to the religion of Judaism. A person may be Jewish by descent or by conversion, so Jewish identity can be described through religion, culture, history or ethnicity. Their place of worship is called a synagogue, where prayers and ceremonies such as weddings are held.

Several waves. Jews were persecuted in many countries over the centuries and had to flee their homes. They reached India in several waves, and India became a safe place where they could practise their faith without fear.

The Bene Israel. This community lived on the Konkan coast, just south of Mumbai. According to some scholars, their ancestors came from the ancient Kingdom of Israel around 175 BCE. Their ship was caught in a storm and wrecked near the coast. The survivors settled down and began a new life. They had lost their holy books, but they remembered their central prayer, which declares that there is only one God. Over time they became the largest Jewish community in India, numbering over 25,000 shortly after independence.

The Jews of Kochi. Other groups came much later, between the 12th and 19th centuries, again because of persecution in their own countries. Some settled near Cochin (today's Kochi). The Raja of Kochi gave them land free of cost, in words recorded on the grant, for as long as the world, sun and moon endure. The community built a synagogue, which let them keep their faith even as they became part of Indian society. Later a Maharaja of Travancore even gave a costly gift to the synagogue for its Torah, the holy book of the Jews.

Signs of integration. An old photograph of a Jewish family in Mumbai from the late 19th century shows them dressed much like other Indian families of that time. They kept their religion while sharing the language, dress and daily life of their neighbours.

Why it matters. Few places in the world allowed Jews to live without persecution for so long. The story shows that a small community could keep its identity in India for more than two thousand years.

Suppose two powerful empires are at war, and each one distrusts you for a different reason. One calls your beliefs wrong; the other suspects you of spying for its enemy. Where would you go? Some early Christians faced exactly this problem.

Who were they? From the 4th century CE, some Christian groups in West Asia used the ancient Syriac language in their worship and traditions. They faced difficulties on two sides.

Key word. A heretic is a person thought to hold beliefs, especially religious beliefs, that go against the view of the dominant group. Being labelled a heretic could mean being harassed, punished or driven out.

The journey east. To escape this persecution, some Syriac Christians travelled eastward along the old trade routes. They reached the Malabar coast, the coast of present-day Kerala. Here they could live and worship freely. Trade routes are important in this story: the same sea and land paths that carried spices and cloth also carried people and their faiths.

In India. In India these Christians are also called Syrian Christians. Today they are divided into several sects, or branches, each with its own church traditions.

Mixing of customs. The textbook shows a photograph of a Syrian Christian wedding in Kerala and asks you to look for clues of integration. Things like the bride's dress, jewellery, the use of local language and local wedding customs show how a faith from West Asia took on the colours of Kerala while keeping its Christian core.

A pattern you will see again. Notice the steps in this story: trouble at home, a journey along trade routes, safety on the Indian coast, and slow blending with local life. The Jews, the Parsis and others followed a similar path. Spotting such patterns is a good way to remember and compare the communities in this chapter.

Imagine a jug filled to the brim with milk. Could you add anything without spilling a drop? A famous legend about the Parsis answers this question in a clever way.

Who are the Parsis? The Parsis follow Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest religions, founded by the prophet Zarathushtra in Central Asia. It is based on the worship of one God, Ahura Mazda, and it stresses choosing good over evil.

Why they left Persia. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the mighty Sassanid Empire of Persia (3rd to 7th centuries). In the middle of the 7th century that empire fell to Arab Muslim forces. Zoroastrians then faced persecution in many forms: forced conversion to Islam, religious taxes called jizya, destruction of their sacred fire temples, and being pushed to the edges of society and law. Groups of them made the brave decision to sail across the Arabian Sea. Several groups reached the coast of present-day Gujarat between the 8th and 10th centuries.

The legend. They carried little except their sacred fire and their hope. Raja Jadi Rana ruled Sanjan in coastal Gujarat. Neither side knew the other's language, so the Raja showed them a jug full of milk, meaning that his kingdom was already full. A wise man among the Parsis gently stirred a spoon of sugar into the milk without spilling any. The message was clear: the newcomers would mix in and sweeten the land without taking anything away. Pleased, the Raja gave them a safe place to settle.

Life in India. Their ancient sacred fire still burns at Udvada, close to where they first landed. The Parsis blended their old traditions with local culture, for example in wedding dress, as a painting by Raja Ravi Varma shows. Today India has the largest population of Zoroastrians in the world, and Parsis such as Homi Bhabha, Ratan Tata and Cornelia Sorabji have enriched Indian life.

Old family ties. Zoroastrianism and India's Vedic traditions are closely linked. Both share the idea of a cosmic order holding the universe together, and both give fire an important place in worship. The languages are related too: Old Avestan, the language of the Avesta, and Vedic Sanskrit share many word roots, for example soma and haoma (a divine drink), hotar and haotar (a priest), and yajna and yasna (sacrifice). Yet some meanings flipped: in the Vedas the devas are good gods, but in the Avesta the daevas are evil; the Avesta's chief god is Ahura, while in later Indian thought asuras are harmful powers.

Two groups crossed the same Arabian Sea, but their stories could not be more different. One came freely as traders with goods to sell; the other came in chains.

Arab merchants. From the 7th century onward Arab merchants came to India and many settled along the west coast, in Kerala, Gujarat and Karnataka. They traded spices and other goods, married local women and formed new communities. In Kerala they became part of the Mappila Muslim community and helped build the Cheraman Juma Masjid, described as India's oldest mosque. These early settlers came as peaceful traders, not as conquerors. They brought new ideas, culture and religion and played a big part in India's trade and cultural exchange.

The Siddis. The Siddis are of African origin. They were enslaved in Africa and brought to India as slaves by Arab, Portuguese and British traders between the 7th and 19th centuries. Their arrival was not a choice, which makes their story very different from the others in this chapter.

Rising despite hardship. In the 18th century some Siddis rose to important positions in the armies of Muslim rulers and for a short time even controlled parts of Bengal.

A blended culture. Siddi culture mixes African and Indian traditions. They have a distinctive dance performed to African-style drumming. Over time they adopted regional languages and combined African religious practices with Hinduism, Islam or Christianity, the faiths they took up in India.

Today. The Siddis are recognised as a scheduled tribe, a status that brings special support from the government. Even so, most Siddi families remain poor, and efforts are being made to improve their access to education and jobs. Hirabai Lobi, a Siddi woman from Gujarat, worked to help the women of her community by linking them to banking services and teaching them about organic farming and other ways to earn. She received the Padma Shri in 2023.

Comparing the two. Both groups settled on India's western side and both mixed their culture with local life. But the Arab merchants came freely and prospered through trade, while the Siddis came by force and still face economic hardship. History is fair only when it remembers both kinds of story.

If you walk through George Town in Chennai you may find a road called Armenian Street. A street name can be a clue that a whole community once lived and worked there.

Where is Armenia? Armenia is a small, mountainous country between Turkey and Azerbaijan, just north of Iran. Long ago its merchants traded in Indian spices and fine muslin cloth. There is some evidence that they set up a first settlement on the Malabar coast in the 8th century.

Under the Mughals. In the 16th century many Armenians from Persia won the support of the Mughal emperors and began to build settlements in India. The earliest was in Agra, where Akbar allowed them to build a church and follow their Christian practices. Armenians served in the royal household, the army and the administration. Abdul Hai was Chief Justice in Akbar's court, and Lady Juliana was a doctor in the royal palace.

Spreading out. Armenians also settled in Surat, Kolkata and Chennai, building schools, churches and cemeteries. Kolkata became a major Armenian centre, and its 18th-century Armenian College and Mother Mary Church are still active. In Madras (Chennai) Armenian merchants settled around the mid-17th century and dealt in silk, spices and precious stones. St. Mary's Armenian Church there was built in the mid-18th century. The community has shrunk, but a few families and heritage groups still care for its buildings and memory.

The Baha'i faith. In the mid-1800s a new religion, the Baha'i faith, began in Persia under a leader named Baha'u'llah. It teaches the unity of all people and harmony between religions. The religious authorities ruling Iran called the Baha'is heretics and treated them badly, so some looked for safer homes. India was one of the first places they came to, and they began arriving in the late 19th century.

Baha'is in India today. Many Indians later joined the faith. Baha'is welcome people of every religion and background. So although the first Baha'is here were Iranians escaping danger, most Baha'is in India today are Indians who believe in its message of unity and love. Their best-known building is the Lotus Temple in New Delhi.

Two kinds of arrival. The Armenians are an example of people who came for opportunity and prospered with royal patronage. The Baha'is are an example of people who came to escape danger. India made room for both.

In Warsaw, the capital of Poland, there is a square named after a 'Good Maharaja'. Why would a European city honour an Indian king? The answer lies in the Second World War.

The Good Maharaja. Poland was invaded during the Second World War (1939 to 1945). Families were torn apart and many children were orphaned. Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, the Maharaja of Nawanagar (present-day Jamnagar in Gujarat), was moved by their suffering. With the help of the Red Cross and other groups he brought the children to Jamnagar and gave them shelter, food and care. He is credited with saving around a thousand Polish orphans between 1942 and 1946, and his state also welcomed several thousand other Polish refugees. After the war they went home safely. In the early 21st century the President of Poland honoured his service and a monument was built for him.

Tibet and Buddhism. Tibet, called the 'Land of Snows', lies across the Himalaya as India's northern neighbour. In the 7th century its king embraced the Buddha's teachings and Tibet became a centre of Buddhism. In the 12th and 13th centuries, when invasions destroyed Nalanda and other Buddhist centres in eastern India, many monks fled to Tibet with precious Sanskrit manuscripts. From the 15th century the Dalai Lamas, each believed to be the reincarnation of the one before, grew in importance and from the mid-17th century ruled Tibet.

Exile in India. From 1950 the People's Republic of China took over Tibet in several waves and finally annexed it. In 1959, after a popular uprising in Lhasa, the 14th Dalai Lama crossed the Himalaya and India granted him asylum, that is, protection to a person fleeing danger. He lives in Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) as an 'honoured guest', and the Central Tibetan Administration works from there as a government-in-exile.

Making a second home. India rehabilitated Tibetan refugees, educated their children and helped create Tibetan settlements. Monasteries modelled on those in Tibet were built, especially in Karnataka, such as at Bylakuppe. Tibetans also spread their traditional medicine, Sowa Rigpa, which blends Ayurveda with ideas from other lands and is now part of India's AYUSH programme.

Why these stories matter. Both show that welcoming refugees is not only ancient history: India did it in the 20th century too.

You have now met Jews, Syriac Christians, Parsis, Arabs, Siddis, Armenians, Baha'is, Polish children and Tibetans. What made so many different people able to call India home? The textbook points to a set of old values.

Three key ideas. These phrases come from India's many schools of thought:

An old verse. The chapter opens with a verse from the Hitopadesha: narrow-minded people divide things into 'mine' and 'not mine', but for the noble-minded the whole earth is one family. Sri Sarada Devi's last message carries the same idea: learn to make the whole world your own, because no one is a stranger. The Buddhist Karaniya Metta Sutta, the Buddha's words on loving-kindness, compares this care for all beings to a mother protecting her only child.

Peaceful coexistence. Religious persecution has happened for centuries in many parts of the world. India, by contrast, developed a culture of living side by side with many faiths and schools of thought. This is why even very small communities could keep their traditions here for centuries. The textbook also notes that some who came to conquer, such as the Indo-Greeks and the Kushanas you met in Part 1, were themselves won over by India's culture.

Indians abroad. Indians living in other countries are generally seen as peaceful, law-abiding and hardworking people who add to the economy and fit well into society, carrying these values with them.

Why it matters today. The world faces wars, climate change, growing inequality and discrimination. The idea that all humans are one family can help people solve such problems together.

Your turn. Look around your neighbourhood. Are there communities whose ancestors came to India long ago? Ask your elders about local stories that show these same values, and share them with your class.