Oscillating diasporas, shifting identities: Bene Israel Indian Jews in Aden, 1839–1967

This article conceptualises diasporas and homelands not only through the lens of hybrid identities but also as complex locations which represent an intricate picture of oscillation between different points in time and space, which shift in response to broader political and global changes. Our case study is the Bene Israel (literally ‘Children of Israel’ in Hebrew) Indian Jews in Aden, who originated on the Konkan coast south of Bombay (today Mumbai), from the time of the British conquest in 1839 until their evacuation from Aden in 1967. The article begins with a survey of the history of the Jews in Aden during the modern period. It documents their origins, community development and demography in an attempt to understand questions of multi-oriented diasporas and shifting identities for these Indian Jews. The article shows that the members of the Bene Israel diasporic community who resided in Aden vacillated between nostalgia for a historic homeland in the biblical kingdom of Israel to affiliation with the British Raj, which ultimately evolved to identification with a wider Jewish diaspora. Until India got independence, while most Bene Israel, like other Indians, regarded Aden as the diaspora and Bombay as the homeland, in time, the majority of these Indian Jews opted for a new homeland in the State of Israel, in which India, previously the motherland, became a diaspora.