Who is the OTHER in COCHIN?
Anthropology is about the
study of THE OTHER and until recently it has been chez l’autre (in the OTHER’s
home). But in light of the influx of the OTHER, into the European and American
homes, Anthropology now has become Chez Soi (at home)
I am writing this sipping
Malabar Coffee at KASHI ART CAFÉ in Burgher Street in Fort Cochin. I am staying
at Cochin Club built during the British Colonial Administration, acriss from
Queros Street, a Syrian Orthodox church, the remnants of Portugese homes from
the times of Vasco da Gama. The Muezzin is ever present to remind you of the
time of Muslim prayer. Amidst this cacophony of cultures, is the rapidly
vanishing Jewish community which does not easily fit into the broad
categorization accepted in the west: Ashkenazim, Sefardim and Mizrahim.
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| TALKING TO SARAH COHEN AGED 92 THE LAST OF THE SEVEN JEWS OF JEWTOWN IN FORTCOCHIN. THANKS TO TAHA IBRAHIM AND HIS FAMILY WHO ARE MUSLIM FOR LOOKING AFTER THIS JEWISH LADY WITHOUT A FAMILY |
The
Jews of Cochin has attracted a great curious crowd of academics and attention
as an Exotic Jewish Community in the Diaspora.
Initial mentions and studies
were done by foreigners, but they couldn’t understand the nuances of the social
structures of the Indian society the Jews lived in, and applied that among themselves
and others. Scholars from the USA, like their counterparts 150-200 years
earlier, gulped down the history of the privileged latecomers (Paradesis or
Foreigners) to this ancient Jewish Community.
Anthropology is about
context (Maurice Merleau-Ponty) and scholars of Religion or Journalists, even
if they had stayed and analyzed the situation, wrote wonderful, erudite volumes
always stressing on the exotic aspects, always off the mark
Who are the Chez Soi
observers of Cochin Jewish life?
I have travelled a fair bit
among the vanishing Jewish communities of the world, and lived among some of
them. I appreciated the sense of survival and the internalization of the local
culture, whether it was among the last 8 Jewish souls of Rangoon (now Yangon)
Iraqi Community, and amidst the vanishing outposts of Ashkenazim in the New World.
Cochin Jews are very
different in their attitude to observance of the Religion when compared to the
European/American/Australasian Jews.
One question I am frequently
asked is:
How can you call yourself
Jewish, if you rarely go to the Synagogue no more than a couple of times a year
and virtually ignorant of the Bible?
Cochin Jews are
extraordinarily religious. Just look at their attempt to adhere to Kashruth
(only one person left to kasher the meat, and that too just chicken) and their
rigid attendance at the synagogue and the celebrations to the letter of the law
of Jewish holidays such as Simchat Torah. In this they somewhat resemble the
Hassidim in the west (a very small percentage of the world Jewry)
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| THIS CHURCH WAS ABOUT TO BE DYNAMITED BY THE DUTCH IN 1662 BUT SAVED BY A RELIGIOUS LOCAL CHRISTIAN SOLDIER WHO REFUSED TO LIGHT THE DYNAMITE |
This morning at 7 am, a Wednesday
morning, walking past the Santa Cruz Basilica (first erected in 1505, ten years
before Mexican conquest, long before Philippines, the largest Christian country
in Asia came under European influence), it was full, the priest extolling, the
congregation kneeling and responding.
I stood there in amazement.
In which capital city in the
West, in Europe or America, would you see people filling up a church at 7 am on
a Wednesday morning?
This happens not just at
random, but regularly. I miss Sunday masses occasionally, said an elderly
informant, but I never miss the twice daily week day masses!
That is some obedient
attendance!
The muezzin calls are a
regular feature like the chirping of birds at 4 am or happy cocks making their
presence felt with crowing. I can detect dark marks on the foreheads of many
local Muslims from the act of praying and touching the earth.
So Judaism here is yet
another religion, like the dominant religions of this region, Christianity and
Islam, to be observed at the fullest extent of the law.
So when the state of Israel
was proclaimed, as they had been religiously longing to return to Zion, they
packed up and left, lock stock and barrel, leaving behind a smattering of Jews
behind. The buildings that housed the ancient synagogues both at Fort Cochin
and Ernakulam were sold, bartered and fell into disuse and with the exception
of Paradesi Synagogue, all fell into disrepair and disrespect. Very soon there
would be no indigenous Jews left and the maintenance of these buildings may
return to public domain, to the Archeological Survey of India, as mementos of
the glorious history of this coastal city.
There has been a great
interest in local Hindu and Christian scholars about Jews and the preservation
of their history. The torrential influx of tourists to see this exotic piece of
Judaica in the land of the Monsoons has also increased the chance of its
physical survival.
Local Jews claim that they
live in harmony or have lived in harmony for centuries (for most part true. The
Arabs, the Chinese did not persecute the Jews, the Portuguese did), when they
do that they are not talking about tolerance among themselves or with others,
but talking about the society in which they live, where Muslims and Christians
intermingle and live in harmony, each respecting the other, every one obsessed
with the practice of their religion. I thought that if the people of one faith
are extremely participatory they may find the practice of other religions
acceptable and respectable, thus not giving rise to the mentality currently in
Europe among the observant Muslims who find the non-religious Europeans Infidel.
Could it be true that tolerance to other religions can rise from the extreme
adherence to your own? If that is the case, Jews, Christians, Hindus and
Muslims lived in total harmony and peace in Fort Cochin.
So when a Cultural Jew
arrives here, he or she appreciates the exotic history of this fugitive branch
of Judaism, but also sees no more than a group of local people practicing Judaism,
and rather faithfully.
Feeling Jewish and Practicing Jewish are distinct and may be dissimilar in communities as a whole.
In the Jewish Community in Kingston, one could see Practicing Jews and Feeling
Jews (descendants of Portuguese Jews, mainly).
I don’t expect to find the
kind of affection I felt when I entered the Synagogue of Libyan Jews in Milan or
meeting Jewish student colleagues from Costa Rica at the conferences of World
Union of Jewish Students. In these instances I “felt” I was among Jews, felt a
sense of “solidarity”, “nationhood”, a “people”, a US rather than THEM
attitude. Much of these feelings are rather polemic to explain, and they are
lived in experiences rather than written about or searched for.
I used to wonder why Israeli
tourists to Fort Cochin didn’t show great interest more than the usual
curiosity in the local Jews. Some years ago, I was in Fort Cochin for the
Jewish festival of Simchat Torah and we were short of few men for the quorum of
Minyan. I was told to look for some Israeli tourists. I would approach someone who
looked Israeli and would ask in Hebrew, are you Jewish? They were very
surprised, Are there Jews here? Or I have not been inside a synagogue since my
bar mitzvah and now?
When I am in Israel, I feel
a great solidarity with the Jewish people. I have to say that I feel no such
solidarity with the Jews of Cochin or Bombay or Rangoon, no more than the
solidarity and friendliness I feel toward the Christians and Muslims and the
Hindus of Fort Cochin or the Bamars of Rangoon.
So WE are the OTHER, trying
to study Chez Soi, along with Christians and Muslims who feel great solidarity
with the Jews here.
I will visit the ancient
Synagogue at Mala in the company of two historians of Cochin: a Hindu Professor
and a Christian History Enthusiast.
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| MALA SYNAGOGUE IS WORTH SAVING, THANK YOU PROFESSOR KARMACHANDRAN |
That sums up the centrality
of Jewish life here in Cochin. (the history of the community is very
interesting)
Soon, like Penang, Rangoon
and Calcutta they too will be forgotten.
Working with American
Indians, I realize how easy it is for communities to disappear into the
historical folds. It is difficult to resurrect, even with seeds of descendants,
communities which have disappeared, a list that would add Cochin to its long
list.
What happened to once
surviving Jewish community of Iquitos, at the confluence of the Amazon River?
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| THE ERSTWHILE HOUSE OF MR COHEN A WEALTHY MERCHANT OF IQUITOS IN PERU, NOW A SUPERMARKET |
Casa Cohen, where the
wealthy Mr Cohen who imported goods from Europe and exported Rubber, is now a
Supermarket. (Much reminiscent of Samuel Koder who was a prominent merchant in
Fort Cochin and now his house is a restaurant and hotel)
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| KODER HOUSE WHERE THE WEALTHY MR SAM KODER LIVED IS NOW A HOTEL |
My brother was visiting
Jerusalem , got into a taxi, the brown skinned Jewish taxi driver was d’origine
Hodu. The taxi driver knew nothing of Cochin or of his ancestors. He was born
in Israel! It is not unusual in Israel, a country faced with the gargantuan
task of assimilating Jews from 130 different nationalities. (Congratulations on
a job well done, Israel)
Cochin Jewish History is not
lost, it is safe in the hands of the enthusiasts, local Hindu, Christian and
Muslim historians.
