Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A View from the Margin » (First Edition)

Nathan Katz is Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Religious Studies, Florida International University. Ranabir Chakravarti is Professor of Ancient History, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Braj M. Sinha is Professor of Religious Studies, University of Saskatchewan. Shalva Weil is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

This book is an analysis of the affinities and interactions between Indic and Judaic civilizations from ancient through contemporary times. The contributors to this volume come together to propose new and global understanding of patterns of commerce and culture, to reconfigure how we understand the way great cultures interact, and to present a new constellation of diplomacy, literature, and geopolitics.

Introduction: Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A Perspective from the Margin   Nathan Katz     1
Historical Studies, Ancient and Medieval
Reaching out to Distant Shores: Indo-Judaic Trade Contacts (Up to CE 1300)   Ranabir Chakravarti     19
Traders and Ideas: Indians and Jews   Brian Weinstein     44
Hindus and Hinduism in Medieval Jewish Literature   Richard G. Marks     57
Comparative Religious Studies
Beyond Hegemony: Hinduisms, Judaisms, and the Politics of Comparison   Barbara A. Holdrege     77
Divine Anthropos and Cosmic Tree: Hindu and Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective   Braj M. Sinha     93
The State of the Art of Hindu-Jewish Dialogue   Nathan Katz     113
Jewish (and Near-Jewish) Communities in India
New Research, Discoveries and Paradigms: A Report on the Current Study of Kerala Jews   Barbara C. Johnson     129
On Origins, the Arts, and Transformed Identities: Foci of Research into the Bene Israel   Shalva Weil     147
The Baghdadi Jews of India: Perspectives on the Study and Portrayal of a Community   Joan Roland     158
Tribal Jews   Tudor Parfitt     181
Contemporary Interactions in Polity, Political Discourse, and Diplomacy
Describing the "Other," Describing the"Self": Jews, Hindu Reformers, and Indian Nationalists   Yulia Egorova     197
India and Israel: The Diplomatic History   P. R. Kumaraswamy     212
India and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Shifting Strategic Focus   Dinesh Kumar     225
The Multicultural Issue in India and Israel-Some Reflections   Margaret Chatterjee     237
Notes on the Contributors     251
Index     254