EMN
Dimapur, May 9
Really, who knew? There are Jewish persons living in Nagaland too. Nagaland could be a fairly interesting spot for cultural anthropologists considering the state’s complex network of race and peoples each with distinct culture, religion, cuisine and social representations.
While peoples of various and myriad faiths and cultures–including Europeans and East Asians–have a common and visible presence in predominantly-Christian Nagaland, this perhaps might be the first time one could decidedly point to the presence of a Jewish community. And they are a tiny, tiny population–not even 100 of them.
On May 4, the government released data showing the population of Jews in India. The data provided by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, to the Lok Sabha shows that are only about 2, 389 Jewish persons in the subcontinent’s 1.252 billion (2013). In the northeast, the highest number of the community can be found in Manipur (859) and Mizoram (805). In Nagaland, there are only 71 Jewish persons residing in the state, according to the data. They comprise 34 males and 37 females.
The minister said that a proposal was received from the Jewish community seeking grant of minority status. The office of the Registrar General of India has informed that the population of Jews/Judaism religious community as per 2011 census has yet to be published, the minister said.
The minister said that Judaism has been classified under the category “Other Religion and Persuasion” in the Census of India. ‘No time line has been fixed by the central government to take a decision to declare Jewish community as minority community,’ Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told the Lok Sabha.
The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethno-religious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation while its observance varies from strict observance to complete nonobservance.
The modern state of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Basic Laws. Its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. Israel is the only country where Jews are a majority of the population.
