Talk:Desi Jews

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Contents 1 Introduction 2 External Links 3 Indian Jews don't comprise all the Desi Jews 4 From an encyclopaedic perspective...

[edit] Introduction

I began this article, but I am not an expert in this field. Especially, I don't know the degree of self-identification as Desi Jews for those who emigrated out of the Subcontinent, in the way other Desi emigre communities do.

I think the article could be expanded with references to the cultural specificities common to the Desi Jews and with a broader view of their history. Now the latter is segmented in articles by country (for example Bene Israel live both in India and Pakistan, or Baghdadi Jews are in most South Asian countries). Desiphral 00:29, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

I searched and added some external links related to this subject. It seems that at this time there are few informations on the net, most of them repeating the facts (already on Wikipedia) about the three recognized communities (Cochin Jews, Bene Israel and Baghdadi Jews). Only about the Bnei Menashe and Bene Ephraim there is more diversity of informations because of the contemporary debate about their Jewishness.

Also there are few primary sources from the Desi Jews themselves ( just some forum discussions). In the book I cited as reference it is written that many of them live in moshavim in Israel where they retain some specific rituals and a connection with the Subcontinent. Maybe an on-line research in Hebrew would find more about their contemporary status?

Many of the sources include a recurrent non-Desi perspective of the South Asia, presuming it is equal to India and naming indiscriminately Indian, everything related to this region. South Asian or more popular Desi is the politically correct denomination used today to relate to the 7 countries of the Subcontinent. I included also links naming Indian Jews but describing the history of the South Asian Jews. Desiphral 00:32, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• Desiphral: It's a good start but this topic will need work, otherwise it is just too obscure from the perspective of Western culture and the English language reader -- and probably not many Sephardi Jews themselves know too much about this subject. Also, how many experts are there in any field of Jewish studies related to this topic? IZAK 11:07, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
  • I see there is the necessity to elaborate it and I'll try to do something about this (in a matter of weeks, when I'll get some free time). As for experts, I don't know too much. The name of the person who wrote the article about the Jews from the Subcontinent (in the book cited) is Elisabeth Chalier Visuvalingam. Mr. Romiel Daniel (he appears in the first external link) seems to be an important personality originally from this Jewish group, as I found on other sites. Desiphral 01:04, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Indian Jews don't comprise all the Desi Jews

Regarding the proposal of merging this article with Indian Jews, as I wrote earlier, Indian Jews are only a part of the Desi Jews. The Desi Jews themselves are a distinct cultural group, with branches living in more than one South Asian country: for example Bene Israel live both in India and Pakistan, or Baghdadi Jews are in most Subcontinental countries. Also, the term itself is used, because of the cultural distinction between Desi and Paradesi Jews.

Many of the facts from the article Indian Jews seem to concern all the Desi Jews and a merging of the two articles (also with the Pakistani Jews) would be more realistic. Desiphral 16:58, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] From an encyclopaedic perspective...

From an encyclopaedic perspective, we need the categories category:Indian Jews (or category:Jews of India) and category:Pakistani Jews (or category:Jews of Pakistan). Grouping the Cochini Jews (with their sub-groups), the Bene Israel, the Bene Menashe and possibly also the Bene Ephraim together is interesting from an Indian perspective and from a Pakistani perspective. I am not so sure that applying the very recent construct of Desi Jews is helpful, given that this term is virtually unknown outside Wikipedia. [1] This despite the fact that the various groups of Jews in India (some of which have smaller sub-populations in Pakistan) are extensively treated in the literature and on the Internet. If anyone can DOCUMENT (quotation & citation) that the term Desi Jews is actually used in the literature, then we can discuss the use of the term here. If not, I believe we are dealing with an original research issue. -- Olve 21:16, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

I think this should definitely be merged with one of the other pages if the content is really encyclopedic. Arniep 21:56, 9 May 2006 (UTC)