Conclusion

Abstract

The aim of the foregoing studies has been to set up a kind of dialogue across time and space, centring on certain issues affecting modern Jewish and Hindu communities. Geographical separation and lack of avenues of commerce account for the absence of the kind of interaction of cultures that took place over centuries in the Middle East. Whatever meeting of Jewish and Hindu ideas there may have been in early or late antiquity is a matter of speculation, and in any case would have been mediated through Egypt, Babylon and even more likely, Persia. What is of interest today is how two ancient civilisations, after the vicissitudes of centuries, make their mark in contemporary history. To borrow a Herzlian term from another context, each is altneu for different sets of reasons. In order to point up the parallel I have referred to Hindu society rather than Indian society. This choice of terminology needs a word of explanation. The culture of India is very obviously a composite one and the Indian nation that gained independence on 15 August 1947 was not a Hindu nation but one that contains many peoples, including more Muslims than those who opted to live in a separate state called Pakistan. Among the national leaders who laboured in the cause of Indian independence were people from various communities, not only Hindus. If there were more Hindus than others among their number this was a function of their numerical majority in the country. To focus on the inner diversity of the Indian nation, as any study of Indian nationalism must, was an altogether different project from what I had in mind. To select Jewish and Hindu issues involved a limited inquiry which I embarked on without any intention whatsoever of making heavy weather of the concept of Hinduness. The latter, in the form of Hindutva, became an issue after the period of history that I was concentrating on.KeywordsLate AntiquityIndian NationContemporary HistoryYouth MovementCultural AmbienceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.