A Chequered Past

Earlier India had to accommodate the Arab-Islamic opposition to normalisation of relations with Israel, but now it is the other way around.

 

- P. R. Kumaraswamy

INDIA’S RELATIONS WITH Israel can be described within four broad historical processes that date back to the early part of the 20th century. The emergence of Jewish nationalist aspirations in Palestine coincided with the impending disintegration of the already crumbling Ottoman Empire which also had the caliph. For centuries, Indian Muslims were indifferent both to the Ottoman sultan and his caliphate, but the disappearance of the Mughal empire and its replacement by the British transformed the situation. The Ottomans being the last surviving Islamic empire galvanised a sudden interest among the Indian Muslims and culminated in the Khilafat movement.

Enter Mahatma Gandhi. He sees the Muslim agitation over a pan-Islamic issue as an opportunity to forge much needed but long absent Hindu-Muslim unity and unconditionally plunges the Congress into supporting the Khilafat struggle. Though the community unity proved short-lived and counterproductive in the long run, the phase also witnessed the emergence of rudimentary Indian position vis-à-vis the Jewish claims.

Gandhi framed Palestine within the Islamic paradigm and categorically ruled out sovereignity being granted to the non-Muslim population. Though the Congress did not go that far, the matter was settled squarely. As the political tussle between the Congress and the Muslim League intensified in the 1930s, the Palestine issue became the quid pro quo for the Congress to seek support from the Indian Muslims and wean them away from the League.

There was also an ideological compulsion. Having rejected Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s arguments of religion being the basis for nationhood, the Congress could not adopt a contrary view on the Jewish nationalism. Hence, at the ideological level, it opposed the minority nationalism both in India and in Palestine.