- On the surface,
India and Israel seem very different.
They have different religions, cultures, histories,
and very different sizes.
The entire population of Israel
can fit inside the city of Mumbai.
But these two nations
actually have some surprising similarities.
Let's begin with how both modern states came into being.
In 1947, India became a country,
and in 1948, Israel declared its independence.
In both cases, the formerly British-controlled areas
had borders that were simply drawn up on a map by diplomats.
Yes, they literally took a pen
and drew a line to divide the new states.
India was created with Pakistan,
and a Jewish state, which would become Israel,
was drawn with an accompanying Arab state.
As you may know, pen partitioning didn't go too well.
Both Israel and India were immediately
engulfed by war with their neighbors.
India went to war when Pakistan
invaded the state of Kashmir,
which had decided to remain separate
and not join Pakistan or India.
And as soon as Israel declared its independence,
surrounding Arab states attacked it.
With both Israel and India gaining territory
in these defensive wars.
But that's neither the beginning nor the end
of India and Israel's surprisingly similar stories.
Their relationship begins with food.
Evidence in burial sites in Megiddo from around 2,000 BCE
show that bronze age Israelites were flavoring their food
with sesame and turmeric from India.
Later, that trade route extended past Israel
to the western world.
If you enjoyed exotic foods or aromatic incense
in Caesar's Rome, chances are they came from India,
through the land of Israel.
The second millennium BCE also saw the formation
of two of the world's oldest religions,
Hinduism and Judaism, in the lands of India and Israel.
Scholars date the writing of the Hindu sacred texts
known as the Vedas to around 1,500 BCE,
around the same time that Jewish tradition
holds the Bible was given to Moses.
And both contain stories and traditions
that go back much further.
They also each served as the foundation
for other prominent religions.
Judaism's texts and traditions
formed the basis of Christianity and Islam,
and Hinduism birthed Buddhism and Jainism.
Interestingly, while over the next few millennia
and even up to today,
Jews mostly had a tough time
living under Christian and Muslim rule,
India showed Jewish immigrants tolerance and peace.
Fast forward to the 17th century,
and both the land of Israel
and much of the Indian subcontinent
are under Muslim imperial rule.
Israel by the Ottomans and India by the Mughals.
Then came the British.
Almost all of India came under British rule
in the mid-19th century,
and Mandatory Palestine was established under the crown
following World War I.
After the second world war,
and as the British Empire contracted,
they divided their colonies with plenty of pens,
but perhaps without enough thought
to the religious and ethnic divisions.
So now we're back to our time,
where despite all of the historical similarities
these modern nations have actually had
a pretty complicated relationship.
If the governments of Israel and India got along
as well as Albert Einstein,
one of Israel's most prominent proponents,
and Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister,
things would be great.
The two met in Princeton University,
and really admired each other.
In 1947, Einstein wrote to Nehru
and asked him to support the emerging state.
Nehru couldn't do it though.
The young India didn't wanna alienate its Muslim citizens
in support of a Jewish state,
especially when it had its own neighbors to worry about.
Interesting side note, Nehru had a Jewish relative,
the wife of his cousin, B. K. Nehru,
known affectionately as Auntie Fori.
Jewish historian Martin Gilbert's letters to her
are the basis of his book, "Letters to Auntie Fori".
Learn more about them in our video
by clicking on the card or on the link in the description.
Back to India and Israel.
Though Israel has provided military aid
and traded informally with India since the 50s,
it wasn't until after the Oslo Accords
that they began to formally cooperate.
And relations have only gotten better since.
Today, India's government
maintains a policy of de-hyphenation:
treating the Israeli government and Palestinian authority
as separate and engaging with each on its own terms.
With the rise of terrorism,
the countries share much in defense technology.
Since India and Israel both deal with territorial disputes
and conflict over holy sites,
the governments share information and technologies
like smart fences and drones.
And, of course, both countries shared sorrow and resolve
after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks,
when a Pakistani terrorist group
attacked sites around Mumbai,
killing hundreds of people who called India home,
including the Israeli founders
of Mumbai's Nariman Chabad House.
But regardless of governmental policy and defense needs,
it just seems that the people of each country
like each other.
Israel is home to a population of Indian Jews,
including a few who still speak Judeo-Malayalam,
the Indian equivalent of Yiddish or Ladino.
And across polls conducted in the last 20 years,
India has ranked as the country most favorable to Israel.
India is one of the most popular destinations
for young Israelis who travel on their post-military trip.
The low cost, beautiful sights,
and vibrant nightlife attract so many of these tourists
that their regular route through the country
is affectionately called the Hummus Trail.
Both countries are also making great advances in technology.
Global tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple,
and others often choose Israel or India
as their R&D locations.
India's Bengaluru, commonly referred to as Bangalore,
and Israel's Tel Aviv
are working to become new Silicon Valleys,
and Silicon Valley itself is home to many Indian
and Israeli expats.
Companies from both countries have also worked together
on agriculture, medicine, and entertainment.
Israel, located in a water-poor region,
is bringing its advanced irrigation
and agriculture technology to help Indian farmers
grow more food with less.
In 2018, India even filmed
its first Bollywood movie in Israel.
And in 2021, Israeli and Indian pharmaceutical companies
started co-developing and testing
an oral COVID-19 vaccine.
Perhaps the reason that Israel and India
are getting along so well
is because both countries share a kind of entrepreneurial,
can-do attitude, what Indians call Jugaad,
and what Israelis might call a shiftzur,
the ability to find non-conventional solutions,
and even hacks to problems with limited resources.
As former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said
on a visit to India in 2016:
- Jugaad is the way we think, the way we invent,
the way we work.
- It's an attitude that's helped both countries
prevail when the odds are stacked against them,
and it might just be the biggest similarity
between these two very different nations.