India and Israel's Complicated History | Unpacked

With their own distinct cultures, religions, political challenges and even sizes, India and Israel appear to be completely different. Yet these two nations actually have a lot in common, including being home to two of the world’s earliest religions: Judaism and Hinduism.

From the spices they use, their advancements in high tech, and even their shared history of establishing independence from British rule, it would appear these very different countries aren’t so different after all.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:17 Pen partitioning and national independence
00:47 Wars of Independence
01:13 Indian spices in ancient Israelite food
01:36 Formation of Hinduism and Judaism
02:20 Muslim imperial rule and British rule
02:49 Albert Einstein and Jawaharlal Nehru
03:39 Formal cooperation after the Oslo Accords
03:52 Indian policy of de-hyphenation
04:02 Shared defense technology
04:14 The Mumbai terror attacks
04:30 Indians and Israelis just... like each other
05:04 Technological advancements and cooperation
05:52 Entrepreneurialism

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Recommended video— How Jews Ended up in India and China

Let’s connect:

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Image and footage credits:
— Allonelk/Wikimedia Commons
— American Colony Archive
— AP
— Avram Graicer
— Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg
— Carole Raddato/Flickr
— Dahlia Lazan
— Kan 11
— Library of Congress, Music Division
— Mark Neyman/GPO
— NARA
— NDTV
— Planemad /Wikimedia Commons
— PM of Israel/YT
— Prime Minister's Office, Government of India
— Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Trust
— Uncletomwood/Wikimedia Commons
— William J. Clinton Presidential Library

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About Explainers: From ancient Jewish traditions to the modern State of Israel, we explain it all. Diving into anything and everything related to Jewish culture, history, and even religion.
Understand Jewish holidays, Israeli politics, Jewish diasporic communities, and more. Learn about Judaism in pop culture, debunking myths about Jews, and explore obscure Israeli landmarks. We’re asking questions as basic as “What is the Talmud?”, and as obscure as “How did hip-hop boost Kosher wine sales?”, and everything in between.

About Unpacked: We provide nuanced insights by unpacking all things Jewish. People are complex and complicated — yet we’re constantly being pushed to oversimplify our world. At Unpacked we know that being complex makes us more interesting. Because of this, we break the world down with nuance and insight to drive your curiosity and challenge your thinking.

#India #Israel #Jewish

[Unpacked]

To all those commenting about the map at 00:07 —

YouTube does not allow us to change/replace/edit videos once they are uploaded. The map as it appears at that time is not how we intended to display the map and borders of India.

If you watch the rest of the video, you will see that we do show the map including J&K.

We do not intend to prescribe a specific opinion when showing maps, but rather display what de facto is happening (in this case, that India administers Kashmir and Jammu) and not "who is right".

We know there are viewers of ours who fall on both sides of the debate, and we ask you understand that graphical mistakes are made in the process despite hours of research and revisions.

[UltraTaco]

Love to India from Israel 🇮🇱🧡💙🇮🇳
Your international support is unbelievable

[James-gnjb]

Our friendship goes back with hundreds of years jews always knew that India Is a safe heaven especially after getting expelled from our home land ❤️ long live our friendship, a bond that can never be broken peace and love to my sisters and brothers in India 🇮🇳 ❤️ from Israel 🇮🇱

[elennet]

Shalom Israel 🇮🇱
Majority of Indians like Israel
Hope both nations continue in the path of development and scientific achievement

[sohamdas]

You used wrong map of India in the intro section.
Hope you will correct it.
Love to my Isreali brothers and sisters🙏🙏🙏

[dunnowy]

Wow. Actually hearing the similarities between the two countries and civilizations side by side is kind of crazy. No wonder Indians/Hindus and Israelis/Jews get on so well.

[Akshun]

0:58 u got the wrong fact Kashmir is an integral part of India's uppermost state In map is divided into three parts Kashmir, Jammu, and Ladakh

[zachzanal]

As an Indian myself, never before i knew we shared these many similiarities with Israel

[yk]

Please use proper indian map
By the way love🇮🇱

[scytheofdeath]

Indian Hindus stand with our Israeli Brothers and Sisters against Islamic Radicals!
🇮🇳🤝🇮🇱 🕉💖✡

[sudhirghosh_]

Love Israel 🇮🇱❤️ from india 🇮🇳
I love Israel for it's freedom and democracy and LGBTQAI friendly society ❤️

[PiyushYadav-dilt]

Israel-India relationship has been pretty solid, despite of geopolitical, demographic and political diffences even during the cold war, I would love to visit Israel, someday.

[bethechange]

2:51 you've shown mainland Indian land "Arunachal Pradesh" as if it is disputed, this is not acceptable. Learn from your mistakes and from next time onwards show correct map of the country whose video you are making

[San-_-Alpha]

Shalom to my brothers and sisters from Israel. From 🇮🇳

[rajkishorebehera]

The similarities in historical events between israel and india are fascinating

[_Painted]

I noticed another similarity. Our most festive celebrations are both Festivals of Lights: Chanukah and Diwali
Also, as an American, I’ve noticed Diwali celebrations are celebrated similarly to our 4th of July Independence Day because of all of the fireworks.

[snehashispanda]

Hindu-Americans Rank Top in Education and Income. Hindu-Americans have the highest socioeconomic levels among all religions in the United States.
-VOA

[rohitroy]

Not 30 years
India and israel have oldest relations
Indian hindu Buddhist traders used to visit israel for selling spices, Israeli jews and christains used to travel to india in caravans to sell weapons and dry fruits, in one of the caravans jesus came to india and got enlightenment just like buddha .
We hindus support our jewish brothers 🇮🇳💗🇮🇱

[chaitanyakulkarni]

0:09 You've shown incorrect map of India. Kashmir rightfully belongs to India. We have the instrument of accession also and the Eastern states are not visible. You could have zoomed out a little bit or you could have used google maps. Don't show wrong map you're disrespecting territorial sovereignty of a country.

[meher]

I visited Israel as a seafarer. I've been to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
I've taken a dip in the Dead Sea..
I consider myself Blessed.
God Bless India Isreal friendship.