Anjuvannam
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Anjuvannam or Anjuvannan refers to the Jewish community of Cochin.
The name derives from the traditional Hindu system of castes where any person not belonging to one of the four principal castes used to be referred to as an anjuvannan. The word comes from the Malayalam words anju (five) and vannam or varnam (colour, race, or caste).
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[edit] Copper plate given to Anjuvannam
One may recall that during the visit of Ariel Sharon to India in 2003 ( news item in the hindu ), the then Tourism minister of Kerala, Mr K V Thomas had presented Mr. Sharon with a replica of the Copper plate issued by the Bhaskara Ravi Varman II , the erstwhile king of Cochin, kerala to OUSEPP IRABBAN (interpreted to be Joseph Rabban, the leader of the Jewish community of Cochin state), with permission to own, inhabit, trade and prosper in an exclusive island on the port of Kodungallur, (referred to as muziris by western authors including Pliny the Elder).
The significance of the memento was not lost on the visiting head of state who realised that here was a region that granted 'right to land' to a Jewish population, centuries prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The cochin Jews had a peaceful existence, free from persecution ( the only two notable exceptions being the brief periods of Portuguese and Dutch colonial rule over Cochin) in coastal towns like Kodungallur, Mala, paravoor (also referred to as North parur, and Jew town near Mattancheri.
[edit] Subsequent Developments
From the 18th century onwards, the term anjuvannans was not used as commonly. Instead, the Jews were addressed as Judan, while the christian community was referred to as Mappillai ( meaning the Better/ Bigger Sons), or christiani. There was also a tradition of referring to any non indigenous community like the white Jews for instance, (as opposed to the Black Jews, who were considered as indigenous) as Jonon or Yavanan ( Yavana means foreign land as well as Roman depending on the context).
[edit] Present day
The Jews of Cochin migrated to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s and there are hardly a dozen or so of the Jewish community left today in Cochin.
