Description
Book SynopsisExposes the political and ideological links and dovetailing ethnonationalist projects of India and Israel
Trade Review‘Today’s Israel and Modi’s India are natural partners, sharing values of racist ethnocracy and illegal annexation, and for Israel, offering a market for military and other advanced technology. This valuable study traces the complex evolution of their relationship from their independence to its recent blossoming as the societies and the international context changed, providing particularly rich insights into India’s development through this period’
-- Noam Chomsky
‘A brilliant and courageous book ... the definitive treatment of the overlooked alliance between the far-right wing governments of India and Israel. Essential reading for the escalating neo-fascist forces in our turbulent times’
-- Cornel West, American philosopher
‘Extraordinary ... exposes a powerful alliance, hidden from the global attention and media, that will affect the lives of many of us. This crucial contribution challenges the distorted Western discourse on democracy, rights and justice, offers a new genealogy and a brave interpretation of these crucial human concerns’
-- Ilan Pappe, Historian and Social Activist
‘Formidable and timely. Azad Essa lays bare the historically malignant roots of an often overlooked and underestimated kinship between two ideologies, Zionism and Hindutva, hungry for land and hungrier for dominance’
-- Mohammed El-Kurd, Author of 'Rifqa'
‘A call for global solidarity. Essa reveals the mutual agenda of the unholy India-Israeli ethno-nationalistic alliance, showing just why both those states are a danger to progessive internationalism. In dealing with the rise of Zionism, along with Modi's capture of state power in India, he deals with their ramifications on Kashmir and Palestine, on Indian diaspora and Israel's role in Africa’
-- Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Intelligence Minister, author and activist
‘For decades, India’s leaders spoke in hushed tones about their relationship with Israel. Essa reveals the long history of their alliance and shows how it is built on shared supremacist ideological projects whose devastating and inhumane consequences are borne by Palestinians and Kashmiris living under occupations. An essential, must-read book’
-- Mohamad Junaid, Anthropologist and Kashmiri writer
‘A necessary and urgent account’
-- Siddhartha Deb, author of the 'Beautiful and The Damned: New Life in India'
‘An authoritative study of the past and present of India-Israel relations. Essa reveals a troubling convergence of Hindu nationalist and Zionist worldviews. Equally, Hostile Homelands is a useful primer for thinking about how and why illiberal, authoritarian and Islamophobic forces are building alliances, globally’
-- Somdeep Sen, Associate Professor & Head of Studies, Global & Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark
‘A revealing exposé … Challenges the typical understanding of Zionism as an exclusively European phenomenon and Hindu nationalism as a provisional Indian experience. An essential read’
-- Ramzy Baroud, author of 'Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out'
‘Forces us to confront the grotesque end-game of colonial violence - Modi's India and Zionist Israel. The enduring and shape-shifting connections between these ethnonationalist entities offer a profound wake-up call, a realization that today, the most vocal among the world's purported democracies are, at their core, the most profoundly anti-democratic’
-- Nazia Kazi, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Anthropology, Stockton University, NJ
‘Meticulously researched and well-crafted ... Examines the under-covered subject of the ever-evolving relationship between India and Israel. Essa insightfully explores what happens when a nation negotiates the tension between principles and interests — and what happens when, particularly under the ethnonationalism of Narendra Modi, they converge’
-- Laila Al-Arian, Journalist, Al Jazeera English
‘The definitive book on Indian-Israel relations that we have been waiting for. Hostile Homelands is not only an intellectual tour de force. It will also help foster new solidarities and anti-imperialist organizing’
-- Jasbir Puar, author of 'The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Debility'
‘A vital read … offers detailed insights into the politics of Zionism and Hindutva’
-- Ramona Wadi, ‘Middle East Monitor’
‘Hostile Homelands has courage and integrity. It traces the beginning of India-Israel ties, unmasks successive governments, and carries a warning for the future’
-- Achin Vanaik, ‘The Wire’
‘An important work ... Essa’s scholarship allows us to question the post-colonial national model which has allowed India and Israel to commit legal violence against those they deem inferior’
-- ‘Washington Report on Middle East Affairs’
'Essa’s work is not only original but also well-researched and presented in a fluid style'
-- ‘The New Arab’
'Hostile Homelands is a supreme act of solidarity to help human rights activists around the world understand the forces aligned against two of the most important anti-colonial struggles in the world today'
-- ‘Muslim Matters’
‘Offers insights into the politics of Zionism and Hindutva’
-- ‘The Hindu’
‘Brilliant’
-- ‘Jacobin’
Table of ContentsForeword – Linah Alsaafin
1. A Story of Two Partitions
2. The Military-Industrial Complex
3. Hindutva and Zionism: A Story of Kinship
4. The Indian Diaspora and the Israeli Lobby in the United States
5. Kashmir and Palestine: A Story of Two Occupations
Acknowledgements and Postscript
