The first Jewish refugees, that settled in India, arrived after Nabuchadonezer, king of Babylon conquered their land in the 6th century BC and expelled some and enslaved the others. They were a dark skinned people, probably of the Afrocoidal race.

The second wave of Jewish emigration to India, came after the destruction of Israel by Romans in 1-2nd century.

The third wave of Jewish emigration to India, occurred after 1482, when Queen Isabelle threw the Jews out of Spain, where they settled at Cochin peninsula in Southern India. Jews from the tropical Conchin were the most dark skinned Jews known at that time.

The Bnei Menashe, from the northeastern part of India, say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century B.C.

 

The principal Jewish groups in India are:

• Bene Israel – Jews of Mumbai, India, most of whom now reside in Israel.
• Cochin Jews – Indian Jews from south-western India, most of whom also now reside in Israel, including the Paradesi Jews.
• Baghdadi Jews – Jews who came from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Arab countries who settled in India in the 18th century.
• Bnei Menashe – Jews living in Manipur and Mizoram in north-eastern India, claiming descent from the dispersed biblical tribe of Menasseh.
• Bene Ephraim – Telugu-speaking Jews of Kottareddipalem in Andhra Pradesh, India.