A point: there is more antisemitism in the London borough of Barnet, where I live, in one year, than there has been in all of Bharat (India) in over 2000 years, where I would like to live.
A question: in which country has a sizable Jewish population been able to live and practice its religion without fear of antisemitism for over 2000 years?
An answer: “Jews for 2000 years have been living in India and antisemitism is not even a word that is known here in India.” Former Isreael Ambassador to India, Naor Gillon, 2023 which can be viewed here.
A definition: antisemitism is, “Prejudice, hostility, or discrimination towards Jewish people on religious, cultural, or ethnic grounds.” Oxford English Dictionary (accessed 2025).
Sources: the most credible sources of data on antisemitic incidents in the United Kingsom come from the Metropolitan Police Service Crime Dashboard here and the Community Security Trust (CST), and their more recent Antisemitic Incidents reports can be viewed from here among their other publications. The Antisemitic Incidents reports for 2024 can be viewed here and for January to June 2025 here. The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) has a remit beyone antisemitism but their publications are always based on methodologically rigorous inquiry
Antisemitism in India
Despite what the former Israel Ambassador to India says, you can view “The Unnoticed Antisemitism in India” by Dr Navras Aafreedi here. Dr Aafreedi is Assistant Professor of History at the Presidency University in Kolkata, India. The analysis is interesting and presentation very watchable while the points noted here are, 1) if there is antisemitism, there isn’t much, 2) of that which there is, it’s “unnoticed”, and that suits me fine!
In history, Wikipedia’s antisemitism by country page includes a short (unsruprising) section on India, “Of the few antisemitic incidents that were reported, most of them were related to antisemitism which was imported by Portuguese Catholic colonists and missionaries during the 16th century.” The section can be viewed here. More recently, and tragically, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were murdered in the 2008 Mumbai attacks (the 26/11 attacks). However, these were perpetrated by Islamists who entered the country from Pakistan. You can read more here.
Antisemitism in the United Kingdom
The observation is that, despite a fall in 2024, the overall trend is that antisemitism is on the rise in the United Kingdom. The JPR report, “82% of British Jews now see antisemitism as a “very big” or “fairly big” problem, with 47% saying it is a “very big” problem — up from just 11% in 2012”. You can read that and a great deal more here. 47% is nearly half!
Antisemitism in Barnet, London (where I live!)
In 2024, “CST recorded 1,847 antisemitic incidents in Greater London”, of these, “791 antisemitic incidents occurred in Barnet”. That is, in 2024, the authority where the most antisemitic incidents occurred was Barnet. More particularly, of the “202 cases of Assault and Extreme Violence, 89 (44%) occurred across just four UK boroughs: Barnet (48)…”. That is, over half the assault and extreme violence incidents recorded in London in 2024 took place in the borough I live in. In the first six months of 2025, of the 774 antisemitic incidents recorded across Greater London “325 took place in Barnet”.
To illustrate the statistics, in September 2025, the BBC reported that a “37-year-old was arrested in the Hendon area” “on suspicion of religiously motivated criminal damage over a series of attacks [7 incidents] on synagogues and a nursery”. Hendon is a neighbourhood of Barnet. It’s the neighbourhood I live in.
Routes to Residence in India
Indian Ministry of External Affairs here
The India Government’s Bureau of Immigration here
Indian Citizenship Online Portal here
Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO): here, Wikipedia here, Kolkata Regional Office search here. From AI: if you are staying in India for more than 180 days and do not have an OCI card, you must register…
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) India here and here.
Asylum Seekers and Refugees in India Wikipedia here.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Living in India page is here.