explains the pro- Zionist views expressed by a number of Western-
educated Indian intellectuals. As early as 1909, Weizmann was off ered a
se nior academic position at the University of Calcutta. The Zionist leader
declined the professorial off er on the plea that “this would upset our Pal-
estine plans.”^101 Had Weizmann, the key architect of the Balfour Decla-
ration, taken up the off er, the destiny of the Zionist movement most cer-
tainly would have been entirely diff erent. During his visit, Olsvanger met
a host of Indian academics. Reacting to his suggestion for institutional
cooperation between the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and the He-
brew University of Jerusalem, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, the vice
chancellor of the BHU, pledged to discuss “the matter with my colleagues
when I return to Banaras. But I may say at once that if you wish to send
any Jew students to study Sanskrit at the Banaras Hindu University, we
shall give him every facility to do so.”^102
In the same year, another academic, B. S. Guha of the Zoological Sur-
vey of India, remarked: “It was indeed a very great plea sure to have met
you [Olsvanger] and to be able to establish connection with the University
of Jerusalem through your good offi ces.”^103 The participation of a ten-
member Jewish delegation from Palestine in the fi rst Asian Relations
Conference in 1947 brought in more institutional interaction between
the Zionists and Indian nationalists.^104 The Zionists also showed a keen
interest in those Indians who were representing India in various interna-
tional forums. The earliest known such contacts date back to 1931, when
the Palestinian Zionist leader F. H. Kisch met and befriended Brejendra
Mitter and L. K. Hyder, Indian delegates at the Assembly of the League of
Nations.^105
Finally, the Zionists were attracted by the princely states of India and
their se nior leaders and offi cials. Among them Shanmukham Chetty, the
Diwan (the rank of nobility) of the southern princely state of Cochin (cur-
rently part of the state of Kerala), expressed an interest in establishing
“trade connections between Cochin and the Jewish Agency for Pales-
tine.”^106 In 1938, the princely state of Bikaner (now in Rajasthan) sought
technical assistance from the Jewish Agency in dry farming.^107 The
Maharaja of Patiala (now in Indian Punjab) along with his foreign minis-
ter, K. M. Panikkar, sought cooperation with the yishuv. These contacts
proved to be useful following the establishment of the state of Israel.
The extensive prestate contacts between the yishuv and India lead us
to two interesting conclusions. First, if the Zionists failed to elicit favor-
able and sympathetic responses in India, it was not due to the absence of
64 the congress party and the yishuv