Who are the Jews of India? A Lesson in Resilience and Diversity | Vishwajeet Deshmukh | TEDxPICT

"We aren't makers of history, we are made by history." These words ring true as we explore the significance of the past and its impact on the present and future. Vishwajeet Deshmukh, a lawyer turned historian, has a burning passion for studying history and understanding its role in shaping our world. At TEDxPICT, Vishwajeet narrates the journey of the minority community of Indian Jews. Vishwajeet emphasizes the lessons that all of us can learn from the story of this community; lessons in resilience and diversity. Lastly, he considers a very critical question: why should we study our history? Vishwajeet graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai with a first-class law degree and currently works as an associate consultant at Ernst and Young. Vishwajeet is also an LLM candidate at Harvard Law School. He is a historian of South Asia, primarily researching and writing on the history of minorities focusing on Parsis, Jews and Anglo-Indians and his research has been funded by the 1947 Partition Archive and Tata Trusts Research Grant. He has published articles with Travaux: Berkeley Journal of International Law, Bologna Law Review Italy, Penn Undergraduate Law Journal, JURIST University of Pittsburgh, University of California Merced, World History Encyclopedia and Armstrong Journal of History. He has also been a law clerk with judges at the Bombay High Court and a research assistant to historians from Princeton University, Oxford University and the University of Virginia. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at