Replaced and Reimagined

This chapter investigates the deliberate erasure of Jewish identity in Indian adaptations of The Merchant of Venice , with a focus on Bharatendu Harishchandra&s;s 1878 Hindi translation Durlabh Bandhu , Vandana Kataria&s;s 2018 film Noblemen , and Ajay Vasudev&s;s 2020 Malayalam film Shylock . In each case, Shylock&s;s Jewishness is replaced by identities associated with local religious or communal minorities, effectively erasing Jewish representation while reinforcing indigenous stereotypes. This practice reflects the broader dynamics of Indian society, where Jewish identity is often regarded as uncontentious and thus overlooked, leading to the perception of an absence of anti-Semitism. By contrast, British-Indian director Jatinder Verma&s;s 2005 stage production—set in sixteenth-century Cochin under Portuguese colonial rule—explicitly situates anti-Semitism within Indian history, highlighting the persecution of Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and non-Catholic Christians during the Inquisition. This paper argues that India&s;s self-image as uniquely tolerant toward Jews obscures latent anti-Semitic currents, which are frequently entangled with Islamophobic narratives within Hindu nationalist discourse. By analysing how Indian reimaginings of Shylock negotiate themes of marginalization, villainy, and communal “othering,” this study demonstrates how adaptation can simultaneously deflect attention from anti-Semitism while embedding local prejudices into the dramatic fabric of Shakespeare&s;s play.