What would their relations with the Malagasy be like if Jews formed a large minority in Madagascar?

[TheLobby]

Let's suppose that the Madagaskar Projekt had somehow been implemented and that Jews made up 20% of the Malagasy population after WW2, concentrating in the large towns of the highlands (Antananarivo, Antsirabe, Fianarantsoa) where they formed the majority of the population. Madagascar obtains its independence in the same way as in OTL.

I've seen a few rare TLs saying that relations between Jews and Malagasy would have been harmonious and that the latter would have welcomed the Jews with open arms. I know Madagascar well myself and it's however a very xenophobic society, although the Malagasy population gives the impression of being smiling and hospitable. Only full-blooded Malagasy have the right to citizenship. Indians, Comorrians and Chinese who have lived here for generations are regularly persecuted. The caste system is implacable and the symbolic violence is enormous.

What do you think?

 

[EasternRomanEmpire]

Does this Madagascar project have influence on Israel or do we assume things would go about the same?

 

[French Frog]

Conflict results.
I would predict a similar scenario to what we have seen in the ME.
Basically you cannot impose a population transfer onto an indigenous group and not expect resentment of some sort.

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

Let's suppose that the Madagaskar Projekt had somehow been implemented and that Jews made up 20% of the Malagasy population after WW2, concentrating in the large towns of the highlands (Antananarivo, Antsirabe, Fianarantsoa) where they formed the majority of the population. Madagascar obtains its independence in the same way as in OTL.

I've seen a few rare TLs saying that relations between Jews and Malagasy would have been harmonious and that the latter would have welcomed the Jews with open arms. I know Madagascar well myself and it's however a very xenophobic society, although the Malagasy population gives the impression of being smiling and hospitable. Only full-blooded Malagasy have the right to citizenship. Indians, Comorrians and Chinese who have lived here for generations are regularly persecuted. The caste system is implacable and the symbolic violence is enormous.

What do you think?

It's gonna get very bad. If they're settled in the highlands then they're going to be living alongside the Imerina, the elite of which used to control the whole island and are used to considering themselves the creme-de-la-creme of the native Malagasy. They were of course conquered by the French, but now sending in a minority group that is more likely to have more highly-educated individuals that can put themselves in a superior position to the Imerina? Its not going to go well, and any lapse in French authority or protection for the Jews runs a very high risk of getting their villages burned down.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Oddly, there was a very popular belief among both Malagasy and foreign Europeans that some or all Malagasy descend from the Jews of the Old Testament. It seems to be a genuinely old belief brought by Jews/crypto-Jews among the Arab merchants who visited and settled the island. So that would mean a very different reaction from the locals.

 

[Garrison]

I would expect large scale emigration, given that the Jews would have been shipped there at gunpoint and the survivors would have been living in dismal conditions.

 

[TheLobby]

It's gonna get very bad. If they're settled in the highlands then they're going to be living alongside the Imerina, the elite of which used to control the whole island and are used to considering themselves the creme-de-la-creme of the native Malagasy. They were of course conquered by the French, but now sending in a minority group that is more likely to have more highly-educated individuals that can put themselves in a superior position to the Imerina? Its not going to go well, and any lapse in French authority or protection for the Jews runs a very high risk of getting their villages burned down.

The highlands are the only areas of Madagascar suitable for European immigrants; elsewhere, Jews would be decimated by malaria.

Oddly, there was a very popular belief among both Malagasy and foreign Europeans that some or all Malagasy descend from the Jews of the Old Testament. It seems to be a genuinely old belief brought by Jews/crypto-Jews among the Arab merchants who visited and settled the island. So that would mean a very different reaction from the locals.

Only for certain coastal ethnic groups such as the Antemoro.

 

[Garrison]

The highlands are the only areas of Madagascar suitable for European immigrants; elsewhere, Jews would be decimated by malaria.

So we can rest assured they would not have been settled in the highlands, you must remember the point of the Madagascar Plan was to just to have the Jews die off by 'natural causes' in a place where no one would pay attention.