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Parsis have civilization; other Indians don’t
By Aakar Patel / Mint
Published: 05.12.2009 / 04:32 AM
Category: Heritage, India, Opinion
Culture is our attitude to beauty and ugliness, to power, to religion,
and to family. It shows in our music, in what makes us laugh.
Civilization is our attitude to mankind
Indians have culture but not civilization. Culture is how we entertain
ourselves; civilization is how we entertain others. Culture is our
attitude to beauty and ugliness, to power, to religion, and to family.
It shows in our music, in what makes us laugh. Civilization is our
attitude to mankind. It’s defined as social development of an advanced
stage, but civilization never actually arrives; it is only reached
for. It assumes there is high purpose to life, to wealth, to culture.
It believes that man will exhibit the signs of his evolution. He will
improve upon man. For this he must build—but what?
The Birlas built six temples (India always being in urgent need of
more religion).
They built temples in Jaipur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and
Kolkata. Most of these are to Lakshminarayan, and these are only the
big ones. No Indian family has built more, or bigger, temples than the
Birlas, and that is their contribution to our culture.
Mukesh Ambani is building on Altamount Road a structure called
Antilla, the most expensive home in history. Its architects Hirsch
Bedner say their estimate for it is around $2 billion. That is Rs9,000
crore, and four people will live in this house. That is Ambani’s
contribution to our culture.
The Birlas built schools for the rich, and the Ambanis made a school
for millionaires. BITS-Pilani’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year, Birla
Vidyamandir’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year and Dhirubhai Ambani
International School’s fee just for classes XI and XII is Rs7.57 lakh.
At the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (“Compassionate Quality
Healthcare”), a check-up for headaches costs Rs2,850.
At the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (“Every Life Matters”), the
wellness check-up costs Rs5,000.
At the Tata Memorial Hospital, which treats cancer, healthcare is
free.
Rajashree Birla says Indians “don’t have the mindset to give away
large amounts of money to charity”. The act of leaving “just a little
bit for their children”, she says, “happens only in the US”.
“It calls for very large-heartedness,” she says, “I don’t see this
happening in the Indian context in the near future at least.”
She’s right about our mindset and culture, but wrong in assuming that
the problem is about large-heartedness: It is actually about a lack of
civilization.
She’s wrong also about this not happening in future: It already has
happened in India.
Of Tata Sons’ 398,563 shares, 65.8% is held by charitable trusts
(Ratan Tata owns 0.84%). How much money are we talking about? Tata
Sons’ net profit last year was Rs3,780 crore. Tata Sons owns 74% of
Tata Consultancy Services and 84% of Tata Motors. If wealthy Indians
want to give back to society, they need only buy Jaguar and Land
Rover, and not Mercedes and BMW. Tata Sons owns 31% of Tata Steel, 20%
of Tata Teleservices and 22% of Tata Tea.
Indians should buy their books from Landmark, their phones from Tata
Indicom, their television sets and washing machines from Croma; and
they should stay at the Taj. They should drink Tetley tea and
Himalayan mineral water. They should watch TV on TataSky and get
themselves insured with Tata AIG. Why?
Last year, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust gave away Rs201 crore. Sir Ratan
Tata Trust gave away Rs153 crore. This is not CSR (corporate social
responsibility) or other corporate varnish: It’s pure philanthropy.
Witness its quality: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Energy Research Institute (Teri),
Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for the Performing Arts.
That is civilization.
In Europe, the ownership and efficient management of such a giant
corporate by charitable trusts would be stunning.
But we use the phrase “Tata-Birla-Ambani” easily, as if the words were
interchangeable. One of them has nothing in common with the other two.
JRD sent 81% of Tata Sons’ income to charity. We thanked him by
nationalizing his beloved Air India, firing him as chairman and
running it into the ground.
The Tatas set up Teri, India’s first green industry initiative, in
1974. Under R.K. Pachauri, in 2003, the name Tata was neatly excised
from Teri and replaced with the word “The”. Now, Teri’s magazine and
website are testament to the greatness of Pachauri, who will show up
to collect any award you give him, including GQ Man of the Year. But
that is our culture.
Parsis have civilization, but not culture. They cannot speak old
Persian and their Avesta they cannot read. For language, they lean on
Gujarati, for music they lean on Brahms. Their beautiful women wear
saris.
Their last names are Gujarati: Broacha (of Bharuch), Anklesaria (of
Ankleshwar), Surti (of Surat), Mehta (accountant) and Gandhi (grocer).
Their first names are great names in history, names that made Athens
and Sparta and Corinth tremble—Ksayarsa, Kurush Buzurg and Daarivush.
Herodotus and Thucydides called them Xerxes, Cyrus the Great and
Darius. Parsis cannot even speak their own first names.
From 500 BC, Parsis fought Europe. They spilt and drew blood in
history’s most famous battles: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and
Plataea. Hollywood’s cardboard Leonidas looks heroic in 300 (Xerxes is
shown as demented), but actually the Parsi Immortals butchered the
Spartans at Thermopylae and the terrified Athenians abandoned their
city. Alexander the Great conquered the Parsis in 334 BC and the Arabs
under Umar drove them from their lands in 644. But the real Parsi
surrender came in Bombay when they submitted to the individualism of
Enlightened Europe.
We hate sweeping statements about Indians, and generalizations about
India. The problem is that everywhere in India the same evidence keeps
slapping us in the face. We’ve become good at looking away. We think
we are Aryans, descended from the Caucasus. Parsis also believe that.
Zarathushtra’s god was Ahura and his demons were Daiva. But the Rig
Ved says Deva must be our god and our demons Asura.
Aakar Patel is a director with Hill Road Media.
Send your feedback to reply...@livemint.com
Copyright © 2007 HT Media All Rights Reserved
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46 Responses to “Parsis have civilization; other Indians don’t”
Owais Pahlav Khorassaini 5 December 2009 at 6:18 pm #
Dear Sir,
I have a question about the the great iranians and indians. The
following statement is true or not, is every fair indians claim we are
pure iranian ?
I quoted the referance from book the THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA MYTHS & LEGENDS
OF ALL NATIONS; the writers are H.S. Robinson and K. Wilson.
” The group of Aryans who swept into the land of India, long ages ago,
were cousins of the Iranians, whose ancient religion has been briefly
described in the preceding chapter. One finds in the earliest indian
literature deities who go back to the time when the ancestors of
persian and indians were still one.”
The second question is who are the real ancestors of Urdu speaking
peoples?
I am wating your reply
Thank You
Best Regards
Owais A. Pahlavi.
Ronnie Patel 5 December 2009 at 11:31 pm #
I would like to kindly remind the Parsees that before the advent of
the Aryans from the south pole, it was in India that we had the best
civilization in the form of Harrapa & Mohanjo Daro which were the two
best cities in the world at that time, so please do not say that only
we Parsees have the best civilization. Yes after the Aryans settled
down in Iran That we had the best civilization, but even India had the
best culture & civilization at that time.
Please do not mixed up the History with your own story.
History is the witness that only india had the best civilization in
the world & it is the Hindus that gave the world the best
civilizations & the best culture to the world.
Zubin Wadia 6 December 2009 at 4:53 am #
I am struggling to understand the intent of this article. It’s got a
very polarizing stance and I can’t for the life of me understand what
purpose it serves.
“But the real Parsi surrender came in Bombay when they submitted to
the individualism of Enlightened Europe.”
So… we brought knowledge of ship building, steam power and electricity
to Mumbai and that’s surrender? We built a hotel open to all and not
just white people – that’s surrender?
According to the sheer idiocy of your rationale, I am surrendering to
‘Western Enlightenment’ by replying to reply...@livemint.com
As for race, lineage and genealogy – do a DNA test and figure it out!
Everybody is different.
keki unwalla 7 December 2009 at 12:40 pm #
Really?
We are just talking about our past glory.
Tatas, Wadias, Godrejs are not considered Parsees by the standards set
by the community akbaras, general parsee population and its priests;
one has to go through the Parsee press in Mumbai to really know the
extent of our collective stupidity and short sightedness, the Bomaby
Parsee Panchayat has no clue as how to manage its own affairs; so what
are we are really proud of in the present tense? The bloating, rotting
corpses in our dokmas? We are busy fighting over our dead and just
waiting for the s**t to hit the fan. When disease breaks out due to
this unhygienic practices; will the priests be taking the credit or
our community leaders? What happens when the state walks in to stop
this unhealthy practice and then where does the community go with its’
dead? Will the law of the land required to intervene and appoint
retired judges to settle matters again and again. In the present tense
the elite, the educated and the professionals within our community has
totally failed us and that is the real tructh, rest is all Taroo &
Bsh**t
Ronnie Patel 7 December 2009 at 6:12 pm #
I would like to say that yes you are right but upto certain things.
As of you saying about Urdu, i would like to say that go through the
History of The World & you yourself would come to know that the urdu
speaking people were also originaly Hindus.
As before the Advent of the Mhougals,Urdu was unknown to the people of
Hindustan, it was only that there was a Mass Convertions from Hindus
that urdu was known as the Mother Tounge of the New Religion called
Islam in Hindustan.
If you go to see then why the Muslims of India have the same mode of
Dresses & also the similarities between the Hindi & Urdu.
Only difference i that urdu is written & read as the same as the
Arabic & Hindi is written & read as from the left to right & Urdu from
the Right to Left.
There is no difference in the both, as it was first learned in
Hindustan only.
I hope that it would clear the Doubts.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie.Patel.
Ronnie Patel 7 December 2009 at 6:20 pm #
I fully agree & share the views with you my dear friend.
I am also trying to say that it was In India(HinduKush) as the region
was known at that time, had the best civilizations in the world.
The History is witness to it.
Ronnie Patel 9 December 2009 at 3:41 pm #
Yes Mr. Keki.,
You are really right in what you had written.
I fully endorsed your comments on the above subject.
Everywhere the parsees goes they just create fights among all.
Yes, even our community is fighting over the dead & our dear departed
ones, which shows what culture & civiliazations we parsees have.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie.
keki unwalla 10 December 2009 at 10:46 pm #
I wish our dead & dear departed ones, when alive & not yet departed,
should choose before departing, how they would like to travel. I for
one would not like to hang around the dokmas, bloating & rotting away,
piled upon by other bloating & rotting corpses; polluting away to
greater glory…..
Anti - Dhongidox 10 December 2009 at 11:17 pm #
Dear Keki,
I fully concur with what you have candidly expressed. But there is a
fringe group in our community (present even on Parsi Khabar) who brand
all those who speak facts as IRRELIGIOUS or as having no knowledge of
our Religion.According to them, a STAUNCH Zoroastrian is one who nods
his/her agreement with whatever nonsense the representative of this
fringe group pompously states. They talk of relying on archaelogy and
quote texts of PHORENERS who have published books on our Religion
without ever entering our religious places. The name of the favourite
past time of this fringe fanatics is, “I scratch your back and you
scratch mine” Shower praises on each other, call each other ’staunch’
and exchange bouquets/shawls and attend functions wearing Dagli,
Phenta/ Pugree and grub free food.
That is their concept of staunch Zoroastrian.
keki unwalla 11 December 2009 at 9:57 pm #
dear friend,
why hide behind a fancy name?
let it all hang out in the open.
?staunch?
Definition: stop the flow of a liquid; “staunch the blood flow”; “them
the tide”
piloo. 12 December 2009 at 8:59 am #
These born ‘geniuses’ will mention some obscure terms like ‘ Jaher’ &
‘Baten’ to create a sense of false fear in the minds of simple folks.
The modus operandi is to ‘discuss’ such ’scholastic’ issues by
hijacking an e mail id of a friend or a relative to make it look like
a two way discussion between self styled intellectuals. These
‘geniuses’ measure intellectual level of others by their own
standards.
Firoze Hirjikaka 12 December 2009 at 6:53 pm #
If Aakar Patel’s intention in writing this article was to puff up
Parsi pride, I think he has gone about it the wrong. Bringing culture
and civilization into this serves no useful purpose. Patel would have
served the community better if he had simply stuck to the facts. The
philantrophy of Parsis is legendary and undeniable, but this is due to
the big heartedness of certain individuals. It does not automatically
follow that they became philantrophists because they were Parsis. This
sort of attitude is self defeeating in the long run. As it is, too
many young Parsis today lack drive and ambition; and are content to
bask in the achievements of their forefathers. They believe it
absolves them from hard work and commitment. Take a stroll down any of
the baugs in the evening and you will see what I mean. If left
unchecked, living in the past can become dangerously addictive.
Ronnie Patel 14 December 2009 at 11:22 pm #
Dear Firoze,
I am saying that what our comunity greats had done for the future of
our generations has been appreciated by all.
But at same time i would kindly request you to take a ride through all
the Parsees Baugs you would find debris & dirt all on the open Roads.
Do you call this dirt & fhilth culture & civilaisations,
Always remembe that where there is clean cvilaisation There is God
himself.
Please think Twice before writing.
Thanks.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie
Firoze Hirjikaka 15 December 2009 at 8:19 am #
Dear Ronnie,
The last time I checked, this was a free country and I am perfect
liberty to write whatever I want; nor am I particularly interested in
pleasing you.
The reason Parsis are in a decline is that they continue to live in a
dream world of past glories. Parsis may have been top dogs among the
‘natives’ during the British Raj, but those days are long gone. Walk
through the same baugs you’re so proud of and you will see groups of
jobless young people just hanging around and shooting the breeze in
language that certainly does not reflect a great ‘civilization’.
Parsis continue to believe they are somehow different and superior to
other Indians, when there is no evidence whatsoever to support that
supposition.It is probably one reason why more and more Parsi girls
are marrying outside their community. The choice available among
suitable Parsi boys is severely limited and hardly edifying. The
sooner we Parsis get down of our high horse, the better off we’ll be.
Meher Daruwala 16 December 2009 at 11:44 pm #
I cannot believe this nonsense article. The Parsis settled in India,
have adopted Indian ways and they differentiate between people.
I don’t think he is educated and enlightened enough to know about
Indian History and it’s civilization. He should go back to where his
ancestors came from.
Ronnie Patel 17 December 2009 at 8:59 pm #
Dear Meher,
Thanks a lot for your comments,
I would like to let you know that brfore the Aryans moved from the
South Pole, India was already the Establhish civilized country.
If you do not know that i would kindly inform you to go through the
Histroy of World there you woud find that the best cities at that time
were Harrappa & Mohonjo Daro which were in India,
Even i am Aryan,so please do accept the fact.
Thanks.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie
Siloo Kapadia 17 December 2009 at 11:33 pm #
Firoze-jee:
I agree with what you have written. Yes, the community is going down.
We all know it. The BPP knows it. The youth know it.
However, I just want to state that it is not only Parsi girls that are
marrying outside of the community. Parsi boys are doing likewise.
Partly because of a lack of suitable partners. Partly because that is
the norm.
Yes, our glory days are long-gone. The hogwash of us being “Persian”
is just that, hogwash. We are no more Persian than any other Indian,
other than the fact a FEW of our ancestors came from that part of the
world.
Firoze Hirjikaka 18 December 2009 at 7:59 am #
Ronnie,
“the Aryans moved from the South Pole,”? Since the South Pole has been
virtually inhabitable since the dawn of civilization, I’d be
fascinated to know what history book you’re reading. Maybe the same
one that informed you about the Parsees’ “great civilization.
farzana 19 December 2009 at 10:14 am #
Oh!! I see…”Aryans moved from the South Pole, India was already the
Establhish civilized country.”… we are getting to learn something new
everyday!! Thank you Mr. Ronnie…where did you get this precious piece
of information from??
And while you are at it pluuueeesssse share with us the map of the
‘established civilized country’ -India, as it was 3,000 years ago!!
Thank you.
Ps. and and and the name India was known to the world then. if its
not too much:)
Sorry for the taqleef and shukriya in advance
farzana 19 December 2009 at 11:09 am #
“We are no more Persian than any other Indian, other than the fact a
FEW of our ancestors came from that part of the world.”
True Silloo, i agree with you completely.
Do you know where does the word- ‘Parsi’ comes from?
Sanskrit word for close relatives/neighbors is ‘pars’.
Hindi word is ‘pas’.
Vedas refer to aryan parsi tribes living in Uttarapatha [northern
Indian territories stretching from kashmir- punjab to kamboj-kabul ]
as Parsu [close relatives].
Some of these Parsu tribes moved to Elam/ Iran and established Persian
empire which in turn encompassed number of Indian territories
including Punjab,Sindh, Western Gujarat, Baluchisatan besides present
day Afghanistan which was once Zoroastrian strong hold.
So its not as if Parsis are foreign to subcontinent , particularly to
India and Indians…We should quit behaving like quitters from Iran…
India belongs to us as much as any other Indian since the Vedic
times.
Are you reading this Mr. Ronnie?
Ronnie Patel 19 December 2009 at 8:47 pm #
Dear Firoze,
I have being saying the same that you had just written about, The
youths of the Parsees are nowadays joblesshave you cared to find out
the main reasons behind it, if you have not then i would like to
inform you that the main reason is that our young yoths are not
intrested in studying hard & they just want become Romeos over night.
where as on the other hand our young girls are getting highly
qualified degrees & that is the biggest & main reasons that our girls
are marrying outside the community.
Hope that those youngsters wake up from their deep slumber or else all
that the Pnchayat has would be gone into the hands of the Goernment
which is just waiting lay its dirty hands on all that belongs to the
Parsee Panchayat.
My Adivse to all youth that please do study as the young girls of our
community are studying than only we would be able to be called a
civilized.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie Patel.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 20 December 2009 at 3:21 am #
DEAR FIROZE , RONNIE & OTHER READERS ,
WELL REGARDING THE SOUTH POLE COMMENT.
GENE FREQUENCY MEANT ON AN AVERAGE OCCURANCE ( COMMONLY FOUND GENE) OR
IN OTHER WORDS A PARTICULAR GENE DESITY AMONG A GROUP OF PEOPLE OR
REGION.
THIS WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ALSO SAID THAT THIS GENE M198 – WHICH EXIST
WITH HIGH DENSITY THROUGHOUT “SOUTHERN IRAN COAST & CENTRAL IRAN EXIST
IN EQUAL MEASURE ACROSS PEOPLE OF BALOUCHISTAN , SIND , RAJASTHAN , &
GUJRAT , THOUGH THIS GENE DENSITY REDUCES FROM SOUTH GUJRAT , NORTH
RAJASTAN & PUNJAB & GRADUALLY DISAPPEARS BY THE KARNATAKA BORDER
( SOUTHERN MAH.) , THROUGH SMALL TRIBAL COMM. & CASTE COMM. DO EXHIBIT
SIMIAR GENES PATTERN IN POCKETS OF INDIA.
THIS GENE GOES WEAK TOWARDS NORTH IRAN ( THERAN & SURROND AREAS ) –
INFLUENCE OF MIDDLE-EAST , TURKISH & IRANS ORIGINAL GENES.
PARSIS MIGRATED FROM KHORASTAN , IT MEANS FROM CENTRAL ASIA CARRYING
SAME M198 GENES & SOME FROM SOUTHERN IRAN.
IT IS STATED THAT KHORASTANI & CENTRAL ASIA’S ZORASTRIANS ( BUKHARA )
HAD MANY FIRE – TEMPLE , & BACK THEN ;-
SOURCE :- WIKIPEDIA
Despite these economic and social incentives to convert,
Zoroastrianism remained strong in some regions, particularly in those
furthest away from the Caliphate capital at Baghdad. In Bukhara (in
present-day Uzbekistan), resistance to Islam required the 9th century
Arab commander Qutaiba to convert his province four times. The first
three times the citizens reverted to their old religion. Finally, the
governor made their religion “difficult for them in every way”, turned
the local fire temple into a mosque, and encouraged the local
population to attend Friday prayers by paying each attendee two
dirhams.[8] The cities where Arab governors resided were particularly
vulnerable to such pressures, and in these cases the Zoroastrians were
left with no choice but to either conform or to migrate to regions
that had a more amicable administration.[8]
Among these migrations were those to cities in (or on the margins of)
the great salt deserts, in particular to Yazd and Kerman, which remain
centers of Iranian Zoroastrianism to this day. Yazd became the seat of
the Iranian high priests during Mongol Il-Khanate rule, when the “best
hope for survival [for a non-Muslim] was to be inconspicuous.”[12]
Crucial to the present-day survival of Zoroastrianism was a migration
from the northeastern Iranian town of “Sanjan in south-western
Khorasan”,[13] to Gujarat, in western India. The descendants of that
group are today known as the ‘Parsis’ – “as the Gujaratis, from long
tradition, called anyone from Iran”[13] – and who today represent the
larger of the two groups of Zoroastrians.
HOPE THIS REDUCES TO HALF THE DISPUTE OF HOW IRAN & INDIA ANCHESTORS
WERE COMMON ( MAINLY OF THE REGIONS I MENTIONED ) , BARRING A FEW
OTHER DISTINCT IRANIAN GENES FROM INDIAN , M198 IS JUST ONE GENE
MENTIONED THERE ARE STILL A DOZEN GENE COMBINATION WHICH I HAVE NOT
MENTIONED HERE , A PART OF CENTRAL ASIAN ZORASTRIANS ARE NOW PARSIS
( THOUGH I WOULD CALL THEM INDIAN ( GUJRATI GENES AS TESTED AMONG THE
COMMUNITY ) BECAUSE OF GENERATIONS OF GENES LOSS , BECAUSE OF WHICH
SOME DISTINCT INDIAN GENES (FROM FEMALE SIDE) ARE FOUND AMONG PARSIS),
& BACK THEN SOUNTERN & NORTH IRN. ZORASTR. WERE FIERCELY PATRIOTIC TO
THEIR RELIGION , COMPARED TO OTHER PARTS OF IRAN ( PARTIALLY BECASE
BEING AWAY FROM CAPITAL BAGHDAD ) , & IT IS TODAY ONLY IN THIS PART OF
IRAN THAT MAJORITY OF FIRE-TEMPLE, ZORAS. / AVEST. STILL LIVE.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 20 December 2009 at 3:37 am #
DEAR FARZ. , RONS. , TO ALL RADERS IN SHORT ,
THERE WAS NO PARSI IRANIAN CIVILIZATION , PARSI WAS A TERM USED IN
INDIA FOR THE OUTSIDERS AS THEY USED TO BE KNOWN BACK THEN , BRITISH
ARE KNOW TO USED THIS TERM FREQUENTLY.
REGARDING SOUTH POLE , ITS A MISTAKE IT SHOULD BE SOUTH AFRICA FROM
WHERE THEY LANDED IN SOUTH INDIA , BUT THEY ARE HARDCORE DRAVIDIANS
NOT ARYANS , ARYANS MIGRATED FROM RUSSIAN STEPPS & SURPRISING A CITY
DATING SOME 3000 B.C.) HAS BEEN FOUND IN TURKMENISTAN & IT SHOWS FIRE
– TEMPLE AS ONLY PLACE OF WORSHIP ( INDIAN & IRANIAN BOTH PRAYED FIRE
THEN ) & CONSUMPTION OF SOMA PLANT AS LIQUOR , PROPHET ZORASTER , WAS
LIKE GAUTAM BUDDHA , PREACHED THE SAME FIRE – WORSHIP ALBEIT WITH SOME
PURITY STANDARDS , & CALLED THE ARYAN GODS AS PART OF GOOD FORCES
( JUST LIKE WHAT THE BUDDHA SAID ABOUT INDIAN GODS) & THE FIGHT
AGAINST EVIL FORCES.
KERSSIE WADIA 20 December 2009 at 4:08 pm #
None can deny that the philanthropy of the Parsees has been
legendary.
However, today the scenario is quite different. Our glory days no more
exist. They are long gone.
The average Parsee youth seems to have lost the drive and ambition to
succeed. Hard work seems to have become a thing of the past.
We are facing a number of problems today. Our numbers are declining
very rapidly.
1.The average number of children a parsi couple has is a dismal 1.
2.Over one-third of Parsees are unmarried.
3.Again over one-third of them marry out of the community.
4.Over 40 % of Parsees are above 65 years of age.
5.While about 1000 parsees die every year, only 150 children are born.
Where are we leading ourselves to ? Our extinction is imminent.
Our so called leaders claiming “scholarship” over the religion and the
community, seem to be clueless. Except for making untrue statements
like, “we are not decreasing”, “we shall never become extinct” etc.,
no concrete steps are being taken to arrest the declining population.
Is this our civilization ? Is this our culture ?
This is neither “civilization” nor “culture”. For how long will we
Parsees continue to bask in the past glory and refuse to accept and
solve the problems that we are facing today ?
And….about the terrible state our Dokhmas. THE system of Dokhmenashini
has failed completely. No body is against the system of Dokhmenashini
if it is functional. Today the bodies our our dear departed lie
rotting and stinking in the Dokhmas. Is this Dokhmenashini ? Don’t we
need to alter / change the system so that a dignified disposal takes
place ? Is it too much to expect from our so called leaders who claim
“scholarship” over the religion to provide us with proper
alternatives ? Is this our “civilization” ? Is this our “culture” ?
With hope that better sense prevails…
Kerssie Wadia
Voice of Reason. 20 December 2009 at 9:05 pm #
Very true Kerssie, we are indeed heading for extinction of the
Community but the blame for the same is exclusively on the short
sighted electorate who exercised their voting rights based on the food
served by each prospective candidate rather than on the merits and
qualifications of the candidates. Community gets the ‘government’ they
deserve. To expect moral integrity from self styled Scholars is just
expecting too much.
Anti-Dhongidox. 20 December 2009 at 11:31 pm #
Kerssie Wadia,
I differ with your perception that average Parsi youth has no desire
for hard work. In this country, Reservations have caused frustration
amongst the youths. With 90% marks it is impossible to secure
admissions in Medical or Engineering Colleges. On the other hand our
youngsters try to emulate others who grow up on easy money.Even some
of our community’s netas ‘earn’ thru doles. What encouragement our
community youths receive for higher studies? I wonder why our
Punchayets of Mumbai, Surat and Pune can not reserve some paid seats
in institutes of higher learning for deserving studious youngsters. I
feel the elders alone are to be blamed.
As for your remark about the state of affairs for disposal of mortal
remains, nothing short of a sustained campaign against the
‘Traditionalists’ would free the community from arm twisting coterie
which talks of ‘package deal’ and denying prayer facilities to those
who choose to opt for an efficient disposal. In fact, on reading PTA
edit in Bombay Samachar of 20th inst, should open the eyes of those
who attended and applauded at the Dadar Parsi Gymkhana meet a couple
of months back.
For those who talk about observing the provisions of respective Trust
Deeds, one wonders if Charity Trust like Fire Temples are allowed to
make money by selling
Well Water to water Tankers. There is absolutely no check on number of
tankers filled up by the tanker drivers.
I propose to take up this issue with the Office of Charity
Commissioner since such sale of Well water by Fire temples would not
be in consonance with the provisions of relative Trust Deeds.
piloo. 21 December 2009 at 1:40 pm #
“Where are we leading ourselves to ? Our extinction is imminent.”
Yes, Kersi Wadia, the community elders and akabars are catering to
whims of a few fanatic bigots and those having ingrained qualities of
double standards.Community is indeed heading for self destruction. I
agree with you fully in context of facts and statistics though I feel
conversion is not the solution for increasing our numbers.
As for disposal of mortal remains,what is required is a pioneering
effort to set up a prayer Hall in the City with amenities for 4 days
prayers. Absence of such a infrastructure is the biggest handicap
which is sadistically exploited by the bigots who relish imposing
their cult on all as if they are God sent messengers and divine
interpreters of our Holy Scriptures.
a.rustomjee 21 December 2009 at 4:57 pm #
Piloo and Voice of Reason,
You have expressed the view that majority of Zoros in Bombay hold but
are too scared to utter.Fervent prayer that the Almighty listens to
wishes of thousands and brings relief in form of outcome of
Originating Summons.
farzana 21 December 2009 at 10:12 pm #
Y_A_W_N MR RONNIE or WHOEVER YOU ARE,
migration of HUMAN POPULATION began with the movement of Homo erectus
out of Africa across Eurasia about a MILLION YEARS AGO…
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/22/MN5RV6L1C.DTL
Fyi, THIS MIGRATION HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DRAVIDS OR ARYANS!! THIS
WAS A COLLECTIVE HUMAN MIGRATION? SAMJEY? AND THIS HAPPENED A MILLION
YEARS AGO!!
INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION STARTED APPROXIMATELY SIX THOUSAND YEARS
AGO…
ON WESTERN PARTS OF SUBCONTINIENT WHICH ARE NOW MOSTLY IN PAKISTAN.
THIS CIVILIZATION WAS STATED BY ELAMITES/ DRAVIDIANS WHO WERE SPREAD
IN THE AREAS STRETCHING FROM MESOPOTAMIA AND IRAN TO SUBCONTINIENT
WHICH ENCOMPASSED DRAVIDIAN CULTURE ALSO KNOWN AS ELAMITE CULTURE…
BEFORE THE MIGRATION OF ARYANS TOOK PLACE
BTW THE ORIGINAL NAME FOR IRAN WAS ELAM, [YES IN TAMIL 'ELAM' MEANS
'HOMELAND']…
AND ELAMITE WAS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN PERSIAN EMPIRE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elamite_language
GOES TO SHOW THAT GEOGRAPHICALLY ‘ELAM’ INCLUDED AREAS OF IRAN TO
WESTERN INDIA AS ONE COUNTRY, BEFORE THE ARYAN MIGRATION TOOK PLACE
APPROXIMATELY 3,000 YEARS AGO FROM CENTRAL ASIA…. THAT STARTED THE
VEDIC PERIOD.
KERSSIE WADIA 22 December 2009 at 10:53 am #
We Parsis have achieved the dubious distinction of working against the
tenets of our own religion.
1. Our religion is based on cleanliness. Yet some of our leaders who
claim “scholarship” over the religion would want the bodies of our
departed rot in the Dokhmas, in the name of the religion !!
2. Our religion tells us to apply our good mind and good mind alone to
any situation in life. Yet some of us vote for our leaders based on
the food served by them, and ignore the truly accomplished candidates
in the process !!
3. Our religion teaches us Manashni, Gavashni, and Kunashni. Yet our
leaders who claim “scholarship” over the religion ban the poor priests
because they pray for those departed who opt for cremation or
burial !!
All this happens because our so called vada dasturjis have miserably
failed to act in a non partisan manner for reasons unknown and
unexplained to the masses. They too seem to have fallen prey to
worldly materialistic thought process having ceased to use their Good
mind.
Is this our ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ that we brag about so often ?
KERSSIE WADIA
farzana 22 December 2009 at 2:10 pm #
The gist is, 6,000 ago India did not exist as one country as we see it
today geographically.
Certain parts of western india, pakistan and southeast iran formed one
entity that had a common culture namely Elamite. Therefore its
incorrect to contribute INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION to India alone… It
is s as much pakistani and as much Iranian parsi as its indian.
If there was no Parsi civilization according to our cut paste
scholars- Mr Ronnie and his other pseudo… ; than Indus valley
civilization is not an Indian civilization either…. Go figure.
Jayant Kulkarni 22 December 2009 at 3:18 pm #
Hi !
The gentleman has stated
“Indians have culture but not civilization. Culture is how we
entertain ourselves; civilization is how we entertain others”
I think he has forgotten that this very culture ( according to him )
has entertained Parsis when they were thrown out of Persia. No where
in this universe you will find culture (according to him) giving
political asylum to any community which landed here to seek it.
I don’t know what to say about this gross inability of this gentleman
at least to thank this CULTURE !
Jayant
farzana 22 December 2009 at 7:11 pm #
Jayant bhau, chill.
The gentleman in question is some Aakar Patel..doesn’t seem to be a
Parsi in the first place…
Secondly the piece is a covert attempt at creating communal wedge
between Hindus and Parsis by some sick minded individual …
and best of all, no Parsi here agrees with him.
Well, and regarding your post, Parsis were not thrown out of Persia.
There has always been Hindu and Buddhist minority living as equals in
Persia [ esp in areas of afghanistan and pakistan] for thousands of
years while it was under Parsi establishment…the same way as Parsi
minority has been living in India.
Tolerance to each other’s beliefs has been mutual.
thank you
Siloo Kapadia 22 December 2009 at 10:15 pm #
It is interesting to know that more members of the community are
interested in the well-being of vultures and the disposal of mortal
remains than they are of propagation of the faith and acceptance of
new believers.
Yes, Piloo, deekree, I agree with you 100%. With “enlightened”
thinking such as what we see, it will be a miracle if the community
will be around in South Asia after 50 years.
Jayant Kulkarni 23 December 2009 at 2:44 pm #
Hi !
I agree with your views. In fact the recent study shows that the Indus
civilization which met with calamity due to drying up of the river
saraswati migrated to Persia and India. Thus the similarities in their
culture. I will post a link to this study at a later stage as I don’t
have it now.
By the way I like Parsis and have studied a lot about the ancient
Persia. I can certainly say that wine was invented in Persia which was
called jehar-e-khush ! ))
Regards,
Jayant
farzana 24 December 2009 at 2:51 pm #
Jayant,
wine was invented by one of our common ancestors – King Yim , the same
dude as Yamraj in Vedas …So goes the story in persian… Anyway who
cares about it being authentic or not as long as we all have a good
excuse to party-sharty and enjoy good things in life…:)
regarding Indus civilization,…unearthed Indus seals depict scenes with
rhinos and elephants amidst plains of wild grass and trees, goes to
show that Saraswati [Herahwati] valley was once a green belt bursting
with nature full of varied life forms…It may have dried up eventually
due to overuse of natural resources and cutting down of forests
mindlessly turning it into Thar desert. It really saddens me to see…
how even today most of us use up our energy in ego fights over silly
past, silly religions, their silly books and their silly authors… when
its more imperative for us to get our priorities right and make united
efforts at preserving whatever remains of nature around us for our own
survival… and survival of our civilization…
farzana 24 December 2009 at 8:06 pm #
very well said, Kersee:)
Mihir 24 December 2009 at 9:49 pm #
btw did u forget to mention … pieces from history of mumbai ?
making of the city was funded by parsi’s too …
#BSE
JJ Hospital ?
but we must not think of AMBANIs as whole of india?
in my opinion it needs a revisit …
Ronnie Patel 25 December 2009 at 11:08 pm #
Dear Farzana,or whatever you may be.
For your kind information India was already a estabhlished country,
but what about Iran, at that time Aryans were unheard about, only it
was when the Aryans felt their homes in Arya Nam Vaijo that we got to
learn about the Aryans & it was first that the Aryans settled in Indus
valley, One group of Aryans sttled down in Iran & the other group
moved to GHermany, it was for this particular reasin that Hitler
accepted Swatika as their Emblem & was proud to be an Aryan.
From where did you get the other story i dont know, but i think that
your History has been made by you only.
Please learn before you write any dammn thing.
Jai Hind.
Ronnie Patel 25 December 2009 at 11:16 pm #
It was a part of My Beautiful India Formerly.
It was the Britishers who are main culprits for dividing the Two Sons
of One Mother & that the name of the Mother is & was & will be known
as Bharatmata for your kind information Farzana.
So, naturally Indus valley was & would be in the future again a part
of my mother Bharatmata.
Jai Hindustan.& not your Pakistan.
farzana 27 December 2009 at 6:45 pm #
“For your kind information India was already a estabhlished country,
but what about Iran, at that time Aryans were unheard about, ”
Dear Mr. Scholar,
Can you show us the Map of India as an establshed country during indus
valley civilization (ie. before the aryan migration took place)?
And the name it was known by?…
no, it was not ‘Bharat’…
Bharat was an ARYAN CLAN named after its leader and ruler, you should
have known this, dear scholarjee!
==> “From where did you get the other story i dont know, but i think
that your History has been made by you only.
Please learn before you write any dammn thing.”
Hmmm who said i know anything… I know nothing, that is why im looking
forward to get answers from you, dear scholar and self style historian
jee
So when will i get to see the map and the name i requested, dear
scholarjeee?
farzana 27 December 2009 at 7:01 pm #
Oh! Wow! we’ll have a Family get together in the future… Mother Bharat
[?] will get united with all her sons… -Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran,
Bangladesh!!
What a profound thought!!
though, I wonder what Mother Bharat will do with appox 2 billion
Muslim grand sons!!
Btw, Mr Bharat, do you usually go to forum like this to entertain
forumers for free?
farzana 27 December 2009 at 9:41 pm #
[Dear moderator, plz delete the above double post sent by me at
11:16pm. Thank you]
Oh! Wow! we’ll be having a family reunion in the future…
Mother Bharat [?] will get united with all her sons… -Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, Bangladesh!!
What a profound thought!!
though, I wonder what Mother Bharat will do with appox 2 billion
Muslim grand sons!!:)
What do you think Mother Bharat should do about her son- Germany?
Should she annex it?
Interesting Phamily!!
Btw, Mr Bharat, do you usually go to forums like this to entertain
forumers for free? just asking:D
Nawazish 31 December 2009 at 11:12 pm #
Hello Everyone,
I must say that this article and it’s following comments got quite
ugly and belligerent quickly. Intrestingly we have covered, genetics,
rationale, dead bodies, condition of the country, Geography, Indian
people, Money, religion, faith, color and a whole bunch of other
relevant matter in this reading.
Please keep in mind, that we are all writing this with an emotional
bent of mind and probably not very logical. We, as individuals,
believe what we must based on common sense, knowlegde (or lack of it),
nurture and experiences. So none of us who have contributed or the
silent ones, are either terribly correct or wrong either.
Here is a suggestion; watch a documentary called ‘Journey of Man’ – A
Genetic Odyessey by Spencer Wells. I’ve seen it and it explains to aa
large extent the movement of mankind from Africa to South America
throo Persia, The Indian subcontinent and so on.
‘Pars -i’ – I sure do like the explanation for the word coming from
sanskrit but here is another one. Give me your thoughts on this.
‘Pars’ coming from the province/region ‘Fars’in Persia and ‘i’ meaning
from that place in india. Eg:Bihar – Bihari, Gujurat -Gujurati. Could
it have meant that the Indians called the foreigners, people from Fars
morphing over to Parsi over the years.
For what it’s worth, land is no mans to keep. So yes, we have to be
grateful for the region of india that has graciously embodied us in
many ways. Secondly, are we actually being racist in determining that
we are superior or better in any miniscule way at all? It’s worth
thinking about.
So everyone is talking and debating about the very roots of the
parsis. Start with religion as it’s called in India, used to be faith
in Persia, or simply a way of life. That has transposed to being veyr
brutal about Parsis vs. Iranis in India. What happened to culture and
civilized behaviour there?
Some shun others and some create dintinct classes, and this is still
within Parsis, let alone the Hindus and others.
In Iran, anyone is allowed in a fire temple but not in India. In Ira,
as suppressed as the public is, it’s ok for a muslim to marry a
zoroastrian but not in India. We have forgotten that we as a race or
creed, come from the same roots. So why Iranis, Parsis, and the
remaining sub-castes?
Are we not all Zarthustis that read the same book, and try to follow a
humble way of life, notably good thoughts, words and deeds? Hey, Try
those to begin with as somehow all differences go away and all you see
is gray. Try being a decent person and in many ways you will relive
the ideology of Zarathustra from a long time ago.
We all have answers to everything it seems, specially evident in this
discussion, but no one asks the right questions.
Cheerio.
Abhijeet Ganguly 7 January 2010 at 1:14 am #
I simply wish the Parsees remain in India as long as India exists.
They are Indians as any other Indian so it’s irrelevant where they
came from.
I am so much fascinated by this community ( maybe because I come from
Jamshedpur).
I feel quite sad everytime I hear talk of the Parsee population
declining.
There is simply no denying the fact that Parsees are the most ethical
of all the communities in India.
Radical moves are required to reverse the declining population and
ensure survival of both the community and the religion.
Vivek G 15 March 2010 at 1:04 pm #
Brilliant article! As an Indian, I am not offended. I actually agree
with the author. In fact, I would argue that Indians neither have
culture nor civilization. There is no country in the world that I am
aware of where people urinate and defecate in the open ( even the so-
called “educated” ones do this in India ). Persians are indeed
cultured as well; it is just that their culture has been repressed by
Arab savagery but by Ahura Mazda’s grace they will rise again soon.
Regards.
http://parsikhabar.net/parsis-have-civilization-other-indians-don%E2%80%99t/
Parsi Khabar
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Archive for 'Heritage'
The last Bhuj Parsi passes away http://parsikhabar.net/the-last-bhuj-parsi-passes-away/
Posted 24 April 2010 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Heritage,
History, News | No Comments
Roadaben Sorabji Botwala spent her whole life in Bhuj
Bhuj, the district headquarters of Kutch, which once boasted of a
large population of Parsis is sad at the death last weekend of the
last surviving member of the Zoroastrian community. Seventy-eight year
old Roadaben Sorabji Botwala, who spent her whole life here, and who
also looked [...]
Zoroastrianism: Its Stewardship for all Creation, the Animate and the
Inanimate. http://parsikhabar.net/zoroastrianism-its-stewardship-for-all-creation-the-animate-and-the-inanimate/
Posted 02 April 2010 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Culture,
Heritage, History, Prayers, Religion | 30 Comments
Below is the text of presentation by Pervin J. Mistry at the
Parliament of Worlds Religions, Melbourne, December 5th, 2009. This
was circulated by the author via email to a newsgroup. All copyrights
are with the author.
We are the oldest monotheistic religion.
Asho Zarathushtra is our Holy Prophet.
Our Revealed Book is the [...]
On Navroze Parsis Fight For Survival http://parsikhabar.net/on-navroze-parsis-fight-for-survival/
Posted 23 March 2010 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Festivities,
Heritage, Issues | 17 Comments
Adil Fatakia literally lives in the past; the 65-year-old bachelor
takes great pride and interest in the rich legacy of his community. In
fact, he can trace his family tree 13 centuries back to when the first
Parsis landed in Sanjan near Nargol – fleeing religious persecution in
Persia, now Iran.
By Tejas Patel, NDTV, Nagrol, [...]
From Persia to Bangalore http://parsikhabar.net/from-persia-to-bangalore/
Posted 22 March 2010 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Heritage,
History | No Comments
Dinshaw Cawasji, President of The Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman
narrates the history of Parsees; how they took refuge in a small
coastal town in Gujarat after agreeing to several conditions laid down
by the then Maharaja of Sanjan.
By Sudha Narasimhachar , 18 Mar 2010
In the mid-eighties when I used to travel on Bellary Road [...]
Navroze Recognition by United Nations http://parsikhabar.net/navroze-recognition-by-united-nations/
Posted 04 March 2010 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Announcements,
Heritage, News | 1 Comment
The UN has acknowledged the festival of Navroze as a Heritage of
Humanity. The below is an email forwarde by Mickie Sorabjee.
Dear All,
You will be happy to know that finally, after some years of delay,
this news of Navroze being awarded the UNESCO award as an Intangible
Heritage of Humanity has come through officially. [...]
Think value, think vintage
Posted 30 November 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories:
Fashion, Heritage | No Comments
Luxury is now about a different idea, an out-of-the-world experience,
not just products and names…
This week I am in Bombay where, between interviewing the Chief
Minister and an encounter specialist who survived 26/11 (but still has
a bullet lodged in his right elbow), the city helped me remember
something unique about luxury I had discovered [...]
Of An Edwardian India http://parsikhabar.net/think-value-think-vintage/
Posted 30 November 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Culture,
Customs, Heritage, India | 1 Comment
When life in a Parsi household was lived at a leisurely pace…
By Silloo Mehta
Indian cities were beautiful a century ago. Bungalows had gardens,
leafy parks were well maintained and flowering trees arboured the
streets. There was an air of space, tranquillity and wellbeing. We
were a joint middle class family, Grandpa the benign patriarch. [...]
The Zorastrian Journey http://parsikhabar.net/the-zorastrian-journey/
Posted 16 October 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Heritage,
History | No Comments
The below video is a presentation by ZAGNY and IZA New York.
Hawkers Evicted from around Bhikhabehram Well
http://parsikhabar.net/hawkers-evicted-from-around-bhikhabehram-well/
Posted 10 September 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Bombay,
Heritage, Mumbai | 2 Comments
After 30 years, 100 hawkers evicted from Cross Maidan
It was jubilation on Saturday for local residents, who finally
succeeded in ridding the southern tip of Cross Maidan of a major
nuisance
By Manoj R Nair
Demolition crews from the City Collectorate removed over 100 stalls
that had stubbornly resisted all earlier attempts of eviction
For the first time [...]
Parsis fight to keep Sanjan coastline clean
http://parsikhabar.net/parsis-fight-to-keep-sanjan-coastline-clean/
Posted 03 September 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Heritage,
News | 3 Comments
Over a thousand years ago, Parsis landed on the shores of Sanjan on
the Gujarat coast, seeking shelter and were welcomed by the local raja
who allowed them to settle on his land. The descendants of these
migrants are now paying back that debt by helping local resP6-2.TIM
environmental pollution on the coastline.
Several city [...]
Religious Adultery and Parsis http://parsikhabar.net/religious-adultery-and-parsis/
Posted 27 August 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Current
Affairs, Customs, Heritage, History, Institutions, Issues, Opinion,
Prayers, fire temple | 8 Comments
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram, a good old friend, editor of
Frashogard.com and the Panthaki at the Jogeshwari Daremehr has written
a hard hitting post on religious adultery.
Marzban writes
My apologies for not updating the blog for the last few weeks since I
was tied up in the Muktad preparations and prayers in our Daremeher at
[...]
The Parsis in Colonies http://parsikhabar.net/the-parsis-in-colonies/
Posted 26 August 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Bombay,
Heritage, Mumbai | No Comments
This is a hilarious forward sent to us by dear family friend and
regular Parsi Khabar reader Bakhtavar Mistry.
BE PROUD as After the the British colonies there is only the parsi
colonies on which the sun never sets Because ……………
at 2 am old ladies are chasing stray dogs with sticks,
at 3 am somebody’s [...]
Nargol to host a Parsi Festival http://parsikhabar.net/nargol-to-host-a-parsi-festival/
Posted 20 August 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Culture,
Current Affairs, Heritage, History | 4 Comments
Nargol is set to become the first village in the country to host a
Parsi festival. This will be similar to government sponsored annual
fests like Tarnetar fair, Kutch festival and kite festival.
The historic village was developed by first generation immigrant
Parsis who landed on the Arabian Sea coast in Valsad’s Umbergaon
taluka bordering [...]
Sapat Makers: Kerawalla and Company http://parsikhabar.net/sapat-makers-kerawalla-and-company/
Posted 19 August 2009 | By arzan sam wadia | Categories: Culture,
Heritage | No Comments
Somewhere in the noisy lanes of Dhobi Talao stands a picturesque shop;
a little old fashioned, with a small cosy bench, and loads of
memories. The owner is a fourth generation Parsi; but the heavy wooden
name board proclaiming the store’s 1887 roots has been recently
replaced with a new one. “But the character [...]
http://parsikhabar.net/category/heritage/
...and I am Sid harth
Greatest Mining Pioneer of Australia of all Times
> Parsi, the Lost Tribe of Persia: Sid Harthhttp://bakulaji.typepad.com/blog/parsi-the-lost-tribe-of-persia-sid-h...
>
> The Premier Portal for all the news in the world about Parsis: The
> Zoroastrians of India More →
>
> Parsis have civilization; other Indians don’t
> By Aakar Patel / Mint
>
cogitoergosum
Parsi, the Lost Tribe of India: Sid Harth
Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds
Parsis - the Zoroastrians of India
by
Sooni Taraporevala
About the Author:
Sooni Taraporevala was born and brought up in Bombay. She studied Film
and Photography at Harvard University and received her Masters in
Film Theory and Criticism from the New York University, after which
she returned to India and worked as a freelance still photographer.
She wrote her first screenplay Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for
an Oscar. Her second screenplay Mississippi Masala, won the Osella
award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. Her other
screenplays are Such a Long Journey, (for which she received a Genie
nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television), My Own
Country, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Brief Introduction
The contribution of this dynamic Indian community in all spheres of
Indian life – arts, sciences, politics, business, and foremost of all
– in social commitment and philanthropy - has been phenomenal. Despite
their meagre numbers, the Parsi community did not seek any special
privileges under the Constitution, and yet played a large role in the
development of the country. Jamsetji Tata, JRD Tata, Godrejs, Wadias,
Dr. Homi Bhabha, Zubin Mehta, Retd. Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw,
Admiral Jal Cursetji, Air Marshal Engineer, are all from this very
distinguished community. Indira Gandhi married into the community and
so did Mohammad Ali Jinnah's daughter, Dina Wadia.
Parsis are Zoroastrians who arrived in India 1200 years ago from
Persia. They were fleeing persecution at the hands of Arab conquerors
invading Persia. They landed in Diu, off the coast of Gujarat in
India, carrying nothing but a holy flame from their Temple they had
left behind. From Diu they went to Sanjan in Gujarat, where the local
Hindu ruler granted them land and they began a new life. They were
free to follow their own religion and erected their first Fire Temple
soon after. They were called Parsis - to denote the region from where
they had come - Pars, (Persia).
From these humble beginnings emerges a grand chapter of progress,
growth, expansion, diversification, accomplishments and achievements
unsurpassed by any other community in India. Through hard work and
social commitment, they founded business empires, colleges, hospitals
and research institutes – and in the process a very vibrant business
culture in Bombay. Jamsetji Tata and JRD Tata, the Godfathers of
India’s industrial development, were true visionaries – combining
business with philanthropy. Dr. Homi Bhabha, Zubin Mehta, the Wadias,
the Godrejs, Retd. Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw, Admiral Jal Cursetji,
Air Marshal Engineer, are all from this very distinguished community,
which is guided by three principles in life – Good Thoughts, Good
Words, Good Deeds. Today, their numbers are fast decreasing – the
community faces the threat of extinction – for reasons that are linked
to the belief structure of their clergy. Zoroastrianism is a non-
proselytising religion – there are no converts. One can only be born
into it. Marriage outside the community is not encouraged. Parsi women
who have married outside their community are ‘derecognised’ and are
not allowed into the Fire Temple. The birth rates are declining and
the community is fast ageing. Inter-marriage within the community has
increased the incidence of certain genetic disorders – people are
marrying late, or not at all.
This feature is a tribute to the contribution of this dynamic Indian
community in all spheres of Indian life – arts, sciences, politics,
business, and foremost of all – in social commitment and philanthropy.
Despite their meagre numbers, the Parsi community did not seek any
special privileges under the Constitution, and yet played a large role
in the development of the country.
http://www.the-south-asian.com/April2001/Parsis%20of%20India%20-%20Introduction.htm
The following text is an extract from the book
'Zoroastrians of India: Parsis: A Photographic Journey'
by Sooni Taraporevala.
c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala.
Reproduced with permission of Good Books, Mumbai, India.
By the year 2020, India will have achieved the dubious distinction of
being the most populated country on earth with 1200 million people. At
that point, Parsis who will number 23,000 or 0.0002 per cent of the
population, will cease to be termed a community and will be labelled a
'tribe', as is any ethnic group below the 30,000 count.
Demographically, we are a dying
community - our deaths outweigh our births.
Parsis are a people who uprooted themselves and moved to a different
world to save
their religion. We migrated to India one thousand years ago. The Parsi
experience is
about dilemmas that most minority communities face; questions about
religion and
race, survival and extinction, assimilation and identity, tradition
and the modern
world. There are only 100,000 Parsis in the world today, mostly in
India, particularly
in Bombay. Demographically, we are a dying community-our deaths
outweigh our
births. Parsis like to quote a remark that Mahatma Gandhi once
reportedly made, "In
numbers Parsis are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond
compare." Out of
an Indian population of more than one billion, Parsis number a mere
76,000.
Demographic trends project that by the year 2020, India will have
achieved the
dubious distinction of being the most populated country on earth with
1200 million
people. At that point, Parsis who will number 23,000 or 0.0002 per
cent of the
population, will cease to be termed a community and will be labelled a
'tribe', as is
any ethnic group below the 30,000 count.
The story of the Ancestors
"When Cyrus conquered Babylon he issued a decree outlining his aims
and policies, later hailed as the first Charter of Human Rights.
Unlike other conquerors who forced the vanquished to adapt to a common
culture, Cyrus and Darius were liberal and tolerant rulers. Their
subjects were granted autonomy to worship their own Gods, speak their
own language and retain their own culture."
Our ancestors founded the mighty Persian Empire centuries before the
Christian era. Cyrus the Great ruled over an Empire so vast it touched
the waters of the Mediterranean, the Aegean, the Black, the Caspian,
the Indian, the Persian and the Red Seas; had six of the grandest
rivers in the world flowing through it - the Euphrates, the Tigris,
the Indus, the Jaxartes, the Oxus and the Nile.
Cyrus had risen from a minor chieftain to being the founder of such a
vast empire, it was here that east and west met for the first time; he
compelled Greece to acknowledge his power, conquered the mighty
kingdom of Babylon, freed and allowed the Jews to build their temples
and establish themselves in Jerusalem. In his book, The Upbringing of
Cyrus, the Greek writer Xenophon says about him:
" He ruled over these nations, though they did not speak the same
tongue as
he, nor one nation the same as another's: yet he was able to stretch
the
dread of him so far that all feared to withstand him; and he could
rouse
so eager a wish to please him that they all desired to be governed by
his
will."
Darius, his successor, set about consolidating and organising what
Cyrus had so casually conquered. His empire encompassed Asia Minor,
parts of Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria, Palestine, Egypt,
northern Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan,
Uzbekistan, the Tadzhik and part of the Kirgiz Soviet Republics,
western Pakistan, the rich Indus Valley and Thrace. It had the first
international bureaucracy, the first international army and there was
nothing to beat the pomp, pageantry and wealth of the Persian court.
To maintain contact between the different centres of the Empire,
Darius created a network of roads, which survived a long time after
the Empire fell. It is still possible to trace the Royal Road, 1677
miles long, divided into more than one hundred post-stations. An
efficient courier service and chains of fire signals kept the court in
touch with every corner of the empire and foreshadowed by thousands of
years, DHL and FedEx.
As Empires go, the Achaemenian Empire (559BC- 330BC) originally a
small highland tribal kingdom obscurely situated in the foot-hills of
south-west Iran, was unique on two counts. The Achaemenians carved out
a colossal empire in the space of one generation. Unlike other
conquerors who forced the vanquished to adapt to a common culture,
Cyrus and Darius were liberal and tolerant rulers. Their subjects were
granted autonomy to worship their own Gods, speak their own language
and retain their own culture. When Cyrus conquered Babylon he issued a
decree outlining his aims and policies, later hailed as the first
Charter of Human Rights. The original cylinder in cuneiform script is
housed in the British Museum. A copy can also be seen at the United
Nations building in New York.
Though the Achaemenians patronised the temples of their subjects as a
mark of respect and diplomacy, their religion was different from the
fertility cults that existed in those days. They were believers in the
Good Religion as taught by the prophet Zarathustra.
http://www.the-south-asian.com/April2001/Parsis%20-%20story%20of%20ancestors.htm
Two hundred years after Cyrus the Great first took the world by storm
and the world at large learnt of Ahura Mazda, a young prince in
Macedonia who was addicted to reading, carried two favourite books
around with him wherever he went. The first was by Homer, the second,
The Upbringing of Cyrus by Xenophon. Xenophon's image of Cyrus as a
brilliant conqueror, powerful and merciful, making friends of enemies,
hailed as a father by the conquered, made a profound impression on
him.
Inspired by Cyrus' meteoric rise, from minor chieftain to ruler of the
world, this young man followed in his footsteps and proceeded to place
his own imprint on the world stage. Supported by Greece, their
avenging angel marched against the Persian Empire with crusader-like
zeal, wrested the sceptre from Darius 111 and proclaimed himself his
successor. Darius fled and the mighty Achaemenian Empire fell, as all
empires do.
The world knows him as Alexander the Great, but to Zoroastrians he is
Alexander the Accursed (guzastag). His soldiers plundered temples and
sanctuaries, destroyed religious texts and massacred the priests. At
the end of his four-month-stay in the magnificent royal city of
Persepolis, built by Darius the Great, he burned the city to the
ground in a drunken orgy. He threw the first torch himself, then had
second thoughts but it was too late. It is said that when it got too
hot inside, the party drunkenly trooped outside to watch the spectacle
of Persepolis going up in flames. Legend also has it that Alexander
wept. While Iran eventually recovered political autonomy, the religion
never regained what Alexander had so wantonly destroyed.
Five and a half centuries after Darius III lost his empire to
Alexander, there arose from the province of Pars, earlier home to the
Achaemenians, Ardeshir from the Sassan family, who was to become the
founder of the second Persian Empire. The Persians quickly re-
established their power and though the Sassanian Empire was not as
vast as the Achaemenian, between Zoroastrian Persia and its arch-
enemy, Christian Rome, they had the entire known world carved up.
Under the Sassanian dynasty, (226AD-641AD) Zoroastrianism became for
the first and last time, an official State Religion. The priesthood
was invested with importance and power. The Achaemenians had kept a
strict separation between the Church and the State, but under the
Sassanians, for the first time, there was a Zoroastrian 'Church'. The
religion became intertwined with the State and thrived. There was a
revival. Many of the scattered texts which had been preserved orally
were written down, translated and compiled. Though the early
Sassanians were zealous about their own religion, they were tolerant
of other faiths.
In contrast, the last years of the Sassanian dynasty seem to be a
period of extremes and ironies. It was at once a brilliant society, a
cultured and luxurious civilisation, an open society that was
receptive to foreign influences, yet was also fiercely nationalistic.
The Sassanian proclaimed Zoroastrianism as the only good and true
religion.
Between the lower classes and the nobility existed an unbridgeable
gulf. On one side there was unbridled luxury and a feverish pursuit of
pleasure. On the other, famines and plagues. In addition to this
spiritual and economic dissatisfaction was political instability.
Power-hungry kings and queens ascended the throne and were plotted
against and assassinated in quick succession.
It was into this society, ripe for revolution, that the conquerors
came - this time not from the west, but from where it was leas
texpected: they came riding from the south, from the deserts of
Arabia.
In 632AD, Yazdegard III, a hastily crowned twenty-year-old boy, fated
to be the last of the illustrious house of Sassan, sat on his
tottering throne, granting a hearing to a deputation of fourteen Arabs
who had come to visit him in his capital, Madayn. All around the young
king was chaos. His two army generals who had placed him on the throne
had been feuding amongst themselves. On the outskirts of the empire,
Arab tribes were engaged in marauding expeditions. Though they had
been repelled and could never really be a threat, their existence was
a source of some worry.
The leader of the expedition asked Yazdegard to choose either Islam,
or tribute, or war unto death. Yazdegard opted for war and so
completely was Zoroastrianism routed out from the country of its
birth, that in current popular thinking, the thought of an Iran that
was not always Islamic, is inconceivable.
After the Arab conquest, tens of thousands embraced Islam. Many went
over to the new faith because it allowed them to preserve their power
and influence. Others converted to avoid the payment of poll-tax and
to find relief from the persecution that raged around them. A small
band of devoted Zoroastrians, however set sail and landed in Diu, an
island on the west coast of India, off the state of Gujarat.
The Early Years
Arrival in India and the beginnings of a new life
According to Parsi lore they spent nineteen years on the island of
Diu, after which they set sail again and landed in Sanjan also on the
west coast of India, either in the year 936AD or in 716AD [many an
intense battle has been fought amongst Parsis over which date is more
accurate.]
Permission to settle was granted by Jadhav Rana, The Hindu ruler.
These newly arrived strangers were called Parsis - to denote the
region from where they had come - Pars, (Persia), once the birthplace
of mighty empires, now the distant dream of a band of refugees.
Hindu India was kind to the refugees from Pars. They suffered no
persecution, no fear. They were allowed to prosper and grow. They
built the first fire temple in AD 721(Picture to the left), installed
with due ceremony the holy fire which they called the Iranshah, the
King of Iran; lived largely peaceful, obscure existences in various
villages and towns of Gujarat as farmers, weavers and carpenters.
For about three hundred years after landing at Sanjan, Parsis are said
to have lived in peace and without molestation. By that time their
numbers had greatly increased. Many moved from Sanjan to other parts
of India with their families: to Cambay, Navsari, Anklesvar, Variav,
Vankaner and Surat in the north, and to Thane and Chaul in the south.
Pockets of Parsis were also found in Upper India, mentioned by early
travellers: in Sind, Dehra-Dun and Punjab.
Whenever they left Sanjan to settle elsewhere, they carried a part of
the Iranshah with them-the first fire they had consecrated on Indian
soil. But not all climes were as hospitable as Sanjan. In Sind,
Ibrahim the Ghaznavid perceived the Parsis as a colony of fire-
worshippers and attacked them. In Thana, which was ruled by the
Portuguese, they were seen as idolaters and put upon by missionaries
to convert to Christianity.
However, Islam did follow them even to India. In 1465 Sanjan was
sacked and destroyed by the Muslim Sultanate. Parsis fought valiantly,
side by side with their Hindu benefactors. Many lost their lives, but
the priests managed to rescue the sacred fire and carried it safely to
a cave on a hill, where, protected by jungle and sea, they guarded it
for the next twelve years.
Though they didn't completely lose touch with the Persian language,
Gujarati (their version of it), started to become their mother tongue.
They adopted many Hindu customs. Parsi women dressed like their Indian
counterparts. They even wore nose rings.
Many settled down in the port town of Surat, in Gujarat, where in the
fifteenth century, Europeans (the Portuguese, the British and the
Dutch) had been given permission by the Mughals to establish trading
factories. Unhampered by caste prejudices, Surat provided an ideal
opportunity for Parsis to engage in occupations that they had never
attempted before. Farmers became traders and chief native agents,
carpenters became shipbuilders. An adventurous few left Surat and
moved south to Bombay, then only a set of islands, in the wilderness.
Here, they acted as brokers between the Indians and the Portuguese.
They were in Bombay when it was ceded by Portugal to England in 1665
and three years later when the Crown handed over the island to the
East India Company, Parsis were already a presence.
"They are an industrious people," wrote Governor Aungier in a letter
to England, "and ingenious in trade, therein they totally employe
themselves. There are at present but few of them, but we expect a
greater number having gratified them in their desire to build a
bureing place for their dead on the Island."
The East India Company had grand plans for Bombay. They had visions of
making this settlement a vibrant trading and commercial centre. In
order to do so they needed to attract Indian traders, merchants and
craftsmen to settle in and develop this frontier land. The terms they
offered to native communities were generous and to an immigrant
community like the Parsis must have seemed almost heaven-sent. All
persons born in Bombay would become natural subjects of England. All
communities migrating to Bombay were guaranteed religious freedom and
were permitted to build their houses within the fort walls, alongside
the British, where they would be protected from any hostile attacks.
Though the Parsis were quicker to recognise and seize this unique
historical opportunity and came to Bombay earlier than most and in
larger numbers, they weren't the only ones. There were Muslim weavers
from Ahmedabad, Bohras, Beni-Israeli Jews, Jains, Armenians. And
though the residential area was divided into the white and native
parts, in the real life of the city, in the counting houses, markets,
docks, everybody jostled together in a cooperative venture.
The Early Entrepreneurs of Bombay
The Parsis are intimately connected with the history of Bombay. The
cotton boom was largely fuelled by Parsi entrepreneurs. The oldest
newspaper in Bombay, "Bombay Samachar", was run by Parsis. Congress
stalwarts like Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta and Dinshaw Wacha
were Parsis. One of India's biggest industrial houses was founded by a
Parsi, Jamsetji Tata. Even the physical shape of Bombay was determined
by donations to build causeways, roads and buildings by members of the
Jeejeebhoy and Readymoney families.
The first record of a Parsi, Dorabji Nanabhai, settling in Bombay
dates from 1640. After 1661, when Bombay passed to the British, there
was a concerted effort to bring artisans and traders to settle in the
new town. A large part of the Parsi migrants to Bombay in these years
was constituted of weavers and other artisans. In 1673, the British
handed over a piece of land in Malabar Hill to the Parsi community for
the establishment of their first Dakhma, Tower of Silence.
Lowji Nusserwanji Wadia – the shipbuilder from Surat
It has been said that it was not the British merchant but the Parsi
shipbuilder who was the real creator of Bombay. In 1736, East India
Company officials, very impressed with the work of a young Parsi
foreman in their Surat dockyard, invited him to Bombay, with ten of
his carpenters, to build the Bombay shipyard. Lowji Nusserwanji Wadia
came to Bombay and put in fifty years of service, at a salary of forty
rupees a month, handing down his skills to his sons and grandsons. For
many decades, it was the success of the shipyards alone that persuaded
the East India Company to keep this otherwise expensive settlement
going.
The Wadias made ships of Malabar teak for an international clientele.
Their Bombay Frigates were ordered by the British Admiralty and used
in the Battle of Trafalgar. One of their ships sailed the world for
years with the following message carved on her kelson by the chief
shipwright, Jamshetji Wadia, "This ship was built by a d----d Black
Fellow AD 1800." The Wadias weren't the only stars in the Parsi
firmament. Parsi entrepreneurs began springing up in every direction,
attempting new professions and being enormously successful. It is said
that the Bombay of those days was a level playing field where there
were fortunes to be made, caste, colour, creed, no bar; though in the
colour-conscious world of British India, it could not have hurt to be
light-skinned like some Parsis.
Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy – the first merchant-prince
Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy’s is a rags-to riches story. Born into a poor
priestly family in Navsari in Gujarat, orphaned at a young age, he
started his career as a seller of old bottles. He made his maiden
voyage to China when he was sixteen and it was in trade that he made
his fortune. He was to make several more trips-some of them
uneventful, others arduous and dangerous. He was to lose most of his
money in the great Bombay fire and start from scratch again. With
Bombay as his centre, he traded with China, sent them opium, brought
back tea and silks and traded with Europe, bringing back the English
goods needed to sustain the empire in India. He made a vast amount of
money and gave back an equally massive amount to the city. Hospitals,
colleges, roads, housing for the poor, all still bear his name. In
1842 he was the first Indian to be knighted. In today's times his
charities would add up to millions of rupees.He died in 1859.
Cowasji Nanabhai Davar
The first Indian cotton mill, "The Bombay Spinning Mill", was founded
in 1854 in Bombay by Cowasji Nanabhai Davar – to offset the
unfavourable balance of trade with England. India was exporting raw
cotton to England and importing textiles from the Lancashire mills at
an escalating cost. Opposition from the Lancashire mill owners was
eventually offset by the support of the British manufacturers of
textile machinery. By 1870 there were 13 mills in Bombay At the end of
1895 there were 70 mills; growing to 83 in 1915. After World War II,
under strong competition from Japan, the number of mills declined. In
1953 there remained only 53 mills in the city.
As our fortunes changed, so did our names. Names that sounded strange
to English ears became easier to remember. Thus some of us became what
we did; Lawyer, Doctor, Paymaster, Engineer, Confectioner, Readymoney
(first to loan money to the British).
By 1800, Parsis owned half of Bombay and were even renting out their
magnificent houses to the British. Later, with industrialisation, they
established the first cotton mills and were instrumental in founding
the Indian steel industry. These entrepreneurs, shethias, as they were
called, followed in Sir J J's footsteps and in accordance with
Zoroastrian doctrine, dispensed large portions of their fortunes to
charities that benefited both the community and the city at large.
Gradually certain families acquired wealth and prominence (Sorabji,
Modi, Kama, Wadia, Jejeebhoy, Readymoney, Dadyset, Petit, Patel,
Mehta, Allbless, Tata etc.), many of whom are noted for their
participation in the public life of the city, and for their various
educational, industrial, and charitable enterprises.
The Bombay Native Education Society
By the early nineteenth century, another force came into play that was
to change the community without coercion or threats. In 1820 Monstuart
Elphinstone established the Bombay Native Education Society, where
Indians could for the first time receive, "A systematic inculcation of
the literature, languages, science and philosophy of Europe."
In 1835, Lord Macaulay expressed the goal of this new educational
system with the following words: "To rear a class of people who maybe
interpreters between us and the millions we govern; a class of
persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in
opinions, in morals and in intellect."
Parsis of the middle and poorer classes made quick and extensive use
of this new opportunity, branching out from the traditional
occupations of trade and commerce into the professions and the
colonial administration. Once they began to receive an English
education, Parsi men embarked on a conscious path of reform in
community matters. Having banished the social evils from their own
community, the young Parsi reformers felt themselves responsible for
initiating similar reforms amongst Hindus and Muslims.
As early as 1860 Parsi women were educated in schools, ate with their
husbands instead of after them and accompanied them in public.
Macaulay's plan paid rich dividends but it also backfired. It was the
Indians educated in British classrooms, now liberal and humanistic in
their thinking, in accordance with their education, who were the
agitators for political change and Independence. Amongst them were the
Parsi stalwarts Dadabhai Naoroji, Madame Bhikaiji Cama and Sir
Pherozeshah Mehta.
Pioneers of modern India
Modern India owes a large debt to the visionary Jamsetji Tata who had
the foresight to lay a firm foundation that would allow India to be
economically independent.
His descendant JRD Tata, took over the running of Tata Sons and
expanded the business empire even further. A keen aviator, JRD was the
first Indian to start a national airline (Tata Airlines) that later
became Air-India.
Parsis also established the first cotton mills in India, the first
newspaper, the first Indian owned bank. In the navy we had Admiral Jal
Cursetji, in the airforce Air Marshal Engineer and the Indian army was
commandeered by another Parsi-Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw. The late
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's father Feroze Gandhi also came from the
community. And of course there is Zubin Mehta who belongs collectively
to every Parsi mother.
Fifty-three years after Independence, we have nothing to fear but
ourselves. We are the only community in fertile India that has a
diminishing birthrate. We intermarry amongst ourselves, marry late,
have few children and have so confused religion and race, that many
would like to lay down laws that prohibit anybody from ever becoming
either a Parsi or a Zoroastrian. In a political climate where
religions vie with each other to gain converts, we zealously try to
keep them out.
As we enter the Millennium, Parsis continue to live in several
centuries simultaneously, inhabit several identities; a balancing act
that takes us from Stone Age rituals to Freddy Mercury (real name
Farrokh Bulsara). Out of these diverse elements we have created a
culture that is uniquely our own. Fifty years from now, will we still
be around? Will Zarathustra's Good Religion be a living faith, or will
the world's first messianic prophet having survived four thousand
years, finally be relegated to the history books?
Political Activists
Dadabhai Naoroji
,
(Born: September 4, 1825, Bombay, India ; Died: June 30, 1917, Bombay,
India.)
The "Grand Old Man of India" was the first to formulate and articulate
the 'economic drain theory' in his book, Poverty and Un-British Rule
in India, published in 1901. He fought for the Indianisation of the
Indian Civil Service and protested vehemently against the extravagant
expenditure on military expeditions against Afghanistan, Burma and
Egypt, undertaken at the Indian tax-payer's expense for the glory of
England. To educate the British public and to fight for Indian rights,
in 1892 he stood for elections to the British House of Commons as a
liberal from Central Finsbury, London. He won by three votes and his
constituents nicknamed him 'Mr Narrow Majority'. He was the first
Indian to beat the British at their own game. The conservative press
did their best to stir up racial prejudice against him:
"Central Finsbury should be ashamed of itself at having publicly
confessed that there was not in the whole of the Division an
Englishman, a Scotsman, a Welshman, or an Irishman as worthy of their
votes as this fire-worshipper from Bombay."
In 1893, Dadabhai Naoroji expressed the spirit of an emerging national
identity when he stated: "Whether I am a Hindu, a Mohamaden, a Parsi,
a Christian, or of any other creed, I am above all an Indian. Our
country is India; our nationality is Indian."
Born to a Parsi priest's family in Bombay,he studied in Elphinstone
College, Bombay, and became a professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy there at the age of 27. He was the first Indian to become a
professor of the college. At age thirty, he left for England, where he
was to spend most of his life. In 1895 he was appointed to the royal
commission on Indian expenditure. He returned to India and was thrice
elected to the post of the president of The Indian National Congress -
in 1886, 1893 and again in 1906.
In 1893, Dadabhai Naoroji expressed the spirit of an emerging national
identity when he stated: "Whether I am a Hindu, a Mohamaden, a Parsi,
a Christian, or of any other creed, I am above all an Indian. Our
country is India; our nationality is Indian."
The Congress' demand for swaraj (independence) was first expressed
publicly by him in his presidential address in 1906.
Madame Bhikaji Cama
(1861-1936)
Our radical firebrand, was exiled from India and Britain and lived in
France. Bhikaiji was a tireless propagandist for Indian Independence.
Russian comrades used to call her India's Joan of Arc. Lenin
reportedly invited her to reside in Russia but she did not accept the
invitation.
In 1907, she addressed an audience of 1,000 Germans at the Stuttgart
Conference. After her impassioned speech she unfurled a flag, a
tricolour, which became, with some changes, India's national flag
forty years later. As her activities grew more radical the British
requested the French to extradite her. The French refused. In 1936,
alone and seriously ill, wishing to die in her own country she
petitioned the British government to be allowed to return home. Her
request was granted, provided she sign what she had refused to all her
life; a statement promising she would take no part in politics. She
returned to Bombay and after an illness of eight months, died lonely,
forgotten and unsung in the Parsi General Hospital.
Pherozeshah Mehta
Born: August 4, 1845, Bombay, India.
Died: November 5, 1915, Bombay, India.
In 1890, as President of the Indian National Congress, Pherozeshah
Mehta (nicknamed Ferocious Mehta) delivered the presidential address
in which he said,
"In speaking of myself as a native of this country, I am not unaware
that,
incredible as it may seem, Parsis have been both called and invited
and
allured to call themselves, foreigners."
He saw through the British tactics of binding Parsi loyalty to the
crown. They repeatedly made Parsis feel superior by showering them
with decorations and praise. Up until 1946, a total of sixty-three
Parsis had been knighted; of the four Indians who had been made
hereditary baronets until 1908, three were Parsis. In 1877, Sir J. R.
Carnac, Governor of Bombay, declared:
"Then, gentlemen Parsis, I would ask you to remember that you have
what is called the very bluest blood in Asia."
Known as the "Father of Municipal Government in Bombay", he drafted
the Bombay Municipal Act of 1872. He was the Municipal commissioner in
1873 and the Chairman in 1884-5 and again in 1905. A lawyer by
profession, Mehta was elected the president of the Indian National
Congress in 1890. He founded the newspaper Bombay Chronicle in 1910
and in the same year he was made the Vice Chancellor of the Bombay
University. Studied at Elphinstone College, Bombay, and later went to
England to study law. . He was called to the bar in 1868.
The zeal with which the Parsis still pursue certain trades is best
exemplified by their unique surnames - a community directory lists not
only Printer and Purveyor, but also Readymoney, Screwwala and even
SodawaterBottleOpenerwala.
Industrialists
India's biggest industrial empire, the Tata group, is headed by a
Parsi, as is Godrej, the country's largest privately owned
conglomerate. Bombay Dyeing, one of the largest among the textile
groups in India, is owned by Nusli Wadia, - who also happens to be the
son of Dina Neville Wadia, the daughter of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad
Ali Jinnah.
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata - the first pioneer entrepreneur of India
Born: March 13, 1839 in Nausari, Gujarat, India.
Died: May 19, 1904 in Bad Nauheim, Austria.
In 1871 he set up the ‘Central India Spinning, Weaving and
Manufacturing Company, Limited’, and in 1877 built the immensely
successful Empress Mills in Nagpur. He took over the sick Dharamsi
Mill in Kurla, changed its name to the Swadeshi Mill when he purchased
it in 1887, turned it around and exported cloth to China, Korea, Japan
and the Levant.
Later, he concentrated on three key areas -- the iron and steel
industry, electrical power generation and technical education. He
believed that political independence would be meaningless without
economic self-sufficiency. His vision of the Institute of Science in
Bangalore, a steel plant in Jamshedpur, Bihar, and a hydroelectric
company were brought to fruition by his successors.
JRD Tata - Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata
Born 29 July,1904, Paris
Died 29 November 1993, Bombay
He guided the destiny of India’s largest Industrial house for well
over half a century.Headed Tata Sons in 1938; Tata Chemicals in 1939;
Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) in 1945.
Pioneered civil aviation in the Indian sub-continent
Funded Tata Institue of Fundamental Research - "the cradle of [our]
atomic energy program".
Started the Family Planning Foundation in 1970
Established Asia’s first cancer hospital in Bombay – Tata Memorial
Hospital
He was awarded the country’s highest civilian honour – the Bharat
Ratna – in 1992.
Awarded the United Nations Population Award in 1992
JRD receiving the Bharat Ratna from the President of India;with Air
Marshal Arjun Singh;in his flying machine;with Zubin Mehta in Bombay
1982. (Photos: Sooni Taraporevala)
JRD was the second child of Mr Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. With his French
wife Sooni, JRD arrived in 1925 at Bombay House to work under Mr John
Peterson, the director-in-charge of Tata Steel. That was the beginning
of an industrial empire.
A.B. Godrej
Ardeshir Burjorji Godrej, founded the Godrej group -- which has
diversified into personal care products, food processing, machine
tools, security equipment, and office systems.
Godrej gave up his legal profession and set up Godrej & Boyce
Manufacturing Co. in 1897 – to manufacture locks. The rest is history.
Adi Godrej is the present Head of the Godrej Group.
"The Parsis have always integrated sufficiently, [and] the
majorcommunities in India - the Hindus, the Muslims - have always
respected the Parsis," says Adi Godrej Chairman, Godrej Group. "The
community has very successfully managed the advantages of being
smallwithout any of the disadvantages of being small."
Adi Godrej
Wadias
The Wadias' first venture, over 250 years ago, was in the area of ship
building - more than 355 ships were designed and built by the Wadias,
including men-of-war for the British Navy. It was on one such ship
that the American National Anthem was composed.
L-R: Neville Wadia, and son Nusli Wadia - the only grandson of
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
With the wave of industrialization in the 19th century, trading grew,
and with it, opportunities for new areas of business. In 1879, Bombay
was next only to New Orleans as the world's largest cotton port. It
was at this time that Nowrosjee Wadia, the second generation Wadia,
set his sights on India's mushrooming textile industry. On August
23rd, in a humble redbrick shed, he began a small operation. Here,
cotton yarn spun in India was dip dyed by hand in three colors-turkey
red, green and orange-and laid out in the sun to dry. The Bombay
Dyeing & Manufacturing Co. Ltd. had been born. A modest beginning for
a company that was to grow in the following 115 yr. into one of
India's largest producer of textiles. Along the path of growth and
diversification, Bombay Dyeing has spawned dozens of other companies.
In technical and financial collaboration with world leaders, such
companies have pioneered the manufacture of various chemicals and have
grown to be leaders in their new fields.
Neville Wadia, the third generation of the existing business family of
the Wadias, was born in Liverpool on 22nd August 1911. He was educated
at Malvern College and University of Cambridge. He started his career
in 1931 as an apprentice with the Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing
Company Ltd., owned by his father Mr. Nowrosjee Wadia.
The arduous apprenticeship was an essential part of his grooming. In
1933 he was appointed the Director of the company. After his father's
death in 1952, Mr. Neville Wadia took over as the chairman of the
company. He married Dina Jinnah, the daughter of Mohammad Ali Jinnah,
the Founder of Pakistan. During his quarter century as the Chairman,
the company turnover increased eleven fold. At the age of 66, after
spending forty eight years with Bombay Dyeing, he handed over the rein
of control to his son, Mr. Nusli Wadia. It was the result of his toil
that from a humble beginning Bombay Dyeing has risen to the status of
one of the most respected and widely diversified business houses - The
Wadia Group.
Homi Jehangir Bhabha – Scientist
1909 – 1966
Homi Bhabha served as the President of the UN conference on peaceful
uses of atomic energy in 1955 and later as President of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 1960 to 63.
Bhabha joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1940 as a
reader in physics. He then established, with funds from JRD Tata, the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay in 1945. Son of a
barrister, Homi Bhabha studied engineering at Cambridge. He died in a
plane crash on Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966.
Zubin Mehta
Born 29 April 1936, Bombay
One of the world's greatest conductors, Zubin Mehta has been the
conductor of the Israel Philharmonic since 1981; he led the New York
Philharmonic (1978-91) , the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1962-78) and
the Montreal Symphony (1961-67) - the first conductor to head two
major North American orchestras at the same time.
Zubin's teacher, the late Hans Swarowsky at the Music Academy in
Vienna, Austria, had predicted in 1963 that his former pupil would be
"a great figure in the history of music."
His father, violinist and conductor Mehli Mehta, formed Bombay’s first
orchestra ‘The Bombay Symphony’, and also served as associate
concertmaster of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England, from 1955
to 1959. He is currently Music Director of the American Youth Symphony
in Los Angeles.
Zubin was the youngest man to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and the
Berlin Philharmonic, the youngest to become music director of a major
American orchestra, the first and, so far, the only music director of
the Israel Philharmonic.
Zubin has conducted over 1,600 performances on five continents. During
his thirteen years in New York, he conducted over 1,000 concerts, thus
holding the position longer than any Music Director in the Orchestra's
modern history.
In 1994, he brought the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to India and
conducted in Bombay and New Delhi. In 1998 Zubin Mehta began a five
year appointment as Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in
Munich.
In 1967 the Indian government awarded him its highest cultural honor,
Padma Bhushan, and in 1976 the Italian government awarded him the
honorary title of Commendatore.
writers
Writer Rohinton Mistry
(Photo:c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala)
Firdaus Kanga ,Rohinton Mistry
Media
Cyrus Oshidar, MTV
(Photo:c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala)
Russy and Burjor Karanjia, N.J. Nanporia, Dina Vakil, Frene
Talyarkhan, the Kangas of Calcutta, husband and wife who started
Navroze, Shehnaz Treasurywala, Cyrus Oshidar Vice president MTV
in films
Kaizad Gustad - maker of 'Bombay Boys'
(Photo:c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala)
Sohrab Mody and H.B. Wadia, Kaizad Gustad
Miss Indias
Persis Khambatta as a beauty queen and later as an actress in
Hollywood. She passed away in 1999.
Meher Mistry and Persis Khambatta.
Nuclear science
Homi Bhabha and Homi Sethna,
police
Khushru Rustamji,
art
Jehangir Sabavala, Painter
(Photo: c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala)
Jehangir Sabavala, the professional art impresarios, Keiku Gandhy and
Kali Pundole, the builders with Shapoorji Pallonji.
Institutions
the Taj chain of hotels, J.J. and Tata Cancer Hospitals, Sir J.J.
School Of Arts, the Institute Of Social Sciences and the Institute Of
Fundamental Research.
Famous Cricketers
The early history of Indian cricket is the history of Bombay Parsi
cricket.
Parsis formed the Oriental Cricket Club in 1848, and later the
Zoroastrian and the Mars Clubs.
The Young Zoroastrian Club, was founded in 1850 by Hiraji Gosta, also
known as Kuka Daru, with financial help from the houses of Tata and
Wadia. Credit is also due to the late Mr.J. Framji Patel.
The Parsi Gymkhana was founded in 1885.The captain of the team was Dr.
D.H. Patel, a cousin of Framji's.
Pestonji Kanga, "a free bat, a fast underhand bowler with a puzzling
delivery and a good field". The leading player was Dr. M.E. Pavri. He
captured 170 wickets at a little over 11 each and scored 630 runs in
England. He often visited England and in 1895 he played for Middlesex
against Sussex and caught "Ranji" in one of the innings. Kanga gave
India its first club cricket tournament
Russy Mody, Polly Umrigar, Nari Contractor, Farokh Engineer, Russy
Surti played for the National team.
A.F.S. Talyarkhan was a legendary broadcaster
Famous In Britain
Britain's first Asian MPs, all belonged to the small and highly
influential Indian community of Parsis.
Dadabhai Naoroji - MP for Finsbury 1892-95 - a Liberal, a Tory
Mancherjee Bhownagree - MP for Bethnal Green 1895-1905 - a Tory
Shapurji Saklatvala - MP for Battersea 1922-29 - a Socialist.
(Photo:c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala)
Among Parsis well-known in Britain today are Freddie Mercury of Queen,
Farrukh Dhondy (the Channel 4 editor and scriptwriter).
What is Zoroastrianism?
Zoroastrianism is a faith – a simple religion – one of the oldest
monotheistic world religions - founded on the teachings of the Prophet
Zarathustra, who lived sometime between 1500 and 600 BC in Persia.
Zarathustra preached three virtues - Humata, Hukhta, Huvarashta,
[Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds] and held Good Deeds the
highest in the order.
The sacred text of the Zoroastrians is called the Avesta-E-Zend or
Zend-E-Avesta (Avesta in short). It comprises of Gathas, songs or
hymns composed by the Prophet Zarathustra.
Zoroastrianism is a non-proselytising religion and has no iconoclastic
tradition. Only the symbol of Faravahar, also known as Farohar,
signifies the final goal of a true Zarthosti - to live in a manner
befitting the progress of the soul towards enlightenment - Ahura
Mazda, or the "Wise Lord".
The significance of Faravahar
By Dr. H. P. B. Neku
The Faravahar
The Faravahar, or Farohar, figure reminds one of the purpose of life
on this earth, which is to live in such a way that the soul progresses
spiritually and attains union with Ahura-Mazda (the Wise Lord); this
state is called Frasho-kereti in Avesta.
In the center of the figure is a circle which represents the soul of
the individual. For the soul to evolve and progress, it has two wings.
In each wing there are five layers of feathers. These can represent
the five Divine Songs (Gathas) of Zarathustra, the five divisions of
the day (Gehs), and the five senses of the human body.
In nature, there exist two opposing forces: Spenta-Mainyu the good
mind or asare roshni and Angre-Mainyu the wicked mind or asare
tariki. A continuous conflict goes on in nature between these two. A
person's soul is caught between the two and is pulled by each from
side to side. The two long curved legs on either side of the circle
represent these two forces.
To help the soul balance itself between these two forces, the soul is
given a rudder in the form of a tail. This tail has three layers of
feathers, which reminds one of the path of Asha Humata (Good
Thoughts), Hukhta (Good Words), and Hvarasta (Good Deeds), or
Manashni, Gavashni, and Kunashni by which the soul is able to make
its own spiritual progress.The head of the figure reminds us that
Ahura-Mazda has given every soul a free will to choose either to obey
divine universal natural laws or to disobey them.The figure also has a
pair of hands which hold a circular ring. The ring symbolizes the
cycles of rebirths on this earth and other planes which the soul has
to undergo to make progress on the path of Asha. If these divine laws
are obeyed through Manashni, Gavashni, and Kunashni, our soul will be
able to attain union with Ahura-Mazda. This far-off event, towards
which the whole of creation moves, is called Frasho-kereti.
This article was provided by Dr. H. P. B. Neku, who can be contacted
at
Who was Zarathustra?
Nearly every Parsi home has an image, always the same one, of gentle
Zarathustra with long hair and a flowing beard, as imagined by a 19th
century Parsi artist. Zarathustra belongs to such remote antiquity
that we don't even know for certain exactly when He was born and
where, much less what he looked like. But what has miraculously
survived is the religion that he was inspired to reveal.
His date of birth is said to have been between 1700 and 1500 BC and it
is generally believed that he was born in Eastern Iran, in what is now
the Russian Steppes. Like Buddha after him, Zarathustra wanted to know
the mystery of life. Why was there death and suffering in the world?
What was the origin of evil? He became filled with a deep longing for
justice, for a moral law that would allow mankind to lead a good life
in peace. Tradition didn't provide any answers. Tradition demands its
instructions to be taken on trust. He turned his back on the world and
retreated to a cave on a mountain, where he meditated for ten years.
Communing with nature and his inner self he finally received
enlightenment from Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. He left his life of
seclusion and descended from the mountain. He was thirty years old and
brought with him a new hope, a new way of life, which still has
relevance to us four thousand years later.
A life of active good towards others; people, animals, nature, is at
the heart of what He taught; giving us a simple creed to follow -
Humata, Hukhta, Huvarashta, Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.
"Happiness unto him who gives happiness unto others," said Zarathustra
at the grey dawn of history.
The religion he revealed was based on the moral choices humans make
here on earth. Every individual has the twin spirits of good and evil
in their minds, that form their dual nature. When we exercise our
Better Mind, we create life and draw Ahura Mazda and His Divine Powers
towards ourselves. When we choose to use our Evil Mind, we enter a
state of spiritual death. Confusion descends upon us and we rush
towards wrath and bloodlust, by whose actions human existence is
poisoned. Our duty in life is to play our part in this great cosmic
battle between Good and Evil. Our individual lives are the
battlefield. Every decision we make, every choice of thought, word and
deed, adds up.
It is perhaps difficult to appreciate the originality and courage of
Zarathustra's thought today. So many prophets have come after him with
similar proclamations. But if we place ourselves into the antiquity in
which he lived, Zarathustra's religion was radically different to
anything mankind had ever dreamt of thus far. Instead of a religion
based on fear, Zarathustra's religion put a free, thinking, rational
mind on centrestage. "Zoroastrianism," writes the scholar, R. C.
Zaehner, "is the religion of free will par excellence."
According to Zarathustra, salvation for the individual depends on the
sum of his/her thoughts, words and deeds and there can be no
intervention by any divine being to alter this. No costly material
sacrifices or rituals will change the way the individual is judged.
Making our own choices, we alone have to bear the responsibility for
our own souls.
Later religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, all borrowed freely
from His teachings. But while they grew to attract millions of
believers, the oldest prophet of them all retreated into obscurity,
remembered only by scholars of religion and we - his followers.It is
believed that the years he spent preaching amongst his own people were
almost fruitless, bringing him only one convert, his cousin. So he
departed and went to another tribe, where being a stranger, he was
granted an audience with King Vishtaspa who became an ardent follower.
And from there the religion spread.
What we know about Zarathustra comes primarily from the Gathas,
seventeen great hymns which he composed. These are not works of
instruction, but inspired, passionate, poetic utterances, many of them
addressed directly to God in a language that became extinct thousands
of years ago.
Tradition credits Zarathustra with having composed profusely. Pliny
states that the great philosopher Hermippus, who lived in 3BC had
studied 2,000,000 verses composed by Him. Arab historians state that
Zoroastrian texts were copied on 12,000 cowhides. Parsi tradition
speaks of 21 nasks or volumes containing 345,700 words. Out of this,
what has survived is a fraction of what was originally there, a mere
83,000 words.
These 83,000 words make up our prayers, collectively called the
Avesta. Though most of us have no idea what we are praying, yet we
have prayed these same prayers in an unbroken continuum from 1500BC.
Scholars, linguists, priests have translated the Gathas, but the
devout have no need for translations; the words of the prayers are
like old friends-rhythms that have been there since childhood,
intimate companions.
Rituals
The navjote, or initiation into the religion, takes place before
puberty between the ages of seven and nine for both boys and girls. It
is the first time that the child wears the "armour of the religion":
the sudrah (shirt), kusti, which should then be worn every day for the
rest of his/her life. Zoroastrianism believes that children cannot
tell the difference between right and wrong, and therefore cannot sin.
Once children freely choose to be initiated, they become adults
responsible for their own thoughts, words, deeds, which will determine
the fate of their souls on judgment day.
The sudrah (shirt), to be worn next to the skin, is made of white
cotton, usually thin muslin, (white being a symbol of stainlessness
and purity) to remind the wearer that his/her deeds must be as pure
and spotless as the sacred shirt they are wearing. The sudrah is made
up of two pieces of cloth sewn together on the sides; the two parts,
the back and the front symbolic of the past and future, both related
to each other through the present. In the front, over the chest is a
small pocket (girehban). Called the pocket of righteousness, it is the
symbolic collection place for the wearer's good words, good thoughts,
good deeds.
The kusti, the sacred cord, made of seventy-two threads of lambswool,
is entwined thrice around the waist, again symbolically reminding the
wearer of the holy triad of good words, thoughts and deeds. The
untying and retying of the kusti, accompanied by the kusti prayers, is
always done facing the direction of a source of light: the sun, the
moon or a lamp. Along with the sudrah, the kusti is the 'badge' of all
believers, male or female, rich or poor, priest or layman.
Customs and manners
Parsis ritually do not leave the head uncovered and do not smoke. But
there are no caste divisions, no religious restrictions about food.
Their worship of fire is the highest and purest symbol of the
Divinity. The Parsis have remained faithful to their Zoroastrian faith
and are proud of their racial purity. Marriage with outsiders is rare.
c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala.
The Parsis worship in fire temples. Fire is of very special
significance to the Zoroastrians. It gives light, warmth and energy to
the other six creations, and so creates life. The Atash Behram or the
Holy Fire is the most important and the most sacred fire. The Prophet
saw fire to be the physical representation of Asha (Order/Truth/
Righteousness), and as a source of light, warmth and life for his
people. All the religious rituals (the performance of which is an
important Zoroastrian duty), are solemnized in the presence of fire,
the life-energy.
The oldest Atashgah in India at Udwada.
There are eight Atash Behrams, or Victorious Fires in India. Four in
Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) in the State of Maharashtra - four
in the State of Gujarat, two in Surat, and the remaining in Udwada and
Navsari. The Iranshah Atash Behram at Udwada is the oldest [720 AD] –
the original fire brought by the fleeing Parsis from Iran and
consecrated shortly after their arrival at Sanjan, India. The village
of Udwada is hence considered as a centre of pilgrimage by the Parsis
and is visited by thousands every year.
They do not cremate or bury the dead and instead leave their dead in
Dakhma or the 'Towers of Silence' where they are devoured by vultures.
This is done to ensure purity of the elements.
Living a Zoroastrian Life
Zarathushtra taught that since this world created by Ahura Mazda is
essentially good, man should live well and enjoy its bountiful gifts
though always in moderation, as the states of excess and deficiency in
Zoroastrianism, are deemed to be the workings of the Hostile Spirit.
Man, in Zoroastrianism, is encouraged to lead a good and prosperous
life and hence monasticism, celibacy, fasting and the mortification of
the body are anathema to the faith; such practices are seen to weaken
man and thereby lessen his power to fight evil. The prophet saw
pessimism and despair as sins, in fact as yielding to evil. In his
teachings, man is encouraged to lead an active, industrious, honest
and above all, a happy and charitable life.
The After-Life Doctrine
Upon physical death (which is seen as the temporary triumph of evil),
the soul will be judged at the Bridge of the Separator, where the
soul, it is believed, will receive its reward or punishment, depending
upon the life which it has led in this world, based upon the balance
of its thoughts, words and deeds. If found righteous, the soul will
ascend to the abode of joy and light, whilst if wicked, it will
descend into the depths of darkness and gloom. The latter state,
however, is a temporary one, as there is no eternal damnation in
Zoroastrianism.
There is a promise, then, of a series of saviours the Saoshyants, who
will appear in the world and complete the triumph of good over evil.
Evil will be rendered ineffective and Ahura Mazda, the Infinite One,
will finally become truly Omnipotent in Endless Light. There will then
take place, a general Last Judgement of all the souls awaiting
redemption, followed by the Resurrection of the physical body, which
will once again meet its spiritual counterpart, the soul. Time, as we
know it, will cease to exist and the seven creations of Ahura Mazda
will be gathered together in eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of
Mazda, where everything, it is believed, will remain in a perfect
state of joy and undyingness.
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Reinventing India
by Mira Kamdar
India’s most pressing problem in the 1950s was to feed its poor ..
half a century later, India’s most pressing problem is still how to
deal with its poor.
L-R: Drought in Rajasthan (Photo Pradeep Bhatia); Children waiting for
arsenic-free water.
About the Author
Mira Kamdar is a Senior Advisor with Digital Partners and a Senior
Fellow at the World Policy Institute at New School University in New
York City since 1992. She is the founder of the Institute's Emerging
Powers Program: Brazil, India, South Africa, and currently directs the
India segment of the program.
Her work has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Los
Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Times of India, World
Business, the American Journal of Semiotics, the Journal of
Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, and World Policy Journal. She
is a member of the editorial board of World Policy Journal. Mira holds
MA and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.
India’s most pressing problem in the 1950s was to feed its poor, who
made up roughly half of its then burgeoning population of 350 million
people. My father, one of the first Indians to come to America to
study after India gained its independence in 1947, was working on a
degree in soils analysis at Oregon State University. This was the era
of the "green revolution."
Fueled by a mixture of Gandhian idealism and American can-do spirit,
his plan was to complete his degree, return home, and do his part to
help "Young India"--as it was often called in those days--improve
agricultural production. But the attractions of making a decent living
were irresistible. He decided to stay in America, switched his career
to aeronautical engineering and got a job with one of the cutting-edge
companies of the time: Boeing. My father became part of the "brain
drain" that subsequently brought thousands of engineers, scientists,
doctors and other professionals from India to America in search of a
standard of living their country of origin could not afford to give
them.
India’s Poor
Half a century later, India’s most pressing problem is still how to
deal with its poor. The green revolution did allow India to
dramatically increase crop yields and become self-sufficient in food
production. But India’s population more than kept pace with the
country’s economic growth which ambled forward at the rate of 3.5 to 5
percent for many decades. Only after a balance of payments crisis
forced India to take steps to liberalize its economy in 1991 did the
country begin to achieve consistent growth of between 6 and 7 percent.
But even this was not enough.
Today, more than fifty years after independence, India remains a
country where 350 million people--a number equal to the entire
population of the country in 1950--live in absolute poverty. India’s
poor make up fully one third of its total population, which passed the
billion mark on May 15, 2000. And India’s population is increasing by
15.5 million people each year. This means the country will need
125,000 new schools, 373,000 new teachers, 2.5 million new homes, and
4 million new jobs every year to meet the needs of its new citizens.
With its current rate of growth, India cannot possibly hope to keep
pace.
More alarming, even were India to move forward quickly with the next
round of economic reforms and push growth up to the 8 to 10 percent
range, and even if it were able to sustain this high level of growth
over the next ten years, the lives of the poor would remain
substantially unchanged. In fact, in this best-case scenario, per
capita income in India would rise from the current $300 per year to
all of $500 per year a decade from now. India cannot simply grow its
way out of poverty.
The cost of the poor to India is inestimable. First and foremost, of
course, there is the wasted human potential and the very real human
suffering due to preventable contagious disease, lack of access to
basic health care and education, even to sanitation and clean drinking
water. Mass poverty is having a devastating impact on India’s
environment, which is under attack from accelerated deforestation,
overgrazing, and extremely high levels of air and water pollution,
especially in urban areas. Mass poverty also affects India’s ability
to compete against countries with better physical infrastructure and
more educated populations for foreign direct investment, which India
badly needs to face a fiscal deficit the IMF has recently deemed
"unsustainable" and to jump-start badly needed infrastructure
development in transportation, communications and power. Finally, mass
poverty and the growing gulf between haves and have-nots poses a
looming threat to India’s internal security and to its political and
social stability.
The Failure of 20 th -Century Development Paradigms
A succession of state-directed five-year-plans for development, the
injection of billions of dollars of foreign aid and loans, and the
dramatic improvement in agricultural production following the green
revolution did have positive effects. Despite a tripling of its
population, India has been able to reduce the total percentage of the
poor from 50 to 35 percent; to nearly halve illiteracy, reducing it
from 81.7 percent in 1950 to 48 percent today; to reduce the birthrate
from 40 per thousand to 26 per thousand and to increase life
expectancy from 32 years to a little over 62 years.
India can be proud of its many successful domestic industries in
manufacturing, information technology, textiles and many other
sectors. For all that, India remains a "developing" country. With one-
sixth of all humanity living within its borders, India is still
playing catch-up to the world’s great economic and political powers.
During this time, it has seen countries in Southeast and East Asia no
better off than India was after World War II achieve phenomenal
improvements in their economies and for their people. And India has
watched China transform itself into one of the biggest global
economies.
Time and time again, whether in those heady days following
independence in the 1950s or in the euphoria following economic
liberalization in the early 1990s, India’s aspirations to overcome
mass poverty and create opportunities for all its people to realize
their potential have gone tragically unfulfilled. Three generations
after independence, India’s poor are still waiting for their lives to
improve. Their patience is wearing thin, especially in a world where
they can now easily see on television what others have, how others
live.
The Imperative for a New Development Paradigm
It is clear that for India to make real gains in alleviating poverty a
radical solution must be found. The development paradigms of the post-
war 20 th century worked some wonders but failed, overall, to solve
the problem of mass poverty in India. In fact, the digital revolution
has made the imperative for dealing with mass poverty in India--and
elsewhere in the developing world--a critical priority demanding
immediate action. Indeed, there may be no issue facing humanity at the
beginning of the 21 st century of greater importance than finding
solutions to the yawning divide between the world’s rich and poor.
The new millennium has brought with it a new geoeconomic reality. The
forces of globalization, propelled by rapid advances in information,
communications and bio-technologies, are deepening divides between
haves and have-nots, creating, on the one hand, a transnational class
of people who move competently in a knowledge-driven economy and, on
the other hand, masses of people with no knowledge of, no access to,
and no skills to exploit this new economy. Fortunately, these very
same forces offer unprecedented opportunities for creating entirely
new approaches to alleviating world poverty and closing the inequality
gap.
Backlash
The rage being focused against such institutions of world order as the
World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank, and the attendant backlash against globalization arises
from feelings that a market-driven global economy is being
deliberately directed in favor of transnational corporate interests;
interests that are perceived to be inimical to the interests of
individuals, local organizations, and even national governments and to
their control over the planet’s resources and economic opportunities.
Corporate interests are perceived to be particularly adverse to the
needs of the poor. Indeed, they are seen to be the direct cause of the
growing gap between haves and have-nots.
Globalization, however, is not a process that can simply be turned off
no more than the new information, communications and bio- technologies
can be made to "go away." And, it is quite true that the market as it
exists has little incentive to take into consideration any factors
beyond its own short-term profitability. At the same time, the ability
of nation-states--much less local organizations or individuals--to
control global market forces is increasingly limited. The world’s poor
must also face a general state of "donor fatigue" in the rich
industrialized world that has reduced international aid to
historically low levels, aid which, in any case, has largely failed
the world’s poor.
India: A Unique Case for a New Development Paradigm
Of all the developing countries in the world, India offers a unique
opportunity to launch a new development paradigm that harnesses global
market dynamics. India’s economy may be growing overall at a modest
rate of 7 percent but its information technology sector is booming at
an explosive 50 percent rate of growth. Already a $5 billion-a-year
undertaking, India’s information technology sector is expected to
reach $87 billion by the end of this decade. Bangalore alone is home
to 300 technology firms that employ 40,000 people. Among the largest
of these companies are Infosys, which employs 6,000 people and writes
and maintains sofware for companies all over the world, and Wipro,
which grossed $310 million last year and has made its CEO Azim
Premji’s net worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $9 billion.
Bangalore’s most famous son in America may be Sabeer Bhatia, who
created the Hotmail e-mail service and then sold it to Microsoft in
1997 for $400 million.
India’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, which only accept
about one out of every thousand applicants, turn out some of the most
sought after workers in the world. IIT graduates, such as Rakesh
Gangwal of U.S. Air, or Rajat Gupta of McKinsey, are among the chief
executive officers of some of the world’s largest and most powerful
corporations. They, and other highly skilled Indian engineers and
technical graduates, are a strong presence in the executive offices of
digital technology companies in the high-tech corridors of Silicon
Valley, Seattle and New York’s Silicon Alley. In fact, Indians were at
the helm of 385 high technology start-ups in Silicon Valley between
1995 and 1998 alone. In his book The New, New Thing, Michael Lewis
goes so far as to say that the "definitive smell inside a Silicon
Valley start-up was of curry."
The Indian Diaspora
Indian immigrants in the United States, as a group, have been highly
successful, earning the highest incomes per family of any immigrant
group and enjoying, in general, a standard of living well above the
American norm. The incredible success of Indian information technology
entrepreneurs and business leaders, along with doctors, engineers and
other highly educated technical workers, has contributed to making the
Indian-American community one of the most prosperous in the country.
Yet, little of the wealth generated by Indian Americans has been
reinvested in India. The prosperous, business-oriented Indian diaspora
would be far more likely to invest in India were they given clear,
market-driven rationales for doing so.
The United States, the capital of the information technology
revolution driving globalization and the world economy, has been
granting fully half of its H1-B visas--visas for highly skilled
workers--to persons from India. Now the U.S. Congress has lifted the
cap on the number of H1-B visas that can be granted each year. Germany
has recently announced that it will be granting 20,000 visas for
foreign workers highly skilled in information technology to fill jobs
it cannot fill with German workers, expecting fully half to come from
India. The already prosperous Indian diaspora is likely to grow
considerably in the coming years.
Many successful Indian information technology entrepreneurs are
seeking investment and market opportunities in India. As India’s home-
grown high-tech centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad
explode, the boom is being heard in America, and not just by immigrant
Indians. America’s leading information technology companies--
Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and others--have opened offices and
production facilities in India. Many other companies based in the
United States are leveraging India’s highly skilled digital workforce
to process large amounts of data that can be compressed and sent to
India and returned to the United States within a matter of hours
thanks to the internet.
How Market-driven Solutions Can Help India’s Poor
If India is truly to benefit from its unique position in the global
information technology boom, it must grow beyond being primarily a
source of highly skilled workers able to sell their services at deeply
discounted rates into being one of the largest potential markets for
information technology related products and services in the world.
India remains a country where there are only 0.21 personal computers
and 1.86 telephones for every 100 people. But then 71 percent of
India’s people do not have access to basic sanitation.
Under these circumstances, simply dropping a computer into a remote
village will do nothing to help India’s poor. At the same time, the
market status quo is perfectly capable of continuing to churn out
internet millionaires in Hyderabad while villagers fifty miles away
have no toilets or running water. Fortunately, new initiatives that
make creative use of digital technologies to meet practical
development needs, and that offer market-friendly incentives for doing
so, are possible.
Consider the following scenarios:
Bhaiji, a farmer in one of India’s poorest states, Madhya Pradesh,
used to have to accept whatever price a local middleman would pay for
his grain because he had knowledge of current market prices. His
family barely eeked out a living. Their lives had not improved in
several generations. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the local patwari,
or land records man, was threatening to take away their land, claiming
it really belonged to a neighboring landowner. Thanks to a scheme
introduced by the government of central Madhya Pradesh, Bhaiji was
able to get a copy of his title to his land from the local intranet
center for an affordable 5 rupees. He is also now able to check grain
prices on the current market and negotiate fair prices for his grain.
His family is now secure on their land and confident of their ability
to hold onto their livelihood.
Shah Banu is a widow who used to have no source of income to feed
herself or her five children. Like most women in her village, she is
illiterate. Like most widows, there is an insuperable stigma against
her remarrying. She lives in a remote village with no telephone. A
representative of the Grameen Bank, well known for its micro-lending
schemes to the poor in Bangladesh, especially to poor women,
approached her with a proposal: They would give her a cellular phone
on loan. She could use it to charge her fellow villagers for calls,
repay the cost of the phone, and keep the balance. Now Shah Banu has a
reliable source of income for herself and her children, and she has
become a respected and singularly important person in her village.
The Gujarat milk cooperative system is well established. Producers
bring their milk to a central collection point where it is measured
and its butterfat content evaluated. Volume was easily determined.
Butterfat content was less easily determined, and producers complained
they were being cheated by fraudulent assessments. Moreover, they were
not paid until the butterfat assessments were made, a lengthy process,
and often had to wait for long periods without knowing exactly how
much they would be paid. Then, computer-based assessment equipment was
introduced allowing the milk’s butterfat content to be accurately
assessed on the spot. The corrupt middlemen were eliminated, and the
producers were issued a payment chit within a few minutes of
delivering their milk.
Like many pregnant women in Dharavi, Mumbai’s biggest slum, Shalini
suffers from anemia. Her meager diet is simply too low in iron.
Shalini is now getting iron supplements thanks to a UNICEF program
supported by WebMD. Outreach medical workers at Mumbai’s Sion Hospital
are tracking Shalini’s and others’ response to the iron supplements
program for WebMD’s internet service linking health care workers
across the digital divide. They are also able to access data from
similar efforts to improve maternal health around the world, and
integrate it into their own local initiative.
Hari, 12 years old, lives in one of Delhi’s worse slums. He attended
school up to third grade, then dropped out to help his family eek out
a living collecting and selling recyclable plastic discards. His
father is in poor health, and may soon have to give up his job driving
a three-wheeler rickshaw in the far suburbs. His mother died soon
after the birth of Hari’s 2-year-old sister. If his father has to stop
working, there is no way Hari can provide for the family. Luckily, Raj
Shah, a successful software engineer settled in Austin, Texas, has
started a computer programming training school in Hari’s slum, using
donated used computers from American companies upgrading their
systems. Hari has enrolled in the school, where he receives free
training and a hot lunch every day. He is also learning English, and
improving his reading and writing in Hindi as well. His new skills
will be in high demand in India’s booming information technology
sector.
The village of Kizhur in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu is home
to a community of weavers going back untold generations. Their
traditional product is handwoven lungis, the traditional male garment
of South India. In recent years, as wearing trousers has become more
popular, it has become more and more difficult for the weavers to sell
their cloth. Then they were approached by a representative of
PEOPLink, an internet e-commerce initiative that links producers
around the world directly to market, about supplying a nearby sewing
cooperative with their handwoven cotton cloth for making placemats,
napkins and tablecloths for sale on the internet. The sewing
cooperative is doing a brisk business on PEOPLink’s web site and needs
more cloth to keep production up with increasing demand. A deal was
struck, and the weavers of Kizhur are now able to sell as much cloth
as they can produce.
The current critical juncture in world history presents India--a
country that supplies 35 percent of the world’s software engineers but
accounts for 25 percent of the world’s poor--with a both a challenge
and an unprecedented opportunity. India must seize this opportunity to
reinvent itself if it is to assume a place in the world commensurate
to its size, its great civilizational heritage, and its commitment to
democratic ideals and institutions.
Reinventing India does not mean jettisoning existing political and
social institutions to create a new national framework. It does not
mean doing away with India’s formidable civilizational legacy.
Together these constitute India’s greatest strength as a nation.
Reinventing India means creating a new paradigm for development that
harnesses the irresistible market forces driving the transformations
in the global economy. It means creating new partnerships between
government agencies, NGOs, philanthropic institutions and grassroots
entities created by the poor themselves.
India has hardly tapped the tremendous intellectual, entrepreneurial
and financial capital of an Indian diaspora that has everything to
gain from a prosperous India whose citizenry is equitably empowered to
seize new opportunities to better their lives. Not satisfied with
simply investing capital in individual companies or with making
donations to individual temples, schools or clinics back home, a
growing number of Indian diaspora leaders are looking for practical,
effective ways to "give back" that will have broad impact at the
national level.
In the 1950s, my father felt he had to choose between helping the poor
in India and making a good living for himself and his family in
America. The digital revolution’s impact on the global economy is
giving members of the Indian diaspora new opportunities to do both.
But even highly creative solutions to specific, localized problems
will have a limited effect on the alleviation of poverty in India as a
whole unless they are deployed in concert with a massive effort
involving alliances across traditional development divides. This is
the fundamental challenge of the India Initiative.
http://www.the-south-asian.com/Feb2001/Reinventing%20India5.htm
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...and I am Sid Harth
Apr 26, 2010 2:59:33 AM
cogitoergosum
PARSI
The Dream MERCHANTS
Dr.P.V.Vaidyanathan
Posted online: Friday, August 29, 2003 at 0000 hours IST
On the occasion of the Parsi New Year, Screen looks at the portrayal
of the Parsi community in Hindi Films.
he whole concept, organisation and production of modern theatre in
Gujarati, Hindi and Urdu is found to be the work of the immigrant
Persians, or the Parsis as they are called. The Parsis took
inspiration from English plays and in 1853, they started staging their
own Parsee Gujarati plays in Bombay. Their first drama company was
named Parsee Natak Mandali (Parsi Drama Company). Faramjee Gustadjee
Dalal was the proprietor of this drama company and the first Gujarati
drama they staged at the Grant Road Theatre in Bombay was “Rustam and
Sohrab”. Also performed along with it was a farce “Dhanji Garak”.
Thereafter, during the years 1853-1869, twenty more Parsee drama
companies were formed, giving a further momentum to the theatre
activity. For Parsee Theatre, the Parsees sought cooperation from
Gujarati, Muslim, Meer and other communities. Their drama companies
went with their dramas to Surat in Gujarat and also to other places
all over India evoking a good response from audiences. The repertoire
of these drama companies included adaptations of English plays and
mythological, historical and social dramas. The Parsee Theatre along
with providing entertainment to Indian masses also played a role in
their cultural moulding and promotion of social reforms. Theatre
productions also encouraged musicians, singers, dancers and artists.
The plays always reflected moral lessons for the society.
The initiative of presenting plays in Urdu also was taken by a
university- educated Parsee scholar Dadabhai Patel- affectionately
called Dadi Patel. It was he who first produced his Urdu musical play
“Benazir Babremunir”on the Parsee stage. Parsee drama companies
travelled with their Urdu-Gujarati plays to Rangoon (Burma), Singapore
and London too and won much appreciative praise. Their performances of
“Harishchandra” and “Alauddin” in London were graced by the presence
of Queen Victoria and Edward VII and appreciated by them.
From 1882-1922 there were over 4000 shows of Victoria Drama Company’s
“Harishchandra” and “Nal Damayanti”. Many comedy plays and skits were
also a hit with the crowds. Nusserwanjee Eduljee was the top comedian
of the day. Kabrajee Boman Naurozji was another pioneer of the theatre
who produced and directed many a classic play from English. Due to
scarcity of females, youthful Parsi males played female roles.
Pistonjee Maiden was a popular heroine of the day. The early Parsi
pioneers were the real promoters of stage drama. Very soon, Mundlis
owned and operated by Parsis had produced more than 500 plays in
India. Besides the above named, two others, Maneckjee and Khori
Eduljee also promoted theatre.
In the history of Parsee Theatre some of the famous dramatic companies
were Parsee Natak Mandali, Victoria Natak Mandali, Alfred Natak
Mandali, Elphinstone Natak Mandali, Hindi Natak Mandali, Khoja
Dramatic Club, Zorostrian Natak Mandali, Natak Uttejak Mandali,
Gujarati Natak Mandali and Baliwala Theatre.
The first Gujarati play “Karanghelo” was performed by Parsee theatre
artists. Parsees, in 1874-75, staged playwright Ranchhodbhi’s
“Harishchandra”, in refined Gujarati language at the Framjee Cawasjee
Hall near Dhobi Talao in Mumbai. The Natak Uttejak Mandali staged
eleven hundred shows over 16 years of their production “Harishchandra”
on Parsee- Gujarati stage.
Thus the Parsee Theatre was a confluence of various theatre streams:
different dramatic genres; four languages - English, Gujarati, Urdu
and Hindi; historical, mythological, social, political story - lines
and those adapted from the English stage; varied musical scores
drawing on Western, Indian and Arabic music heritage, making use of
different ‘ragas’ of Indian classical music ; variety of songs and
dances ; the English and Sanskrit dramatic styles; impressive stage
decor, newer stage techniques etc. Integrating the best from among all
these sources and assimilating them the Parsee Theatre thrilled Indian
people with some of the best dramas. The Parsee Theatre performed
“Indrasabha” as a grand spectacle and 125 years ago, for the first
time in this country, made a woman to act on the stage. Though it did
not succeed, due to protests from the conservatives in the society, it
did bear fruit when, after a few years, women entered the world of
drama in a bigger number as actresses in major and secondary roles.
Many reached the pinnacle of acting, the outstanding among them being
the Englishwoman Mary Fentun, Gauhar, Munnibai, Motijan, Amirjan,
Latifa Begum, Khursheed, Mehtab, Rani Premlata, Saraswati Devi, to
name a few. Those who dedicated life-long efforts to the Parsee
Theatre and their plays were : Kekhashru Navroji Kabraji (“Bejan
Manijeh”-1869, “Jamshed” - 1870, “Faredoon” - 1874, “Nal Damayanti”
-1874, “Harishchandra” - also in 1874, and “Sitaharan, “Lav-kush”,
“Nand batishi”-1880, and “Okha haran” ); Bomanji Navroji Kabraji
(“Bholi gul”, “Gamada ni gori”, “Baap na shrap”, “Kalajug”); Jehangir
Patel-Gulfam (“Mastan manijeh”, “Patal pani”); Framji Dadabhai Pande,
Edalji Khori (“Rustam and Sohrab”, “Sonani mulni khursed”); Sorabji
Ogra, Dadi Patel, Nanabhai Ranina (“Savitri”), Pirojshah Marzban Pejam
(“Majandaran”, “ Aflatoon”, “Masino mako”); Jehangir Khambatta (“Maki
bhil”, “Dhartikamp”); Khurshedji Baliwala (“Bejan-Manijeh”); Firoze
Gar, Dhanjisha Mehta, Dadabhoy Thuthi, Kavasji Khatav etc.
Thus, the Parsi community of the Sub-Continent was the founder of
cultural activities for a cultural change. The stage plays were based
on Eastern values and traditions and ended with a lesson for the
audience. Some of the famous Urdu dramas produced by them include
Laila Majnu, Shireen, Gul Bakauli, Hatim Tai, Alahdin, Lal Yemen, Arab
Ka Sitara, Ghazi Saalahuddin, Sultana Razia, Chand Bibi Sultana, Gul
Sanober, Neelum Pari, Tipu Sultan, Baghi Sipahi, Akbare Azam, Sikandar
Aur Porus, Bakht Khan Rohilla, and Jawan Bakht.
The Parsee Theatre took a new turn in post-independence India and its
standard-bearers were Adi Marzban, Feroze Antia and Dr. Ratan Marshal.
Adi Marzban’s father, Pirojshah Pijam was himself a known Parsee
dramatist and Parsee journalist (Jame Jamshed was owned and edited by
him). Adi Marzban freed Parsee drama from the shackles of tradition
and brought realism to Parsee Theatre. He bid farewell to the
prevalence of songs and music in the plays. He was a journalist,
playwright, director and actor - a versatile drama personality.
Receiving an UNESCO scholarship, he went to the United States and
trained himself in dramatics with the Pasadona Playhouse. He produced
many plays on the modern Parsee stage notably “Chhaiye Ame Jarthusti”,
“Mota dil na mota bawa”, “Piroja bhavan”, “Katariyu gap”, “Mathe
padela mafatlal”, and “Sagan Ke Waghan”. Adi Marzban was also the
Screenwriter for a film titled ’On Wings of Fire”, which was directed
by Cyrus Bharucha and produced by Meherji Madan. It was a dramatic
film of epic proportions about the history of the Parsees and their
prophet Zarathushtra spanning 3,500 years of the Zoroastrians, Parsees
of India. Renowned conductor Maestro Zubin Mehta guided this journey
throughout the land which introduced the historical figures of Prophet
Zarathustra (Nigel Terry) and King Vishtaspa (Paul Shelly), the
founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great, and it’s destroyer,
Alexander. The film depicts the rise and fall of the Persian dynasties
and the exodus of the Parsees to India.
Along with Adi Marzban, another talented dramatist, Feroze Antia
brought realism to the dramas on the Parsee stage. “Behrame Shun
Kidhu”, “Behram Ni Sasu”, “Pyara Pestonji”, “Harishchandra Bijo”, and
the record-breaking play “Rangilo Raja” are some of his very
successful plays. Dr. Ratan Marshal, a dedicated researcher of
dramaturgy and a gifted playwright, director and actor, has made
significant contribution to the Parsee Theatre. Other illustrious
names of the Parsee Theatre world are Homi Tavadia, Eruch Pavri, Erick
Paymaster, Naju Dastur, Pilloo Mistry, Moti Antia, Dinshaw Daji, Minu
Nariman, Burjor and Ruby Patel, Bomi and Dolly Dotiwalla, Dinyar
Contractor, Abar Patel and Pilloo Wadia.
Bombay’s leading drama institution Indian National Theatre (INT) has
been known to be commonly engaged in producing Gujarati plays and
research in dramatics, but in the fifties it started a separate Parsee
Drama Wing and presented modern Parsee plays in Mumbai and other
cities; its popular plays being “Ugi Dahapan Ni Dadh”, “Taru Maru
Bakaliyu”, “Gher Ghunghro Ne Gotalo” and “Kutarani Puchhadi Wanki”.
Films:
In 1918, J.F. Madan, the Parsi pioneer of cinema in Calcutta, claimed
to control over one third of the 300 cinemas in India. Madan had
contracts for the supply of films with both British and American
companies. His audience was generally comprised of British officials,
British troops and Anglophile Indian elites. Adershir M. Irani,
another Parsi gentleman, produced the first talkie of Indian cinema,
Alam Ara in 1931. If Dadasaheb Phalke was the father of Indian cinema,
Irani was the father of the talkie. Other Parsee pioneers in Indian
films include Sohrab Modi, winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, J.B.
Wadia and Homi Wadia of Wadia Movietone, Jehangir Bhownagary, Freni
Variava and Parvez Meherwanji.
The late Jamshed Boman Wadia and Hilla Wadia, founded Wadia Movietone/
Wadia Films in 1933, during the early years of Indian Cinema. Under
this banner, they produced many films, like Lal-e-Yaman. In this film,
a foreigner called Mary Evans was cast. She was the star of the
studio’s later action films that fired the public imagination. She had
been a circus artiste in a Russian troupe, and a ballet dancer in
Madame Astrova’s ballet troupe. She came to be known as Fearless
Nadia, and did many films. She later married Homi Wadia. The other
films produced by Wadia Movitone were Desh Dipak, Hunterwali, Miss
Frontier Mail(1936) Hurricane Hansa(1937), Lutaru Lalna(1938),Punjab
Mail (1939),Diamond Queen (1940), Bambaiwali (1941), Rajnartaki,
Jungle Princess, Muqabala, Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943), Lady Robin Hood
(1946) and Toofan Queen. Homi Wadia, Jamshed’s younger brother,
followed Jamshed into films - working as his assistant for a few
years, and learning the necessary skills. J.B.H. was truly one of film
industry’s most daring pioneers - he not only introduced a foreign
woman to Indian Cinema, but did so in such a way that could have
shocked and scandalized people at the time - but instead charmed and
captivated them. J.B.H. was also responsible for giving several major
stars their early breaks - among them were Dilip Kumar and Nargis in
Mela, Helen in Veer Rajputani and Sunil Dutt in Duniya Jhukti Hai.
Homi Wadia went on become a famous director himself and produced films
like Shree Krishna Leela (1970), Toofan Aur Bijlee (1976) and The
Adventures of Alladin. He also set up Basant Studios. It was Homi
Wadia who noticed talent in the great singer, Mohammed Rafi and
insisted that he sing for his forthcoming film Sharbati Ankhen. The
talkie era introduced a completely new style of acting. The earlier
actors, the muscular, athletic heroes like the Billmoria brothers and
others were edged out in favour of new stars who had command over the
language. Sohrab Merwanji Modi is considered the father of historicals
and rightfully so. Sohrab Modi was undoubtedly master of the
historical genre. He himself had the regal bearing and the needed
voice to play royalty. Though highly influenced by Parsee Theatre, he
managed to make his scripts look cinematically exciting. He had an eye
for detail, an ear for fine language and his films were always
visually grand.
Born in Bombay, Sohrab Modi was a stage actor of the Parsee stage, who
had done some work in silent films, but returned with the advent of
sound as actor, director and producer. In the middle period, he had
earned quite a reputation as a Shakespearean actor. He travelled
throughout India, with his brother’s theatrical company, enjoying the
tremendous sense of fulfillment every time the curtain came down and
the audience clapped. However since 1931 with the advent of the sound
film, theatre was declining. To rescue this dying art, Modi set up the
Stage Film Company in 1935. His first two films were ’filmed versions’
of plays. Khoon ka Khoon (1935) was an adaptation of Hamlet and marked
Naseem Bano’s acting debut. The second, Saed-e-Havas (1936) was based
on Shakespeare’s King John. His early films at Minerva dealt with
contemporary social issues such as alcoholism in Meetha Zaher (1938)
and the right of Hindu women to divorce in Talaq (1938). Though the
films did well, what attracted Modi was the historic genre. Minerva
Movietone was famous for it’s trilogy of historical spectaculars that
were to follow - Pukar (1939), Sikander (1941) and Prithvi Vallabh
(1943), wherein Modi made the most of his gift for grandiloquence to
encapsule all that is grand about Indian History.
Modi even tackled (he was much ahead of his times!) such themes as
illicit passion Jailor (1938), remade in 1958, and incest in Bharosa
(1940). He also made Sheesh Mahal (1950) and Nausherwan-e-Adil (1957).
He also directed Parakh (1944) and India’s first film in technicolour
Jhansi ki Rani (1953), Mirza Ghalib (1954) Yahudi and Kundan (1955).
Saraswati Devi, India’s first woman composer, composed the songs of
the films made by Bombay Talkies. Her real name was Khurshid Minocher-
Homji. She then studied at the Lord Morris college in Lucknow with
music as her subject. With the setting up of the radio station in
Bombay in 1925-6, every month, Khurshid and her sisters would present
a programme on the radio. Known as the Homji sisters, they were
extremely popular. A chance meeting with Bombay Talkies owner Himansu
Rai at a musical performance in Bombay led her to work at Bombay
Talkies, where she was re-christened Saraswati Devi.
The Irani sisters, Daisy and Honey, also shone in many films. Daisy
Irani was a child star, and she has acted in movies such as
Bandish(1955), Naya Daur (1957), Musafir (1957), Do Ustaad(1959),
Sharabi(1964), Ankhen(1968), Jwala(1971), Seeta aur Geeta(1972), Gomti
Ke Kinare(1972), Ahankar(1995), Aastha(1997) and Shararat (2002). She
also produced and directed a television serial in 1994, called ’Under
one Roof’. Honey Irani, her sister, who married Javed Akthar, and who
is the mother of Farhan Akthar (Dil Chahata Hai), acted in ‘Seeta
Geeta’, and ‘Kati Patang’. But her main contribution to cinema is her
story writing and screenplay for such superhit films like Kaho Na
Pyaar Hai, Aaina, Lamhe, Kya Kehna, Albela, Laawaris, Jab Pyar Kisise
Hota Hai, Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and Suhaag. Armaan, starring Amitabh
Bachchan and Anil Kapoor marked her directorial debut.
Modern day torch bearers:
After 1947, there was a lull in the contribution of the Parsee
community to cinema and theatre.Then began plays by Adi Marzban, which
were thrillers and sex comedies.Today, the theatre world boasts of
quite a few members of the Parsi community, who are torch bearers, in
their own way. Dinyar Contractor, Hosi Vasunia, Burjor Patel, Shernaz
Patel, Boman Irani, etc.etc. Dinyar Contractor began in 1967, and he
has been in theatre for 35 years, and is famous for his ’Hinglish’
plays. Now an Octogenarian, he is still going strong. Some of the
plays done by hi are ’Mad House’, ’Kidnapping of Shaila Khan’, ’Carry
on Papa’, ’Whose Wife is it Anyway?’, ’Lair, lair’, ’I love you two’,
’Ek Se Bhale Do’, ’I do, I don’t’ and ’The Good, he Bad and The
Googly’. He is also seen in a lot of films, including the tele serial
’Karishma’ and was lately seen in Jhankar Beats.
Hosi Vasunia has been associated with English Theatre for about 3
decades. His productions stand for quality and excellent production
values. He is an actor, director & producer. He has taken his
productions all over India and also to East Africa, Singapore, and
Dubai since the 1980s. His plays include ’The French Cuckoo’ ’Trip the
light fantastic’, ’The Rummy game’, ’Don’t dress for dinner’, ’A flea
in her ear’,’ Ah Norman’ ’A Fly in the Pizza’ and ’Run for your wife’.
He has also tried television, where he played a Russian in ’Zaban
Sambhalke’, and a few insignificant roles in Hindi films and Gujrathi
films. Shernaz Patel, daughter of Burjor and Ruby Patel, who
themselves were pioneers in the field of Parsi theatre, is a renowned
film maker herself and a famous TV, Film and stage personality. Her
stage credits include ‘The diary of Anne Frank’, ‘Nuts’, ‘Mr. Behram’,
‘Veronica’s Room’, ‘Love Letters’, ‘Letters to My Daughter’, ‘I ought
to be in Pictures’ ‘Six degrees of separation’ and’ Arms and the man’.
She has also been appreciated for her roles in ’Breathe in, Breathe
out’, ’Class of 84, and ’Womanly Voices’. She also starred in the
popular television serials ‘Khandaan’ and ‘Nakaab’ and she also made
her film debut in Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Janam’.
Boman Irani, a photographer by profession who has clicked the
portfolios of most of the Miss India contestants ventured into theatre
and acting with an Alyque Padamsee musical production called ’Roshni’.
His performance was appreciated and he went on to do several other
plays. Currently, he is in Rahul da Cunha’s Six Degrees Of Separation
and I’m Not Bajirao. He has also excelled in film roles, in films such
as Let’s Talk, Everybody says I’m Fine and Darna Mana Hai.
Music:
Peenaz Masani entered the world of ghazal music in 1981 and since then
she has cut over 20 discs and sung in over 10 languages. A graduate of
the Bombay University, Penaz has also firmly established herself as a
playback singer for the Indian Cinema and has performed under the
banner of music directors like Jaidev, R D Burman, Usha Khanna, Chand
Pardesi, Nadeem Shravan, Raaj Kamal, Rajesh Roshan and Anu Malik. She
has sung for over 50 Hindi films and has been privileged to perform
with renowned South Indian music virtuoso Dr Balamurali Krishnan in a
Tamil film. Her list of albums include such hits as ’Aap Ki Bazm
Mein,’ ’A Dream Come True,’ ’Dilruba,’ ’Khazana - ’82, ’84, ’85, ’87 &
’88’, ’Tu Hi Mera Dil-Tu Hi Meri Jaan,’ ’Mohabbat Ke Sagar’, ’Dil Mein
Ankhon Mein,’ ’Tu Dl De De (Pop)’, ’Channel Hits II (Pop)’ etc.
Others who stand out in the field of music are the New York
Philharmonic orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta, who needs no
introduction, Gary Lawyer,who started his singing career at showcase
theatres and night clubs in New York, and went on to do a lot of
commercials and albums like ’This Cannot Wait’ ,’High Standards - Vol
1.’ , ’The Other Side Of Dawn,’ and ’Arrow In The Dust’ and the
international singer, Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) of the group
Queen. Freddie composed and sang many songs.
Dance:
In the field of music and dance, one name which stands out is that of
Shiamik Davar. Shiamak has choreographed innumerable television
commercials, movies, product launches, music videos, stage shows, etc.
Theatre held the roots to his future as a choreographer. His various
television advertisement campaigns helped him understand the various
aspects of choreography for videos. His main contribution to Bollywood
were in the film Dil to Pagal Hai which he choreographed and a brief
appearance (and the title song) in Jhoot Bole Kaua Kate.The Shiamak
Davar’s Institute for the Performing Arts popularly known as “SDIPA”
is run by him, where many learn the fine art of dancing.
Persis Khambatta, Miss India 1965 is known for her roles in Hollywood
films like Star Trek, The Wilby Conspiricy, Warriors of the Lost
World, Megaforce, Deadly Intent,Night Hawks etc., Kaizad Gustad, maker
of films like Lost and Found, Bombay Boys and Boom,Cyrus Broacha, MTV
VJ, (Father Parsi) a prolific actor who has done numerous commercials
and television serials and has also scripted, co-scripted and directed
plays, in addition to being the AIDS ambassador at Barcelona, Tanaaz
Currim, theatre personality and actress remembered for her roles in
Kaho Na Pyar Hai and Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon among other films.
Perizaad Zorabian, seen in Bollywood Calling, Jogger’s Park, Mumbai
Matinee and Bandung Sonata, Shenaz Treasuryvala, MTV VJ and actress,
seen in Ishq Vishq.
Films based on the parsi community:
A few films have used Parsi characters or have been made on the Parsi
community. Some of these films are:
Khatta Meetha: one of the most enjoyable movies of Basu Chatterjee was
inspired by the Hollywood film Yours, Mine and Ours and is the story
of two Parsi families. The film starts off with a tribute to the Parsi
community on account of the influence and valuable contributions they
have had in India over several generations. The movie revolves around
the lives of two Parsi families, one headed by Homi Mistry (Ashok
Kumar) and the other by Nargis Sethna (Pearl Padamsee). Both of them
have children from their previous marriage, and through a common
acquaintance, decide to get married, and move into the same house, the
one belonging to Nargis. But to their dismay, their respective
children don’t get along with the other party and that leads to a
series of some hilarious moments.Basuda uses his trademark style and
puts forth an authentic milieu of a lower-middle class family in urban
Mumbai and has captured the ambience of that Parsi family (or say the
community) with utmost detail. Most of the characters including the
ones played by Ashok Kumar and Pearl Padmasee look authentically
defined such that they can be easily identified in a typical Parsi
community.
Pestonjee: stars Naseerudin Shah, Anupam Kher and Shabana Azmi.When
Piroji fails to act on an offer of marriage, his best friend Pesi
marries the beautiful Jerro in this drama, with touches of gentle
comedy. Piroji first meets the troubled bride at the wedding and falls
in love. He vows to become her protector and turns his back on Pesi
when he gets involved with another woman. The film gives an accurate
glimpse into the Parsi community of Bombay in the 1930s.
Encounter: The Killing Inspector Sam Bharucha (Naseerudin Shah), stars
as a Parsi Police Officer. A sincere person and very dedicated to his
job, he investigates the matter of Gang, which is involved in
extortion and bloodshed. Naseeruddin Shah as the harried police
officer is simply the best and gives an excellent portrayal as a Parsi
Police officer.
Earth- 1947 by Deepa Mehta is a story of our partition, as seen
through the eyes of a Parsi girl. The girl is played by Maia Sethna,
while her Parsi parents are played by Arif Zakaria and Kitu Gidwani.
Supari: has newcomer Nauheed Cyrusi, playing a Parsi girl, Dilnawaz,
in love with the hero, Uday Chopra.
Everybdoy says I’m fine: has Anahita Uberoi playing a super bitchy
socialite Misha, who sells cocaine to young boys to fund her own drug
addiction.
Such A Long Journey: is a film by Sturla Gunnarsson, based on a novel
by Rohinton Mistry and script by Sooni Taraporewala (who has films
like Salaam Bombay, Missisipi Masala, Sixth Happiness and Jabbar
Patel’s Ambedkar to her credit). It stars Roshan Seth, in the role of
Gustad Noble, a Parsi man living in India who can’t seem to let go of
the past. It’s about a man trying to lead an honest life in a corrupt
world having to deal with the betrayal of his best friend, a son who
is rebelling and the death of his surrogate son.
Though this article does not claim to be exhaustive and it is likely
that many more contributions may have been overlooked, it can be seen
that the Parsi community has contributed tremendously, as it has, in
almost every other field, to the entertainment industry, whether it is
theatre, music or films. Once again we pay our respects to those
greats who are not with us and wish all the others a very happy New
Year and hope that this fun-loving and lovable community will continue
to shine on the silver screen.
http://www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=5694
Full cast and crew for
On Wings of Fire (2001) More at IMDbPro »
Directed by
Cyrus Bharucha http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1875857/resume
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
Cyrus Bharucha screenplay
Adi Marzban screenplay
Cast (in credits order)
Zubin Mehta ... Himself
Derek Jacobi ... Narrator
Nigel Terry ... Zarathustra
Paul Shelley ... King Vishtaspa
Saeed Jaffrey ... Jadav Rana, the Hindu king
Amrish Puri ... Nihavand ruler
Soni Razdan
Lewis Flander
Nicholas Jones
Erick Avari
Oengus MacNamara
Tom Alter
Leybourne Callaghan
Khojestee Mistree ... The Dastoorji
Cyrus Bharucha
San Diego, California 92122 United States
858 455 1520 . cbha...@san.rr.com
WGA, IBP_UK, Non-Union
Performer Profile
Gender: Male
Height: 5 feet 8 in
Ethnicity: Indian/South Asian
Film
On Wings of Fire Director/EP Persepolis productions
Raft of Madusa DP Independent Prod.
Dramas, Comedies & Docs Film Cameraman BBC
Television
From china to US Executive producer PBS
Crisis to Crisis-with B. Jordan Snr. Producer PBS
Wylde Ryce Executive producer PBS
Nobody Listens! Producer/writer/director 4 Oaks
A Day to Remember Producer/writer/director PBS
Fireworks-with George Plimpton Producer/writer/director A&E
Juntos Director CCI
24 hours Producer BBC
Alber Speer in London Producer/director BBC
Famine in the Saheal Prod/Dir BBC
Liberace's Fan Club Producer/director BBC
The flood-Pakistan Producer BBC
Yom Kippur war-Aftermath Prod/Dir BBC
Watergate daily hearings Producer BBC
My Cup Rannath Over Producer/director PBS
Abel Gance in USA Prod/Dir PBS
Live Music programs Producer/director/EP PBS
TV Asia CEO TV Asia
Live from the Agora-Rock shows Director CSN
Freeman Reports etc Producer/director CNN
Commercials
GE SE.Asia Director Pereira-Mastellus
Dove soap director Everest Advt
Chevrolet Director Cinemaster
4200 TP Prod/Dir Raytel
Indofilms Prod/Dir GMD
Theater
Napoleoon (Abel Gance version)Live producer Zoetrope
Several projects ASM Ashcroft Theatre in round
Education
Kent College Canterbury/ Regent St poly , Canterbury Kent/ London
Unv., IBP diploma in Photograhy, 1963
The diploma is now a Bachelors degree in Photography. Trained at the
BBC film school.
Training
BBC Film Training school, London, Film camera work and directing.,
Hanan foss and JimWaddle
Awards
International Chicago Film and TV Festival, Best Variety show and Best
short Documentary, 1977, # times nominated for the Emmy (1978) for
From China to US and A Day to remember and one ACE/Emmy in '95
Fireworks with Geogre Plimpton. Also Best TV production Conference of
Christians and Jews for A Day to remember. 2 awards at the BBC Robert
Flaharety 1969 Award and montreux for myst light entertainment-Frost
over Britain.
Silver Micrphone awards, Best Radio website (National ), 2005, For
XLNC! Radio
Silver Mic awards, Runner up-Best Radio documentary-4th of July, 2005,
2 hour special on Classical radio on th history of the American
Independence.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1875857/resume
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453802/combined
Videos
Date of Birth:29 April 1936, Bombay, India
Trivia:Good friends with Daniel Barenboim http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0054434/
and his former wife Jacqueline du Pré.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1101307/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0468222/
See more » STARmeter: Up 15% in popularity this week.
Awards:Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 5 nominations
See more » http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576590/awards
NewsDesk:
(6 articles)
Unreported World | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477545/
Das Rheingold |
Ashes to Ashes | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097388/
The Door and more |
Watch this |
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576590/news#ni1950556
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/apr/02/ashes-to-ashes-the-door
(From The Guardian - TV News. 1 April 2010, 10:45 PM, PDT)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio
Dog Ears Music: Volume Ninety-Five http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576590/news?year=2009#ni1113656
(From Huffington Post. 23 October 2009, 5:28 PM, PDT)
Filmography
2000s
1990s
1980s
Die Walküre (2009) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1565010/
"Great Performances" (conductor) (1 episode, 2006) (conductor:
orchestra) (1 episode, 2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159876/
- From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2007 (2007) TV episode
(conductor: orchestra)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0940131/
- Vienna State Opera 50th Anniversary Reopening Gala (2006) TV
episode (conductor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0921232/
La traviata (2000) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250064/
Turandot in the Forbidden City of Beijing (1999) (TV) (conductor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205483/
Carmina burana (1998) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298259/
Tristan und Isolde (1998) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262069/
The 3 Tenors in Concert 1994 (1994) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198270/
... aka "Tibor Rudas Presents: The Three Tenors in Concert 1994" - USA
(complete title)
Mozart: The Requiem from Sarajevo (1994) (TV) (conductor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209158/
Tannhäuser (1994) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262034/
Herzsprung (1992) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162987/
Tosca (1992) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105625/
Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert (1990) (TV) (conductor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169104/
... aka "The Original Three Tenors Concert" - International (English
title) (video box title)
Carmen (1989) (TV) (conductor) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453802/combined
War and Love (1985) (musical director) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090291/
The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (1980)
(TV) (guest conductor)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319665/
Soundtrack:
2000s
1990s
1980s
1970s
J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster (2007) (performer: "He loves and
she loves")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0827713/
... aka "I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster" - International (English
title), USA
Grand Theft Auto III (2001) (VG) ("Non piu andrai farfallone
amoroso")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277723/
... aka "GTA3" - USA (short title)
... aka "Grand Theft Auto 3" - USA
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) ("Nessun Dorma") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117057/
Fearless (1993) ("Concerto No.5 in E Flat for Piano and Orchestra")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106881/
Strictly Ballroom (1992) ("The Blue Danube Waltz")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105488/
... aka "Dancing Hero" - Japan (English title) (video title)
Fear, Anxiety & Depression (1989) (performer: "Rienzi Overture")
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169895/
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) ("Nessun Dorma") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094332/
Castaway (1986) ("NESSUM DORMA aria from Turandot") http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576590/
Manhattan (1979) ("Rhapsody in Blue" (1924), "Love Is Sweeping the
Country" (1931), "Land of the Gay Caballero" (1930), "Sweet and Low
Down" (1927), "I've Got a Crush on You" (1930), "Do-Do-Do" (1926),
"S'Wonderful" (1927), "Oh, Lady Be Good" (1924), "Strike Up the
Band" (1927), "Embraceable You" (1930))
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/
Actor:
2000s
1980s
"Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker" .... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019700/
Conductor (1 episode, 2007) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205794/
- 2007 (2007) TV episode .... Conductor
"Great Conversations in Music" (2005) TV series .... Conductor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587713/
"Live from Lincoln Center" .... Conductor (4 episodes, 1977-1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165042/
... aka "Great Performances: Live from Lincoln Center" - USA
(alternative title)
- New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Vladimir Ashkenazy
(1981) TV episode .... Conductor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0633420/
- Verdi: Requiem (1980) TV episode .... Conductor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0633425/
- Isaac Stern's 60th Birthday Celebration (1980) TV episode ....
Conductor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0633398/
- New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Shirley Verrett (1977)
TV episode
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0633419/
Miscellaneous Crew:
"Great Performances" (executive director) (1 episode, 2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159876/
- Joshua Bell: West Side Story from Central Park (2002) TV episode
(executive director)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363724/
Self:
2000s
1990s
1980s
1970s
1960s
1950s
The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (2006)
(TV) .... Himself
Caballé, más allá de la música (2003) .... Himself
... aka "Caballe Beyond Music" - USA (DVD title)
"Boulevard Bio" .... Himself (1 episode, 2003)
- Fremde Heimat (2003) TV episode .... Himself
"Art That Shook the World" (1 episode, 2002)
- Richard Wagner: The Ring Cycle (2002) TV episode
Hollywood Remembers Walter Matthau (2001) (TV) .... Himself
On Wings of Fire (2001) .... Himself
Isaac Stern: Life's Virtuoso (2000) (V) .... Himself
The Turandot Project (2000) .... Himself - Conductor
Turandot in the Forbidden City of Beijing (1999) (TV) .... Himself -
Conductor
Carmina burana (1998) (TV) .... Himself - Conductor
In Rehearsal: Zubin Mehta with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
(1996) (TV) .... Himself - Conductor
Claudio Abbado: The Silence That Follows the Music (1996) (TV) ....
Himself - Interviewee
The 3 Tenors in Concert 1994 (1994) (TV) .... Himself - Conductor
... aka "Tibor Rudas Presents: The Three Tenors in Concert 1994" - USA
(complete title)
Mozart: The Requiem from Sarajevo (1994) (TV) .... Himself -
Conductor
The Vision: The Making of the 'Three Tenors in Concert' (1994)
(TV) .... Himself
Tosca (1992) (TV) .... Himself - Conductor
American Tribute to Vaclav Havel and a Celebration of Democracy in
Czechoslovakia (1990) (TV) .... Himself
Carreras Domingo Pavarotti in Concert (1990) (TV) .... Himself -
Conductor
... aka "The Original Three Tenors Concert" - International (English
title) (video box title)
Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1990) (TV) .... Himself (conductor)
Mahler's Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection' at Masada (1989) (TV) ....
Conductor
Carnegie Hall: The Grand Reopening (1987) (TV) .... Himself
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor (1987) (TV) .... Himself -
Conductor
Liberty Weekend (1986) (TV) .... Himself
"The Orchestra" .... Himself (1 episode, 1986)
- Concert for Brass, Bombs & Blow Pipes! (1986) TV episode ....
Himself
Zubin and the I.P.O. (1983) (TV) .... Himself
"Live from Lincoln Center" .... Himself - Conductor / ... (7 episodes,
1978-1982)
... aka "Great Performances: Live from Lincoln Center" - USA
(alternative title)
- Two Philharmonics: Israel and New York (1982) TV episode ....
Himself - Conductor
- An Evening with Danny Kaye and the New York Philharmonic (1981)
TV episode .... Himself
- New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Luciano Pavarotti
(1980) TV episode .... Himself
- Pension Fund Benefit Concert (1980) TV episode .... Himself
- New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and Emil Gilels (1979) TV
episode .... Himself - Conductor
(2 more)
Live from Studio 8H: Caruso Remembered (1982) (TV) .... Himself -
Conductor
"Great Performances" .... Himself (1 episode, 1981)
- A Lincoln Center Special: Beverly! Her Farewell Performance
(1981) TV episode .... Himself
The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (1980)
(TV) .... Himself
Live from Studio 8H: A Tribute to Toscanini (1980) (TV) .... Himself -
Host/Conductor
"Today" .... Himself (1 episode, 1978)
... aka "NBC News Today" - USA (promotional title)
... aka "The Today Show" - USA (alternative title)
- Episode dated 20 September 1978 (1978) TV episode .... Himself
"The Lively Arts" .... Himself (1 episode, 1977)
- Music in Jerusalem (1977) TV episode .... Himself
"The Dean Martin Show" .... Himself (1 episode, 1974)
... aka "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour" - USA (new title)
- Celebrity Roast: Jack Benny (1974) TV episode .... Himself
The Bolero (1973) .... Himself - Conductor
"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" .... Himself (1 episode,
1973)
... aka "The Best of Carson" - USA (rerun title)
- Episode dated 10 January 1973 (1973) TV episode .... Himself
"Musik zum Ansehen" (1972) TV series .... Himself (unknown episodes)
"The David Frost Show" .... Himself (2 episodes, 1970)
- Episode #2.272 (1970) TV episode .... Himself
- Episode #2.194 (1970) TV episode .... Himself
"The Dick Cavett Show" .... Himself (1 episode, 1970)
- Episode dated 2 February 1970 (1970) TV episode .... Himself
Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in Japan (1962)
(TV) .... Himself (conductor)
"Stars in der Manege" .... Himself - Performer (1 episode)
- Stars in der Manege 2001 (????) TV episode .... Himself -
Performer
Archive Footage:
"La tele de tu vida"
- Episode #1.20 (2007) TV episode .... Himself
- Episode #1.5 (2007) TV episode .... Himself
Remembering Jacqueline du Pré (1994) (V) .... Himself
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576590/
cogitoergosum
Feroze Gandhi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Feroze Gandhi
Member of the Indian Parliament
for Pratapgarh District (west) cum Rae Bareli District (east)[1]
In office
1952-04-17–1957-04-04
Member of the Indian Parliament
for Rae Bareli[2]
In office
1957-05-05–1960-09-08
Succeeded by Baij Nath Kureel
Born 12 September 1912(1912-09-12)
Mumbai
Died 8 September 1960 (aged 47)
Delhi
Resting place Parsi cemetery, Allahabad
Nationality Indian
Political party Indian National Congress
Spouse(s) Indira Gandhi
Children Sanjay Gandhi,
Rajiv Gandhi
Religion Zoroastrianism
Feroze Gandhi (12 September 1912 – 8 September 1960) was an Indian
politician and journalist, and publisher of the The National Herald
and 'The Navjivan' newspapers from Lucknow.[3]
He became the member of the provincial parliament (1950—52), and later
a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India's parliament. In
1942 he married Indira Nehru (later Prime Minister of India) and they
had two sons Rajiv Gandhi (also later a Prime Minister) and Sanjay
Gandhi, and thus became part of the Nehru-Gandhi family.[4]
Early life
Feroze Gandhi was born in Mumbai, to a Parsi family from Gujarat. He
was the youngest child among four siblings, with father Jehangir
Faredoon , a marine engineer and mother Rattimai.[3] His family had
migrated to Bombay from Bharuch in South Gujarat, where his ancestral
home which belonged to his grandfather, still exists in Kotpariwad,
city’s Parsi neighbourhood. His family was not related to that of
Mahatma Gandhi.[3]:p93
In early 1920s, with his father Jehangir Gandhi dead, he and his
mother Rattimai Gandhi moved to Allahabad to live with their unmarried
aunt, Dr. Shirin Commissariat, a well known surgeon at city's Lady
Dufferin Hospital. He attended the Vidya Mandir High School, and then
graduated from the British-staffed Ewing Christian College.[3] Later,
he was to study at the London School of Economics.
Career
Portrait of Feroze and Indira Gandhi.In March 1930, the youth wing of
Congress Freedom fighters, the Vanar Sena was formed, subsequently
Feroze first met Kamala Nehru and Indira at women demonstrators
picketing outside his college, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad, it
so happened that under the mid-day sun Kamala fainted and young Feroze
who was watching the demonstrators along with his friends rushed to
comfort her. The next day, he abandoned his studies in 1930 to join
the Indian independence movement. He was imprisoned in 1930, along
with Lal Bahadur Shastri, head of Allahabad District Congress
Committee, and lodged in Faizabad Jail for nineteen months. Soon after
his release, he going agrarian no-rent campaign in the United Province
(Uttar Pradesh) and thus was imprisoned twice in 1932 and 1933, while
working closely with Nehru.[3]
The Hindu marriage ceremony of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, 26
March 1942 at Anand Bhawan, AllahabadFeroze grew close to the Nehru
family, especially Indira's mother Kamala Nehru and Indira herself. He
even accompanied ailing Kamala Nehru to the TB Sanatorium at Bhowali
in 1934 and was visited by both Indira and Nehru (from Almora Jail) in
December, and seeing his devotion to Kamala, Nehru was deeply
impressed. Feroze stayed with Kamala till she left Europe when her
condition worsened in April 1935, never to return as she eventually
died in 1936 in Laussane, Switzerland.[3] In the following years,
Indira and Feroze grew further closer to each other while in England.
They married in March 1942 according to Hindu rituals.[5]
His father-in-law was strongly opposed to his marriage with the young
Indira and even approached Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to dissuade the
young couple, but to no avail. However, over the years, father-in-law
and son-in-law resolved their differences, especially with Feroze
adopting Gandhiji's ideology. The couple were arrested and jailed in
August 1942, during the Quit India Movement less than six months after
their marriage, he was imprisoned for a year in Allahabad's Naini
Central Prison. The coming five years were of comfortable domestic
life and the couple had two sons, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, born
in 1944 and 1946 respectively.
After independence, Jawaharlal became the first Prime Minister of
India. Feroze and Indira settled in Allahabad with their two young
children, and Feroze became Managing Director of The National Herald,
a newspaper founded by his father-in-law. He was also the first
chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Limited.
After remaining a member of the provincial parliament (1950—52),
Feroze Gandhi contested independent India's first general elections in
1952, from Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Indira came down
from Delhi and worked as his campaign organizer, and he won. Feroze
soon became a prominent force in his own right, criticizing the
Government of his father-in-law and beginning a tirade against
corruption.
In the years after independence, many Indian business houses had
become close to the political leaders, and now some of them started
various financial irregularities. In a case exposed by Feroze in Dec
1955[6], he revealed how Ram Kishan Dalmia, as chairman of a bank and
an insurance company, used these companies to fund his takeover of
Bennett and Coleman started transferring money illegally from publicly-
held companies for their own benefit.
In 1957, he was re-elected from Rae Bareli. In the parliament in 1958,
he raised the Haridas Mundhra scandal involving the government
controlled LIC insurance company. This was a huge embarrassment to the
clean image of Nehru's government and eventually led to the
resignation of the Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari. His rift with
Indira had also become public knowledge by then, and added to the
media interest in the matter.
Feroze also initiated a number of nationalization drives, starting
with the Life Insurance Corporation. At one point he also suggested
that Telco be nationalized since they were charging nearly double the
price of a Japanese Railway engine. This raised a stir in the Parsi
community since the Tatas were also Parsi. He continued challenging
the government on a number of other issues, and emerged as a
parliamentarian well-respected on both sides of the bench.[6]
Death
Feroze suffered his first heart attack in 1958. Indira who stayed with
her father at Teen Murti House, the official Prime ministers
residence, was away with her father on state visit to Bhutan rushed
back and took him to recuperate in Kashmir, where with their young
boys, they were together again.[7] However, Feroze died in 1960 of a
second heart attack at the Willingdon Hospital, now Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital, Delhi. He was later cremated and his ashes interred at the
Parsi cemetery in Allahabad, the town where his eldest brother
Fardiun's son, Rustom Gandhi's family still lives.[8]
His Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency seat, is now being held by his
daughter-in-law, and wife of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi.
See also
Nehru-Gandhi family http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru-Gandhi_family
References
^ "Biographical Sketch of First Lok Sabha". Parliament of India.
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lok01/alpha/01lsg.htm. Retrieved
2009-04-16.
^ "Biographical Sketch of Second Lok Sabha". Parliament of India.
http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/lok02/alpha/02lsg.htm. Retrieved
2009-04-16.
^ a b c d e f Frank, Katherine (2002). Indira: the life of Indira
Nehru Gandhi. Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN 0-395-73097-X.
^ A forgotten patriot: Feroze Gandhi made a mark in politics at a
comparatively young age.. The Hindu, 20 October 2002.
^ "Mrs. Gandhi Not Hindu, Daughter-in-Law Says". New York Times. 2 May
1984. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/02/world/around-the-world-mrs-gandhi-not-hindu-daughter-in-law-says.html.
Retrieved 2009-03-29.
^ a b Shashi Bhushan, M.P. (1977). Feroze Gandhi: A political
Biography. Progressive People's Sector Publications, New Delhi,. p.
166, 179. See these excerpts
^ "Indira Gandhi's courage was an inspiration". Samay Live. 07 Nov
2009. http://www.samaylive.com/news/indira-gandhis-courage-was-an-inspiration/666400.html.
^ Kapoor, Comi (10 February 1998). "Dynasty keeps away from Feroze
Gandhi's neglected tombstone". The Indian Express.
http://www.indianexpress.com/old/ie/daily/19980210/04150074.html.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Feroze Gandhi
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Feroze_Gandhi
Feroze Gandhi Profile at Lok Sabha website. http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/biodata_1_12/713.htm
Article in The Hindu http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/10/20/stories/2002102000110500.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feroze_Gandhi
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 20, 2002
A forgotten patriot
Feroze Gandhi made a mark in politics at a comparatively young age. He
was only 48 when he died on September 8, 1960. SATYA PRAKASH MALAVIYA
pays tribute.
Feroze Gandhi
FEROZE GANDHI, an active participant in India's struggle for freedom,
died on September 8, 1960 at the comparatively young age of 48 years
at the Willington Nursing Home, now Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
Born in a Parsi family at Allahabad, he had his early education in
City Anglo-Vernacular High School and Ewing Christian College. Later
he also studied at London School of Economics. Jawaharlal Nehru had
also studies there earlier.
He had his political training and entry into public life at Allahabad.
He abandoned his studies in 1930 and joined the freedom struggle.
Feroze was a regular visitor to Anand Bhawan the Nehru home. He was
with Indira and Jawaharlal Nehru at Kamala Nehru's bedside in a
sanatorium near Lausanne in Switzerland when she died.
Feroze married Indira on March 26, 1942 at Anand Bhawan. They attended
the historic 1942 session of the A.I.C.C. at Bombay where the Quit
India Resolution was moved. In the early hours of August 9 all top
Congress leaders were arrested and Congress was declared an unlawful
organisation.
From Bombay, Feroze and Indira returned to Allahabad and plunged into
the Quit India Movement. An arrest warrant was issued but Feroze had
gone underground. Both evaded arrest and hid themselves.
Feroze and Indira were arrested together on September, 10 and sent to
Allahabad's Naini Central Prison. Feroze was sentenced to one year's
rigorous imprisonment and to a fine of Rs. 200. In 1946 he assumed
charge as Managing Director of the National Herald at Lucknow.
Feroze was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
Feroze was one of the most popular Members of Indian Parliament and
this is amply proved by the rich tributes that were paid to Feroze on
his death.And it was as an effective and accomplished parliamentarian
that Feroze was destined to shine.
The earliest distinction came with the dynamic role he played in
exposing the L.I.C. - Mundhra scandal. He spoke in Lok Sabha rarely
but whenever he spoke he was always listened to with great attention
and his carefully prepared speech received wide publicity.
Hari Das Mundhra was prosecuted and convicted for embezzlement and
sentenced to imprisonment. When he died on September 8, 1960 rich
tributes were paid by the then speaker, M.A. Ayyappan, the Vice-
President Dr. S. Radhakrishna and Jawaharlal Nehru.
I met him twice in 1959 and 1960, first in the Central Hall of
Parliament at the sofa which then used to be lovingly known as `Feroze
Corner' and then at his New Delhi residence on Jantar Mantar Lane. He
spoke little but was outspoken and a good conversationalist. He
appeared to be a sworn enemy of corruption and inefficiency. His main
concern was to provide a clean government to the people.
Public dishonesty and corruption attracted his wrath. He was a firm
believer in value — based politics. He condemned corruption with a
sincerity of feeling that revealed his own character. In many ways,
his keenly critical mind was a hindrance to him in politics. That
Feroze on the floor of the Lok Sabha unhesitatingly criticised the
evil of the ruling political party of which he was a member has deep
meaning.
Feroze's contributions were many and in a comparatively short period
of time, he made his mark in various spheres as a political and social
worker, a parliamentarian and a journalist. His work in the field of
the Indian press, journalism and its freedom has been no less
outstanding. Healthy journalism was a great ideal to him. He believed
that without an independent and fearless press all over the country,
democracy could not be safe.
It is only in the fitness of things that a grateful people should
perpetuate his memory. He wanted to root out and eradicate corruption
and inefficiency. His contribution to India's Parliamentary life has
been of great value. His memory will be best perpetuated by sincerely
furthering and popularising the causes and worthy ideals which he
espoused during his lifetime and thereby to make his dreams a
reality.
The cruel hands of death is no respecter of persons. It prematurely
snatched away from us Feroze depriving the country of the services of
a selfless patriot and an able parliamentarian from whom so much more
could be expected in the years to come.
The writer is a former Union Cabinet Minister.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/10/20/stories/2002102000110500.htm
Second Lok Sabha
Members Bioprofile
GANDHI, SHRI FEROZE, Cong., (Uttar Pradesh—Rae Bareli—1957): S. of
Shri Jehangir Gandhi; B. Bombay, September 12, 1912; ed at London
School of Economics, London; m. Shrimati Indira Nehru, March 26, 1942;
2 S.; Managing Director, Associated Journals Ltd.: Publisher 'The
National Herald" and "The Navjivan"; Member, Provisional Parliament,
1950—52, and First Lok Sabha, 1952—57.
Hobby: Printing.
Permanent Address: C/o "The National Herald" Lucknow.
[Voting results at the Election:
Electorate: 8,06,589
Shri Feroze Gandhi .. 1,62,595
Shri Nand Kishore .. 1,33,342
Shri Raghavendra Datt .. 94,109]
http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/biodata_1_12/713.htm
10 February 1998
Dynasty keeps away from Feroze Gandhi's neglected tombstone
Coomi Kapoor
ALLAHABAD, February 9: Feroze Gandhi's grave is just a few kilometres
from Anand Bhawan, the original seat of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Dozens of tourists come daily to get a glimpse of the carefully
preserved bedrooms and belongings of Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi at
Anand Bhawan, Moti Lal Nehru's gracious mansion with its well
manicured lawns. A book store offers a selection of pamphlets, comics
and biographies on India's premiere political family.
But no one comes to place flowers at the neglected tombstone of the
man who gave the Gandhis their surname. Some of Feroze's progeny have
never visited the cemetery where Indira Gandhi's Parsi husband has his
ashes interred. In fact long time residents of Allahabad are unaware
of the grave site.
Feroze's tombstone is in one corner of Allahabad's Parsi cemetery,
which has clearly seen better days. The garden has gone to seed, the
weeds have got the better of the grass, the flower beds are empty and
the soil cracked and parched. The cemetery's boundary wallis crumbling
and pavement squatters are merrily drying cowdung cakes on the outer
side. The gardener in charge says that the only member of Indira
Gandhi's family whom he recalls ever visiting the grave is Maneka
Gandhi who came once many years back.
According to Parsi custom bodies are either eaten by the vultures in
places where there are dakmoos (towers of silence) or else buried. But
in Feroze Gandhi's case it seems some members of his family placed his
ashes in the grave evoking protest from orthodox Parsies, since Parsi
bodies are not cremated.
Rustom Gandhi -- Feroze's eldest brother Fardiun's son -- is the only
member of Feroze's family still living in Allahabad. He is
philosophical about his uncle's neglected grave, pointing out that the
Parsi Anjuman society in Allahabad tries it's best to maintain the
cemetery, which he feels is in better condition than graveyards in
many small towns.
There are only some 30 Parsies left in Allahabad. Families like the
Gazdars and Shapurjees are extinct,others have migrated because the
younger generation found employment opportunities elsewhere. The old
gardener who used to tend the cemetery is dead; his son looks after
the grounds perfunctorily.
If the graveyard looks neglected it is not so much because of lack of
funds, but because the local authorities have been indifferent to
several letters of complaint from the Parsi community that the
neighbouring junk dealers jump over the wall and have been attempting
to grab the land. Nobody prevents the walls being used for spreading
cow dung.
``We are such a small community that no political party bothers about
us and considers us a vote bank, '' Rustom says ruefully. He points
out that Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former Chief Minister, had the huge
old Christian cemetery fenced in at considerable government expense
because the community has a substantial number of votes. But
Allahabad's Parsies keep raising the height of the cemetery wall on
their own to keep intruders out.
Does Indira Gandhi's family keepin touch with their Parsi relatives?
``We meet to the extent possible which is not very frequently. Mostly
at weddings. Last February we met the family at Priyanka's wedding,''
Rustom says. ``Allahabad is not a town you normally come to except on
a special occasion,'' he points out even if it was once the ancestral
home of the Gandhis and a political hub of the Congress in pre-
independence India.
Indira Gandhi used to come more frequently to Allahabad and when she
did she made it a point to invite her Parsi relatives to Swaraj Bhawan
for a cup of tea. Rajiv's visits to Allahabad were, however, few and
far between. He came each time carrying ashes to scatter in the
Sangam; first of his grandfather, then his mother and his brother.
``It may be out of sight out of mind but when we do meet it is with
great cordiality,'' says Rustom, a businessman whose son is presently
studying dentistry in Lucknow. Rustom goes to Delhi frequently on
business trips but he does not call at 10, Janpath since he realises
theyhave busy schedules.
``But when Rajiv was a pilot he was free all the time and it was no
problem to drop in whenever you felt like and listen to music with
him.'' Rustom like most of the family is surprised at Sonia's entry
into politics. ``She never revealed any interest in politics to us. I
would have thought that no way would she go into politics.'' Rustom
himself is apolitical and his family is proud it never asked any
favours of the Gandhis, though when people come to know of the
connection they badger him with requests.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
http://www.indianexpress.com/old/ie/daily/19980210/04150074.html
Some Hindu Bullshit!
Typical nasty, negative, gossip proffered by blindly anti-Muslim,
heinous Hindus of India.
These bastards would not admit the truth, the truth, like a sun
shining brightly, at noon in a cloudless sky.
Muslim hatred, Nehru Dynasty hatred.
Minority of any and all kinds hatred.
Hatred towards Shudras, aka Dalit, be they in Hindu religion,
converted to Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, or turned
Agnostic, non-believers.
They would be still considered as higher castes' slaves.
This truth is also denied by Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishyas, the so-
called 'upper castes.'
These Hindu terrorists do not stop at anything, rape, murder, burning
Shudras alive, torching their huts, disbarring them from fetching
drinking water from village wells, driving them from their property,
robbing their meagre possessions and in general, torturing them to
death, period.
Here is a sample:
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Resolved QuestionShow me another »
What was Feroz Gandhi's surname before he was adopted by Mahatma
Gandhi?
4 years ago
by jayarama... Member since:
August 30, 2006
Total points:
57143 (Level 7)
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
He was Feroze Khan - read the Nehru family history -
Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister of
India in 1966. Mrs. Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917 to Jawaharlal
and Kamala Nehru. She was named Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. She fell
in love and decided to marry Feroze Khan, a family friend. Feroze
Khan’s father, Nawab Khan, was a Muslim, and mother was a Persian
Muslim. Jawaharlal Nehru did not approve of the inter-caste marriage
for political reasons
(see http://www.asiasource.org/ society/indiragandhi.cfm). If Indira
Nehru were to marry a Muslim she would loose the possibility of
becoming the heir to the future Nehru dynasty. At this juncture,
according to one story, Mahatma Gandhi intervened and adopted Feroze
Khan, gave him his last name (family name/caste name) and got the name
of Feroz Khan changed to Feroz Gandhi by an affidavit in England.
Thus, Feroze Khan became Feroze Gandhi.
Source(s):
http://www.vepachedu.org/Nehrudynasty.ht…
4 years ago
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061007072024AAqOvzS