The Poona Parsee Panchayat on July 22 made a formal appeal to educational authorities, requesting the explicit...
India Articles
Jehan Bhujwala Saving Kutch’s 150-Year-Old Thorn Forest: Preserving Chadva Rakhal
Preserving Chadva Rakhal: Meet The Man Saving Kutch’s 150-Year-Old Thorn ForestIn Bhuj, a rare patch of tropical thorn...
Train to Jamshedpur: The story of Tata, India’s global giant
A BBC documentary in which Dr Zareer Masani tells the story of this 150-year-old Indian giant with a reputation for ethical capitalism. India's biggest industrial plant is hidden away in what were...
Of Steel, Metal Birds And More: The Tatas
The Tata sky is a limitless firmament, and its gods a generation of Parsi gentlemen like no other Article by Zareer Masani | Outlook India Telling the story of the Tatas, both the Indian business...
Godrej Legacy and Winning in India
The talk titled “ Godrej Legacy and Winning in India” was delivered by Nadir Godrej at Enterprise Dubai 2014 on December 20th, 2014. It started with our illustrious founder 'We couldn't have asked...
Aging Parsis Turn to Community Charity
The Parsi ward at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital seems a particularly sunny convalescent home. Its full-length gothic windows and yellow-beige walls light 45 beds, which most patients cannot leave. The tiny...
Chennai and its old Parsi flame
Its legacies far outnumber this fast-dwindling community with two centuries of ties to the city In North Chennai’s populous and noisy Royapuram area, the tranquil 104-year-old Jal Phiroj Clubwala...
With Vistara, a Tata airline is reborn
Vistara a new airline jointly owned by Tata’s and Singapore Airlines took flight on January 9, 2015. This brings the Tata’s back into Indian Civil Aviation nearly 6 decades after they relinquished...
The Parsi Infirmary Navsari
Elders have held our hand at the time of our Sunrise now its our Turn to hold theirs at their Sunset. Abuwala Parsi Infirmary serves the elders of our Parsi Community standing besides them in their...
Ignored by state parties, Parsis in Jharkhand look to PM Modi
Largely ignored by political parties as a vote bank, the Parsi community in Jamshedpur has reserved their votes for a candidate who can bring a Central government scheme, that promises to save their...
His Honourable Son-in-Law: Feroze Gandhi
Late on the morning of 8 September 1960, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, heavily lugged himself up the staircase at Teen Murti Bhavan, the Prime Minister’s residence in New...
India’s oldest scouting group turns 100 on November 8
One of the oldest continuously run scout groups in the city will complete 100 years on November 8. Sethna's 18th West Bombay, whose members are mostly Zoroastrians, was founded in 1914. Started by...
Father, son and the holy Court
Senior advocate Fali S. Nariman appearing in cases before the Supreme Court where his son is a judge has revived an old debate regarding the appropriateness of such appearances Article by K. CHANDRU...
Vada Dasturji Khurshed of Udvada asks Parsis to vote for BJP
Below is an article by good friend of Parsi Khabar and acclaimed journalist Nauzer Bharucha. It is indeed a first for a Parsi head priest to endorse and support a candidate in a political election....
Parsis are not interested in politics anymore
The Parsi community no longer has a say in electoral battles because of their dwindling numbers and apathy towards politics. But in the last century many Parsis were at the forefront of state and...
Parsi Presence at the Narendra Modi Megaevent at Madison Square Garden in New York City
Sunday September 28th, 2014 was the perfect Fall Sunday in New York City. It was like any other Sunday except for the fact that 20,000 Indians swarmed like bees to a honeypot. Madison Square Garden;...
Adi Sadar: 86-year-old has cast his vote in every poll since ’51
Adi F Sadar, an 86-year-old resident of Byculla's Rustom Baug,has not missed a single election -be it general, assembly or corporation election. “My father once told me, never miss your right to...
MLA seeks sop from Indian Prime Minister for Parsis to visit Iran
Member of legislative assembly, Mangal Prabhat Lodha has written a letter to prime minister, Narendra Modi asking for subsidy for Parsi community to help them visit their "place of origin". Lodha...
Let’s honour ‘Sam Bahadur’ with the Bharat Ratna now
I can’t claim to know what the Prime Minister is thinking but if my hunch is correct I feel it would not be out of place to offer my personal advice. If he accepts what I’m about to propose he can...
PARZOR Exhibition in Chennai
Preserving the grand ethnic culture Parzor Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that works towards preserving the Parsi culture, will be organising a crafts exhibition for the first time in...
Time to Call him Aapro Modi
Our regular reader Rusi Sorabji sends us the note below. This is on the occassion of Narendra Modi taking the oath of office as the Prime Minister of India on Monday May 26, 2014. Rusi writes:...
For long a Congress vote bank, Parsis willing to give Narendra Modi a thought
In 2011, on the 1290th anniversary of the Zoroastrian Atash Behram or place of worship in Udvada, the guest of honour, Narendra Modi, hit all the right notes. "I have come here for selfish reasons,"...
Work For the PARZOR-TISS Team
Dr. Shernaz Cama, Director of the UNESCO Parzor Project informs: The Jiyo Parsi Programme has been steadily gaining momentum. We are creating a dedicated Jiyo Parsi website which will be linked to...
Burjorji Jamaspji Padshah: The Man Behind the Formation of the Tata Group
Burjorji Jamaspji Padshah was born in Bombay on May 7, 1864 in a high talented family, hailing from Navsari. He was the fourth son of Jamaspji Padshah who died prematurely in 1880, leaving him at...
Dhun Bugli: Portrait of a life less known
At the cusp of Old and New Delhi stands Delhi Parsi Anjuman, complete with North India’s only fire temple, a canteen that offers Parsi food by Dhun Bugli, one of the 750 Parsis in the city, writes...
Can India save its Parsi community with assisted reproduction?
The size of the Zoroastrian population is in sharp decline, reports Jeetha D’Silva, so the federal government has decided to fund advocacy and in vitro fertilisation in the hope of bucking the trend...
A Will To Live
By six in the evening, dozens of senior citizens assemble on concrete benches across the seven-acre vicinity of Cusrow Baug, the queen of Parsi colonies. Sprawled by the sea in South Mumbai's posh...
Uttar Pradesh government inflating Parsi numbers, says activist
A media activist here has accused the Uttar Pradesh government of falsely showing an increase in Parsi population in the state to siphon off educational scholarships meant for minority communities'...
JRD Tata: The father of commercial aviation in India
Hardelot is a beach town in the north of France. It is in the Pas de Calais, a region along the English Channel where the distance to Britain is short and, unlikely as it may seem, this is why it...
Concert will happen, let music speak for itself: Zubin Mehta
The call made to his Munich hotel, as agreed, at 10.30 am, is aborted. The receptionist will not transfer the line to Zubin Mehta unless we specify the room number. "There are security...
The Marshalls keep the Parsi flame alive in Kozhikode
Though Marshalls, the lone family of Kozhikode keeping the lineage of the Parsi tradition, seems to have embraced the rhythm of Malabari culture, they remain intact in Zoroastrian beliefs and...
Zubin Mehta to Perform in the Kashmir Valley
It has been Zubin Mehta's life-long dream to play in Jammu and Kashmir. Author: Naseer Ganai Source: The Daily Mail UK Come September, and the world famous musician and composer's wish will finally...
Lucknow Parsis: A wish that is breathing its last
Till a couple of years back, few elderly Parsis in Lucknow nursed the desire of breathing their last in Mumbai, thanks to the 'Tower of Silence', the last abode where bodies are left for the...
Zubin Mehta Awarded Tagore Award by Indian Government
Zubin Mehta, an Indian-Parsi conductor of western classical music, will be felicitated with Tagore Award for cultural harmony. A four-member jury led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and comprising...
India's dwindling Parsi population to be boosted with fertility clinics
The Indian government is to fund new fertility clinics to help save its dwindling Parsi population which is now under threat of extinction. Author: Dean Nelson Source: The Telegraph UK India's...
Nauzer Bharucha Bags Journalism Award for Irrigation Scam Expose.
TOI journalist bags award for irrigation scam expose Mumbai: Nauzer Bharucha, senior editor at the Times of India, won the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Indian Journalism 2013 for political...
Kainaz Amaria in Conversation: Being Zoroastrian
Photographer Kainaz Amaria has been born and brought up in America. As a child, when she’d tell her friends at school she was a Zoroastrian, they thought she was pretending to be a superhero....
What If A Parsi Were the Prime Minister of India
The article below is a tongue-in-check take on the possibility of a Parsi Prime Minister in India. It is written by good friend of Parsi Khabar and brilliant media man Rayomand J. Patell What if a...
Two Parsis Amongst Gallantry Awards 2013 Winners
On the occassion of the 64th Republic Day of India, celebrated on January 26, 2013; the President of India announced the names of 359 military personnel for the various Gallantry Awards given out to...
Excellence of Parsis as the First Indians To….
Below are some of India’s first’s that Parsis achieved, Sent to us via email. No record of illustrious Parsis would be complete without the name of Rustomji Dorabji, whose unsurpassable contribution...
Allahabad Parsis struggle to keep Atash burning
Even as the population of the Parsi community is diminishing, in the Sangam city as well as across the country, the community of Tata's, Godrej's, Wadia's, Bhabha's, Maneckshaw's, is struggling with...
Surti gave mystical insights into the Avestha
After Mumbai, Surat has the largest number of Parsis in India. The city has also played an important role in the religion of the community as it is the birthplace of a school of Zoroastrian...
Minorities can rise to top jobs only in India: Chief Justice of India
Chief Justice of India Sarosh H Kapadia on Wednesday said India was the only country in the region where members of minority communities could aspire to become the head of judiciary because of the...
Surat Parsi Panchayat: We want our rights and security, not money
Central government might have approved first-of-its-kind scheme to help increase the diminishing number of Parsis in the country through a scientific and structured approach, but there is a lack of...
“THE K FILE” MOVIE
Directed by Oorvazi Irani Story and Screenplay by Farrukh Dhondy, Produced by Sorab Irani "THE K FILE” (Running Time: 9 Minutes 24 Seconds) AN ENTERTAINING SHORT FEATURE FILM ON THE 26/11...
Dire demographics of Parsi-Zoroastrians
Between 1951 and 2001, when the country’s population increased by 185%, the number of Parsi-Zoroastrians fell by 37.7%. This probably explains why no other community in India watches its...
Lord Bilimoria Addresses The House of Lords on the Occassion of ZTFE’s 150 Year Anniversary
A crossbench peer and leading entrepreneur has criticised the UK's "madcap" immigration controls, warning they are damaging business prospects. Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, condemned the...
The Carriage of Pestonjee Press of the Fort Coach Company Exhibited in San Francisco Museum
An ornate silver carriage, built in 1915 by Pestonjee Press of the Fort Coach Company for the Maharajah of Bhavnagar, was featured at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum’s “Maharaja” exhibit that...
The Promise Of A New Day: World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust
Since the 1990s, The World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust, based in India, has been working in the villages of Gujarat, specifically in the villages of Navsari and Surat, to uplift the lives of poor...
Anu Aga Nominated to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament
Anu Aga the former Chairwoman of Thermax India has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha as a member of the Indian Parliament. Her nomination by the President of India was announced recently. Below is...
India’s Defence Minister Makes Amends, Gives Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw His Due
Today at a special ceremony at the Zoroastrian Parsi Cemetary at Ootacamund, Nilgiris, India’s first Field Marshal and one who bestowed on the country its first military victory in a thousand years,...
The compilation that could save a community
Two members of the Zoroastrian community have taken the initiative to preserve the community's oral history by compiling a book on Parsi-Gujarati idioms. You can contribute too By Aviva Dharmaraj |...