Living legacy, one room at a timeAnil Mulchandani | New Indian ExpressStanding discreetly in Gujarat’s historic town...
India Articles
Looking for Parsi footprints in Delhi
From Kashmere Gate to South Delhi, the city's Parsi community marks 100 years of influence across the national...
Parsi Vicissitudes: Of vision and hard work
Amongst the communities whose study has suffered an eclipse are the Parsis. The reason lies in the decline of business studies, but also in the decline of Parsis as a business community. Parsi...
My Father Was Manmohan Singh’s Inspiration: Zareer Masani
Charismatic politician Minoo Masani, founder-leader of the pro-Western, free-market Swatantra Party, is acknowledged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his ideological inspiration rather than...
Highlights of FPZAI Meeting in Mumbai in February 2012
Below is a report of the recent Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India meeting held in Mumbai on February 11 and 12, 2012. This report is written by Mr. Marzban Giara and was sent out via...
From Persia to Bangalore
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...
Bachi Karkaria on the Kolkata Agiary Turning 100
The name is bond. Sacred bond. And it is licensed to send a warm thrill up the spine of every Kolkata Parsi. Not just of only the 550 who still remain, but all of us who had grown into our...
CJI Kapadia’s court revives activism, rattles power elite
The unseating of central vigilance commissioner PJ Thomas is the latest breakthrough made by the Supreme Court in the course of a resurgent judicial activism under the leadership of Chief Justice SH...
Migration bringing down Parsi population in Kolkata
They number 600-odd in a city with a population of nearly 4.5 million. That nearly half of this 600 are senior citizens may have been a cause for concern for any community but the Parsis of Kolkata....
Ratan Tata readies plan to enter aviation business
Ratan Tata may have given up plans to get into civil aviation but the chairman of the $72 billion Tata Group is putting pieces together to be a major player in the general aviation space. Tata, a...
Late Lt. Cdr. Firdaus Darabshah Mogal awarded Shaaurya Chakra
President Pratibha Patil has approved gallantry medals for 137 security personnel, including 14 for the country's third highest peacetime bravery award, the Shaurya Chakra, on the occasion of the...
Will Bombay Parsi Panchayat Go The Karachi Way
A recent decision by the Karachi’s apex Parsi trust to give children of women married to non-Zoroastrians the right to adopt their mother’s religion has generated interest in Mumbai where the...
Rohinton Nariman To Be Appointed Solicitor General of India
Senior advocate Rohinton Nariman is all set to be appointed as the new solicitor general of India, the second senior most law officer of the country, in place of Gopal Subramanium, who quit...
Preaching Through The Media
Last month, a senior Vatican official said that Catholic bloggers are an extraordinary reality in the life of the church. As if acknowledging the power and reach of the new social media, the Pope,...
Parsi community has created modern India: Amitav Ghosh
The Parsi community is an amazing pool of talent, having created modern India as we know it, says one of the country's foremost novelists and chronicler Amitav Ghosh, who tails his Parsi...
The Nanavati Case
Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra was a 1959 Indian court case where Nanavati, a Naval Commander, was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife's lover. With Nanavati frequently...
Understanding Parsi Population Decline: Video and text now available
Below is an email received from Dinyar Patel. Dinyar writes As many of you know, I recently gave at talk at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai on the topic of "Understanding Parsi Population Decline: A...
India’s Tata Succession Struggle
Ratan Tata: Can't anybody do this job? Indian way of succession leaves something to be desired India's largest conglomerate -- the US$71-billion salt-to-steel behemoth Tata Group, is struggling to...
Weave of glory: Parsi Panorama Exhibition in New Delhi
At a time when the Parsi-Zoroastrian community records a drastic decrease in its population with every count, what's the point of basking in its glorious past, a few cynical minds can always ask,...
Zubin Mehta receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Zubin Mehta received the 2,434th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, coinciding with his 50th anniversary as a conductor. Actor Kirk Douglas joined Mehta at the ceremony near the northeast...
Out of India: The Tata Group and Ratan Tata
Under Ratan Tata, the business group that bears his name has transformed itself from an Indian giant into a global powerhouse Published in The Economist [print edition] March 03, 2011 RATAN TATA is...
Update on the Udvada Land Issue: Dinyar Patel
Below is an update on the Udvada Land Issue by Dinyar Patel. Dinyar is a doctoral student at Harvard University. He is currently in India doing research for his thesis Dear all, I know that there...
India’s Zoroastrians dying out for lack of Parsi clergy
In the cramped heart of the suburb called Andheri, the MF Cama Athornan Institute was strangely quiet. The institute, founded in 1923 to train Zoroastrian priests, is a large, M-shaped edifice with...
Planning Commission says No to boosting Parsi numbers
The government's plan to boost the dwindling population of Parsi community received a severe jolt with the Planning Commission rejecting a scheme proposed by the minority affairs ministry to improve...
India’s religious community in irreversible decline
Parsis are an ethnic community in India that follow the Zoroastrian religion. They are originally from Fars in Iran and had migrated to Western India more than 800 years ago. They are an essential...
Empire Records: Something Borrowed by Rohinton Mistry
Two months before I was to leave Bombay for Toronto, a friend from St, Xavier s College asked to borrow my copy of "A Hard Days Night," Empire Records Something Borrowed by Rohinton Mistry...
Wadias: Built Oldest Surviving UK Warship
India has been shamed in front of the world, thanks to crumbling bridges and cracking ceilings at the Common Wealth village. But, about 200 years ago the same Indian hands built for the British...
Falling Indian minority hopes romance can stop decline
India's ancient minority Parsi community are pinning their hopes on modern methods such as speed-dating, social networking and IVF to stop their numbers vanishing, finds the BBC. By Sanjoy Majumder...
Desperate measures for a fading Indian faith
What do musician Freddie Mercury, the Tata family who own Corus and Jaguar, and the conductor Zubin Mehta have in common? They all descended from migrants who fled Iran more than a 1,000...
We want to break free
India's Independence month has another little-known first. It was in August 1907 that Madam Cama defiantly unfurled the first Indian flag to the world and inspired a generation of Parsi firebrand...
Bhikaiji Cama – Indian Independence Movement Figure
"This flag is of Indian Independence! Behold, it is born! It has been made sacred by the blood of young Indians who sacrificed their lives. I call upon you, gentlemen to rise and salute this...
Racing against time to preserve India’s Parsi past
High in the hills of western India, Homi Dhalla looks around the Bharot Caves complex, pointing out the cracked and crumbling stone in the roughly-hewn rocks. By Phil Hazlewood (AFP) "If we...
WZO : London Divorces India
With deep regret, the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) wishes to announce that it can no longer be associated with WZO (India). By Darayus S. Motivala / The Bombay Samachar This decision was...
Artist Jehangir Sabavala goes for record Rs 1.7 cr
The market for India’s modern masters seems to be sizzling. After Raza became the priciest modern by notching up over Rs 16 crore at a London auction recently, another master, 88-year-old Jehangir...
Govt scheme to arrest decline in Parsi population
Concerned over the dwindling number of Parsis, one of the five notified national minorities, Government has launched a scheme to arrest the trend of decline in their population. The Central Sector...
Todywalla Auction House: Numismatics
Old coins and paper money are not just an antiquarian interest; they are also big business. The 103-year-old Todywalla House in Mumbai’s bustling Khetwadi locality may look uninviting, but it is the...
Sarosh Homi Kapadia Appointed Chief Justice of India
Supreme Court Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia has been appointed the new chief justice of India. Kapadia will assume charge May 12. Kapadia takes over from Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, India's first Dalit...
Matrimony: The Great Parsi Pursuit
An enterprising 55-year-old bachelor claiming to have almost made it to the portals of the Forbes list of billionaires was reluctantly but firmly refused entry to an exclusive party last Saturday....
Diaspora: A Talk by Khojeste Mistree
What the Diaspora can do for India and what India can do for the Diaspora A talk given by Khojeste P Mistree at the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress, Dubai on 31st December 2009 Good Morning Ladies...
Anu Aga of Thermax India Awarded the Padma Shri
Anu Aga, the ex-Chairman of Thermax India has been awarded the Padma Shri. Her name featured on the list of awardees announced by the Government on the occasion of Republic Day 2010. Here is a short...
Ratan Tata: Global visionary rooted to reality
Assume you are the head of a multinational group some of whose leading businesses are weakened by a troubled market and lack of refinance in overleveraged balance sheets. What’s the likelihood that...
Mumbai Parsis divided on intermarriage
With numbers dwindling, young Parsis turn to organized social events to meet, and hopefully marry, others of their cultural group. By Hanna Ingber Win — GlobalPost A group of about a dozen young...
Parsis have civilization; other Indians don’t
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 By Aakar Patel / Mint...
Of An Edwardian India
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...
Freddie Mercury to be honoured with London memorial
Late rock legend Freddie Mercury is set to be honoured in his hometown with his own Hollywood Walk of Fame-style star. The British musician, best known as the frontman of the rock band Queen, fled...
Report of FPZAI meeting of Sept. 2009
The below is a Report of FPZAI meeting of Sept. 2009 sent via email by Mr. Marzban Giara. A meeting of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India was held after a lapse of three years at...
Parsis moot Waqf-like body to protect land
By Nauzer Bharucha, TNN 7 September 2009, 12:47am IST Large-scale encroachments on properties belonging to Parsi trusts across the country led to suggestions during a two-day meet over the weekend...
City of Thieves by Cyrus Mevawalla
Cyrus Mevawalla a.k.a Cyrus Moore is a UK-born Parsi whose first book was recently published in the UK. City of Thieves abstract: Nic Lamparelli works for a leading US investment bank in London....
India’s Disappearing Vultures: Who will eat the Parsi dead?
India's vultures are disappearing from the country's skies, declining by as much as 99 percent from their original numbers, with the remainder dying at a rate of more than 40 percent annually,...
The Origins of Zoroastrian Priesthood in India
By Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram, Panthaky, Ustad Saheb Behramshah N. Shroff Daremeher, Jogeshwari, Mumbai. All Parsi priests of India draw their origin from Mobed Shahpur Mobed Sheriar, who is...
India, Iran to hold seminar on Iran and Zoroastrianism
The Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) and India’s Cama Oriental Institute are to hold a seminar on Iran and Zoroastrianism on April 27. ICRO International Department Director Khalaj...
India’s Youth Vote Rises From Ashes Of Mumbai Attacks
MUMBAI -- Before the November terrorist attacks on this city left three of his friends dead, Kaizad Bhamgara, 19, spent his evenings jamming with his hipster goth-rock band or chilling on the...