Fellow Zoroastrians,
Is this how we remember one of the greatest Zoroastrians of recent times, by letting his ancestral house fall into ruins and then be sold off to a builder?
http://videos.sify.com/DadaBhai-Naorojis-House-SIFY-watch-jeivLTageac.html
Note that this video is a few years old, and that it is incorrectly referred to as Naoroji’s birthplace (he was born in Bombay in what is now Bhendi Bazaar). There were rumors one-and-a-half years ago that the house had been bought by a Navsari Parsi in order to preserve it, but this does not seem to be the case and I have never been able to receive verification. If anyone in Navsari does have news to report on this, please let me know.
I saw this house two years ago and it was in a deplorable state.
Naoroji’s last home, “The Sands” in Versova’s Saat Bangla, was knocked down 25 years ago to make way for a garish apartment building. In any other country, buildings like these, of great historical importance, would be preserved, especially by the community to which Naoroji also rendered great service.
Shame on us all.
Dinyar
–
Dinyar Patel
Ph.D. Candidate, Modern South Asia
Department of History
Harvard University