Mumbai's Malcolm Baug, a Parsi colony, celebrated its centenary this year, with residents praising its serene...
Heritage Articles
BJPC Institute: Mumbai’s Parsi heritage school draws admiring glances after restoration
An elegant, historic school building opposite Charni Road railway station has been drawing admiring glances from train...
Heritage Parsi Bhikha Behram Well In Churchgate Ready To Defy Monsoon Flooding
This fresh-water well, situated adjacent to Cross Maidan, holds significant historical and cultural value for Parsi-Zoroastrians and is a designated landmark on Mumbai's urban heritage list. Article...
Crumbling homes, vanished people—Gujarat Parsis stare at their roots turning into ghost towns
Udvada and Navsari towns in Gujarat were once home to a thriving Parsi community that is now rallying to increase its numbers, archive its history, safeguard its memories, and restore its records....
Pakistan: What happened to Zoroastrians in Karachi?
Karachi was once home to thousands of Parsis, followers of Zoroaster (Zarathustra), the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. Some of them still live in the city, but the future for their community...
Reverse Orientalism, Slander and the Origins of Bombay’s Once Fashionable Capitol Cinema
The theatre, now closed, began its life as the Gaiety for the upper crust of Bombay to see plays.The Victoria Terminus (today Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) is the undisputed highlight of any tour of...
Looted relics worth US$3.5 million on loan to New York’s Met museum returned to China
Stone carvings valued at more than US$3 million handed back after investigation into private art collectionThe artefacts were ripped from a seventh century tomb Article by Cyril Ip | South China...
The Parsi Graveyard in Lahore
Baalwala Explores A Secret Parsi Graveyard Located In Lahore That Very Few Know About.
Gujarat’s Legendary ‘Walking Mango Tree’ at Sanjan Village Where Parsis First Sought Asylum
Mango lovers all around the country wait impatiently for the mango to sweeten their tongues as summer approaches, but in Gujarat, Sanjan hamlet in Umargam taluka of Valsad district holds a special...
Bandian complex offers time travels to Sassanid era
An experience of traveling back in time to see magnificent examples of ancient plasterwork, bas-relief carvings, and other decorative elements is probably an unreachable dream.Bandian complex, a...
Rustom Baug in Byculla celebrates centenary year
Built by Bai Jerbai Wadia in memory of her late son, the residential colony, continues to be a ‘self-contained’ thriving community centre for 330 families Rustom Baug boasts of a library, gymnasium,...
Carrom and camaraderie in the colony
With Rustom Baug just hitting a century, we revisit other Parsi enclaves founded by the community’s visionaries It’s a privilege I haven’t had. Of living in a baug, that quaint yet quintessential...
Rustom Baug Is 100 Years Old
Well done, bawa! Rustom Baug smashes a tonne Byculla’s 32-building Parsi housing enclave set to celebrate 100th birthday with year-long events planned by grateful residentsBuildings are being lit up...
Streetwise Kolkata: Parsee Church Street, named after Kolkata’s 183-year-old Parsi fire temple
A significant part of the lane and the larger neighbourhood’s documented history starts during the 19th century when the Parsi and Jewish communities began settling here.Written by Neha Banka |...
Multi-Faceted Sapal Balaporia
Our dear friend and contributor Havovi Govadia sends us another beautiful memory about times, places and people of yore.To read all of Havovi’s previous articles on Parsi Khabar click hereIn my...
175 years after Parsis flocked to Karachi, glimpses of the community’s fading history
On April 22, 1847, Parsis from across India assembled in Karachi as the foundation for the city’s first Tower of Silence was laid.Article by Ammad Ali | ScrollPhotos of long-time Parsi residents of...
Streetwise Kolkata: Parsi Bagan Lane, a neighbourhood that played important role in freedom struggle
What is less well known is the lane's association with the development of psychoanalysis in the subcontinent. Article by Neha Banka | Indian ExpressParsi Bagan Lane in Kolkata. (Express Photo by...
Godrej locks its history in Amar Chitra Katha in outreach to youth
The challenge, Godrej says, was to reach a younger audience and children who might have had very little association with the brand It is not the first time the history of the Godrej family is being...
When the British asked the French to jail Madame Cama
When the British asked the French to jail Madame Cama, the ‘mother of Indian revolution’For decades, the British government surveilled the Parsi freedom fighter.Article by John O’BrienA postal stamp...
A piece of Parsi history in Sukkur
After partition, many Parsi families resided in Sukkur. Creating a piece of history in the form of a Parsi compoundArticle by Sarfaraz Memon | Tribune PakistanSometime in the recent past, there used...
Goolbai Maternity Home: Karachi’s sunken & forgotten treasure
Long forgotten and abandoned yet standing strong is the edifice of Goolbai Maternity Home, what was once an advance health facility for women and children built in 1919.
Going strong at 113, Manackjee Rustomjee Dharamshala in service of Parsis in Kolkata
You can stay here only if you are a Parsi or married to one. But you don’t need to tick either box for a hearty Parsi mealArticle by Debraj Mitra | TelegraphThe Manackjee Rustomjee Parsi Dharamshala...
Diwan Bahadur M M Mullan: Father of Balaghat
Our dear friend and contributor Havovi Govadia writes in… A notice was put up on our community WA group. The Municipal Corporation of Balaghat and the Mullan Trust had invited the Parsis of Nagpur...
The oldest surviving Zoroastrian scriptures were found not in Iran or India, but in China
In its Epic Iran exhibition, the British Library will be displaying its unrivalled collection of manuscripts.Article by Ursula Sims-Williams | Scroll.inThe opening to chapter nine of the 'Videvdad...
Doyens of medical service: Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College in Pune celebrates 75th foundation day
The hospital had played a crucial role during the 2009 Swine flu outbreak and even now, before PMC could upgrade its hospitals with ventilators and tertiary care, Sassoon was the only government...
Dadar Parsi Colony: Cherishing the Bombay that was
Inflatable pools, barbecues, open backyards…this is how architect Rooshad Shroff recalls the better part of his childhood spent with his parents in the Dadar Parsi colony. With the endless...
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia receives English Heritage blue plaque
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia (1808-1877), a pioneering naval engineer and former member of the Society has recently been awarded an English Heritage London blue plaque marking the 180th anniversary of...
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia: The esteemed Indian ancestor no one in my white British family knew about
Who do you think you are? The esteemed Indian ancestor no one in my white British family knew aboutImage: Ardaseer Cursetjee, the first South Asian Fellow of the Royal Society, has been awarded a...
Aspi Engineer And Winning the Aga Khan Race
Our dear friend Rusi Sorabji writes….I attach something I wrote about friend, ASPI Engineer*, the 17 years old should go down in the annals of World Aviation better than the likes of Alcock &...
A paradox revealed through portraiture
A photograph taken seven years before her passing says much about the life, times and character of the trailblazing Meherbai Tata The much-loved wife of Dorabji Tata and daughter in-law of Jamsetji...
The Parsis of Ceylon: The few that made the difference | Lost & Forgotten
Dr. Zameer Careem, a Sri Lankan historian speaks about the Parsis of Sri Lanka
Kayomi Engineer: Want to have every single building in Parsi Colony sketched for archival value
A Dadar Parsi Colony resident’s four-year-old attempt at using photos, anecdotes, municipal records, memories and sketches to the iconic neighbourhood in a book speaks of public participation in...
Mumbai: Parsis aggrieved as BMC plans to relocate Parsi Gate to facilitate coastal road project
Mumbai: Members of the Parsi community are aggrieved with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the fate of the iconic 'Parsi Gate' continues to remain uncertain. In order to facilitate...
Chinchani & India’s First Arab Governor
On the 28th of June 1955, The Times of India (Mumbai) carried a very interesting story of the discovery, by a farmer, of 9 inscribed copper plates from his field in the village of Chinchani near...
Parsi Embroidery: A Heritage Of Humanity
With fewer than 55,000 individuals in India, Parsi Zoroastrians have carved a niche for themselves in the country. From leading industrialists like Ratan Tata and Godrej to an army of talented...
Nowrojee General Store In McLeodganj shuts shop after 160 years
Business turns unviable for Delhi-based Parsi owner as one of the oldest stores of the British era in Himachal Pradesh closes down in September Dharamshala: Located in the heart of McLeodganj town...
Glimpses of Kekoo Gandhy’s Mumbai
Kekee Manzil - The House of Art chronicles a micro-history of the city anchored in a century-old family home Filmmakers Behroze Gandhy and Dilesh Korya’s documentary, Kekee Manzil - The House of Art...
Story of Jamshedpur: Romance and Valour
Envisioned by a Parsi, planned by an American, named by a British Viceroy, landscaped by a German Botanist, the story of Jamshedpur is full of romance and valour.Once Sakchi, a village in the...
Fading Sweetness: A Parsi Story in Pakistan
The Beginning In the masterfully tucked away Dinshaw Avari colony in Karachi, Syrus Doctor spends every business day looking after a tiny and all-but-forgotten library towered over by the Tower of...
Navsari: Home to the Parsis
Live History India present a great visual treat about Navsari. Archeologist Kurush Dalal and historian and author Pheroza Godrej are featured on the video and explain some of the history of the...
The Runaways
Bolting from their village homes to build better lives, plucky young boys landed in Bombay with no more than a coin rattling in ragged pockets. Years of slog later, they contributed considerably as...
Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai
Living History India has a wonderful overview on the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai that were designated a World Heritage side by the United Nations. Many of these buildings were...
The history of Karachi’s Homi Katrak Chambers
If you head to Clifton after passing Sind Club and Frere Hall in Karachi, you’ll come to a traffic signal at Lilly Bridge, with a piece of history on its left: Homi Katrak Chambers. This stunning...
A reborn Persian Empire captured Rome’s lands—and its emperor
Inspired by their powerful ancestors, the Sassanian dynasty restored Persia to imperial glory, ruling lands that stretched from Turkey to Pakistan.By Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo | National...
Muncherji Murzban and the Restoration of Lal Chimney: Parsi Social Housing
TO practice conservation in Mumbai, one must be lucky to have the right client who understands and sympathizes with the word ‘conservation’. I was fortunate to have one such client, the Garib...
Digital Zoroastrian at the British Library
The British Library is fortunate in having an unparalled collection of over 100 Zoroastrian works ranging from the oldest, the ninth century Ashem Vohu prayer written in Sogdian script discovered by...
Parsis in Pakistan: A life in photos
Photojournalist Mobeen Ansari has spent close to a decade capturing facets of the Parsis — a community that has contributed immensely to the building of Pakistan Walking around Jamshed Baugh, a...
Mumbai Metro 3 affects iconic J. N. Petit Library
Percy Wadia, a staff member of the library told the Free Press Journal that they have around 3, 000 members as the regular visitors to the library before the Metro work began. Jamshetjee...
Sanjan: Digging Deep into History
On a dark and stormy night, a ship full of Zoroastrian refugees from Persia was lashed by the wind, rain and waves off the west coast of India. The refugees in the ship, fearful for their lives,...
170 years old and standing tall: Secunderabad Agiary was built by two banker brothers
Come August 17 and the Parsi community in the city will gather at the 170-year-old Fire Temple in Secunderabad to celebrate New Year. The majestic structure standing tall on MG Road was built in...
Tracing a Parsi trail through Gujarat
For Zoroastrian heritage, the shadows may be lengthening, but at least the flame continues to flicker.Article by Meher Mirza CN TravellerAn old Parsi house in Navsari. Photo: Dinodia...
The last of the Parsees: The only family in Balasore, Orissa tells their tale
Balasore, August 25 (LocalWire): The eastern state of Odisha is known for its culture, age-old traditions, temples and its indigenous people. People of all religions have called the state home...