When the British asked the French to jail Madame Cama, the ‘mother of Indian revolution’For decades, the British...
Heritage Articles
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...
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 Gowadia 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 to...
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...
Two decades from now, Pakistan will have no Parsis
Just before sunset, five elderly men leave their homes in the Cyrus Minwalla Colony, the oldest settlement of Karachi’s Parsis, and sit themselves down on cement benches placed alongside a...
A Tribute to the Feriyas
Feriyas is a colloquialism from Feriwalla, Gujarati for someone who takes a 'Fero', a round of some place. During the struggle for Indian Independence, people used to have Prabhat Feri, a small...
Zoroastrians and Jains added to UK’s war memorial service
Representatives of the Jain and Zoroastrian will now join 15 other faiths, including Hinduism, Sikhism, at Britain's annual war memorial service to make it more reflective of modern Britain, Faith...
Honouring the First Benefactor of HKU: Sir Hormusjee N Mody
Every year on October 12, the local Zoroastrian community commemorates the birthday of Sir Hormusjee Mody and his generosity to the University by having a priest place a garland of flowers around...
Dadar Parsi Colony: A Photo Tour
My first encounter with Dadar was back in 2004 when I used to travel from Churchgate to Dadar during the evening rush hour. Most of my journey would go in planning my exit strategy from the crowded...
4 Parsi women on their most precious heirloom jewellery and the stories they
A piece of jewellery is more than just an accessory; it is a record of a time, a mood, of lives and loves. And heirloom jewellery, handed lovingly down, is a veritable archive of a family’s history....
Dadar Parsi Colony: Who To Know In Mumbai’s Only Unwalled Baug
Strange things are afoot in Dadar Parsi Colony. This summer, for the first time in 89 years, the well at the Rustomji Faramna Agiary on Dinshaw Master Road ran dry. Then the BMC tried to separate...
DNA proves Parsis link to Iran
Hyderabad: They have just proved the correctness of a popular myth — ‘Like Sugar in Milk, about Parsis. The Centre of Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) scientists, along with researchers from...
Preserving Parsi Traditions
In the highly competitive food and beverage business environment of Delhi–National Capital Region, the restaurant brand SodaBottleOpenerWala is just another name where customers expect a fine dining...
A Year’s Membership To J N Petit Library in Fort Mumbai Only Costs INR 1,000
Eminent Parsi historian and our dear friend Marzban Giara informs us that the J. N. Petit Library Fort was started in 1895 and not 1856 (as stated in the article below) in memory of Jamsetjee...
Kozikhode: Parsi culture still has its fire glowing
On April 18 which is observed as World Heritage Day, among the several monuments with a story to tell in Kozhikode is its only Parsi temple in Kerala. The local people are not well aware of this...
The obscure religion that shaped the West
Talk of ‘us’ and ‘them’ has long dominated Iran-related politics in the West. At the same time, Christianity has frequently been used to define the identity and values of the US and Europe, as well...
How a Mumbai cemetery tour turned into a debate on religion and menstrual rules
On December 11, professors from Wilson College and the principal of a Zoroastrian religious school led a group of 25 people, including a few foreign travellers, on a one-hour tour of Doongerwadi,...
132-year-old Ripon Club plans partial sell-off to cut rising losses
Although the 132-year-old Ripon Club has endured the vicissitudes of time and fortune, a part of the good old Parsi bastion may suffer partial eclipse. A controversial proposal to surrender or sell...
A Walk In Karachi’s Katrak Colony
Parsi influence on Karachi’s architecture is immense. Parsi businessmen and philanthropists commissioned some of the most remarkable structures in Karachi especially at the turn of last century....
Freddie Mercury’s House Awarded English Heritage Blue Plaque
On the occasion of the 70th birth anniversary of Freddie Mercury (Fred Bulsara), his home was awarded the English Heritage Blue Plaque. Per a news release forwarded via email by Malcolm Deboo,...
Tanka Water Harvesting System of the Parsi Community
Dr. Shernaz Cama informs us… We at Parzor have been working on Ecology since the beginning of our UNESCO Parzor Project . Zoroastrianism has been called ' the world's first ecological religion' and...
Quetta Parsis: The Untold Story
In the heart of the city, surrounded by beautiful mountains, Quetta’s Parsi Colony is picture-perfect. The lush green trees sway in the breeze. There is a rare feeling of trust: instead of the...