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History Articles
Remembering the Rich Life Feroze Gandhi Lived Before His Untimely Death
Feroze Gandhi was a freedom fighter, prominent parliamentarian and crusader against corruption. This piece traces the...
Mr. Alpaiwalla’s Legacy: India’s Parsi Museum
Housed in a quiet corner of the Kharegat Parsi Colony, the Alpaiwalla Museum of Mumbai opens its doors willingly to all curious visitors. And there can be no better guide than Ms. Nivedita Mehta,...
Once upon a Hill Road
An arterial road in Bandra is as deep-steeped in general lore as it is in personal memory for someone who grew up on this street I am the Resurrection and the Life’ affirms the inscription on the...
Parsi surnames & the places they are derived from
Ever wondered where all the Parsi surnames come from ?? Well our friend Kaevan Umrigar did and here’s his attempt at plotting it on a map ! Via Facebook, Kaevan writes The etymology of Parsi...
When Nani Palkhivala Refused to Defend Indira Gandhi in Court
On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of Allahabad High Court found the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices in the “State of Uttar Pradesh vs Raj Narain” case....
Bumsuckerwallah Family of Karachi
Have you heard of the Bumsuckerwallah’s of Karachi ? Parsi family on a motorcar (Karachi, 1925): A Parsi family of Karachi poses for a photograph on their motorcar. Patrick O’ Meara wrote the...
My father, the Param Vir Chakra Hero: Lt. Colonel A. B. Tarapore
In spite of being wounded in battle, Lieutenant Colonel A B Tarapore fought for six days before meeting a hero's death on the battlefield in the 1965 war. A legend in the Indian Army, he is the...
New Delhi To Host First Ever Large Scale Festival on Parsi Culture in 2016
A mega festival, with exhibits being brought from world over, is being proposed by Minority Affairs Ministry for March next year Article by Sobhana K Nair | Bangalore Mirror New Delhi: In March next...
Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Then and Now: Summer School at University of Zurich
Call for Applications The Institute of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich (UZH) invites to the summer school: Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Then and Now August 30th – September 2nd...
In Udvada: The Maha Kumbh of the Parsis
The anniversary of the Atash Behram, the most sacred fire, at the sleepy town of Udvada, is when the community opens up to all comers, and with free delicious food for everyone. Article by Madhulika...
Ruttie Petit and Bella Captain: The Tale of Two Parsi Women
Mitra Sharafi, the amazing author at South Asian Legal History Resources writes: I was recently struck by the strangely inverted but parallel lives of two young women, both tragic figures in early...
Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric
An Iranian visitor can’t help but notice the Zoroastrian symbols that dominate old Mumbai. In the historic Fort District toward the southern end of this metropolis of twenty million souls,...
Mercenaries and merchants: A short history of the strong ties between India and Yemen
As Houthi rebels overran the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in March, the embattled government shifted its capital to Aden. For many Indians, and especially for residents of Mumbai, the name of the city...
Death and Legal History on Sunday Afternoons
Cemeteries as Historical Evidence In Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia, Mitra Sharafi argues that rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with...
Emperor Akbar’s Parsi counsel: The First Dastur Meherji Rana
Established in 1874, the first Dastoor Meherjirana Library in Navsari is named after the first Parsi high priest of India. The most priceless manuscript at the library is a framed original document...
Navroz in New Delhi: Shernaz Italia
While a dwindling community struggles to survive, filmmaker Shernaz Italia documents the little-known lives of the Delhi Parsis who moved to the capital at the turn of the 19th century “Aavoji,...
Jamsetji Tata’s residence wins UNESCO honour
“A good conservation job is like a root canal,“ says architect Vikas Dilawari.“It does not happen quickly and requires many sittings.“Recently , one such root canal took Dilawari 10 years. His hair...
Tehnaz Bahadurji: What’s it Like to be a Parsi ?
Just as the matriarch of the Tamil household in Chennai dots her porch with a kolam at the crack of dawn every day, women of the Parsi community pretty up theirs with what they call a 'chalk'. "It's...
The changing face of the legal profession
In an article Mitra Sharafi who is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School; discusses how even as falling law school enrollment leads to a merger, among Middle Eastern and...
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...
Bombay Heritage Walks for Tata Employees
The business group takes staff back in history by organising Bombay Heritage Walks every week in an effort to reacquaint them with the company's storied links to the city. By Anirban Chowdhury |...
Nobody learns Parsi history in schools, says historian
On just a short stretch of Veer Nariman Road in Fort, beginning at the stained glass enclosure of the Bhikha Behram Well and ending at the v-shaped Eros Cinema with its Art Deco dome, six Parsi...
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...
How an accidentally distorted drawing of the Prophet led to a riot in 19th-century Mumbai
The image, published with a biography of the Prophet in a Gujarati magazine, led to Muslim and Parsi clashes for a month in 1851. Article by Mridula Chari | Scroll.in On a Friday towards the end of...
East India Company, Bombay Talkies, Tatas… a family tree forms
As assistant professor of history at the Ramnarain Ruia College is set to give Mumbaikars with a yen for the city’s history a delectable account of the lineage of one of Mumbai’s oldest notable...
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...
Picnics at Juhu Beach: Indian Memory Project
The Indian Memory Project is a fantastic website that curates memories. They have a wonderful post by father daughter duo Rumi and Sooni Taraporevala about picnics at Juhu Beach. This photograph of...
Pakistani Zoroastrians Must Keep The Fire Ablaze
Funerals are the only constant for Zoroastrians in Pakistan. For a community of less than 1,800 — last recorded in 2006 in a research conducted by KE Eduljee — the announcement comes faithfully...
A sense of belonging: We must recognise the contributions of our minorities
KARACHI: The Parsi community in Karachi has always been small, but it has gifted an unmistakable legacy to the city. They have left their mark on the metropolis, especially in its older parts, with...
Bhonu Prakash: A Talk by Dan Sheffield
Here is a wonderful video presentation titled: “Bhonu Prakash: Zoroastrians and Food in Historical Perspective” by good friend of Parsi Khabar, Dan Sheffield who lectures at Princeton University in...
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...
Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara: An Extraordinary Policeman
On reading a recent article on the Irani brothers in the Mumbai Police Force, Parsi Khabar reader Shahpur Doctor writes in to remind us of a legendary Parsi police officer from nearly a 100 years...
Zoroaster: The World’s First Bessemer Ship
Framroze K. Patel, good friend of Parsi Khabar sends us this very interesting article. Framroze writes “These days Alfred Noble is in news. You probably did not know that the world’s first Bessemer...
Shahnameh, a Persian Masterpiece, Still Relevant Today
Long before HBO’s wildly popular Game of Thrones was created, Iranians turned to the national literary epic ‘Shahnameh” (The Book of Kings) for intriguing tales of knights, nobility and mystical...
An Excerpt from the life of Dosebai Cowasjee Jessawalla
Old school English stands proud Article by Bhavani Krishna Iyer | The Sun Daily Malaysia THERE have been generous outpourings of all things women in the past weeks, among others, and I...
Chinese excavations likely to redefine Zoroastrianism’s origin
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the ancient Persian Empire. Its founder, Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, is thought to have been born in what is now Northeast Iran or Southwest Afghanistan. A...
Parsis and their cars
Why are Parsis into cars? Why do their prized possessions enjoy a unique brand equity in India? We meet a few Parsis to learn about their passion for their mechanical mistresses. From the archives:...
Royapuram: Wheel of time takes the sea away
In the 1970s, Ajit Diaz’s family was among the very few non-Anglo Indian families to make Royapuram their home. Article by Serena Josephine M | The Hindu What he vividly remembers about this north...
Found & lost: Tata villa in Shanghai
A hundred and ten years ago, Parsi businessman Bejan Dadabhoy Tata, a distant relative of the founder of one of India’s oldest corporate houses, sailed from Mumbai to Shanghai to further his...
‘Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: The Man and His Times’
The army headquarters had recommended that the Republic Day parade in 1972 be cancelled but the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the pageant to take place to celebrate the Indian Army's...
Mumbai Samachar: Going strong at 192
On July 1, Mumbai Samachar, the city's second most circulated Gujarati paper, will reaffirm its position as the oldest surviving newspaper in Asia. When copies of the Mumbai Samachar (MS) hit the...
Jamshed Nasarwanjee Rustamjee Mehta: The Real Father of Karachi
'Ownership', as defined by Oxford English Dictionary is ‘the act, state or right of possessing something’. In Urdu, it translates into Milkiyyat, while in Sindhi the alternative is Maaliki. When...
Homi Bhabha’s iconic home on the block today
Mehrangir on Malabar Hill, the bungalow where the father of India's atomic energy programme, Homi Bhabha, once lived, will go under the hammer on Wednesday afternoon. Article by Nergish Sunavala...
The Tradition of Indo-Persian Literature
The recent removal of Persian, Arabic and Pali from the list of subjects in UPSC exams has given rise to the question of the validity of these languages. Article by Rana Safvi | DNA India The reason...
In Search of Kersasp ‘Kish’ Ardeshir Dadabhai Naoroji
Good friend of Parsi Khabar, Dinyar Patel referred us to Simon Buck who sends us the following appeal Eastside Community Heritage, a charity based in East London, are in search of anyone with...
The Tatas of Shanghai: A Fascinating Story
Mesmerized by the tale of the Tatas bilateral relationship with a city that was once known as the Paris of the East Inchin Closer explores a personal story, which highlights scintillating Shanghai...
Decoding Religion: Zoroastrianism
Ancient Persian faith perseveres today despite declining populations, limited presence on campus In an effort to further understand UTD’s diverse popluation, what follows is part one in a four-part...
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...
Perin Pudumjee Coyaji And Avestan Calligraphy
With every Avestan letter I mastered, I felt like I was securing a piece of Zoroastrian culture’ Perin Pudumjee Coyaji is the only person in the world to have written a book of Kusti prayers in...
How Bombay’s Parsis cracked the opium trade
In the opening chapter of Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke, Bahram Modi of Navsari, recently married into the Mistrie family of Bombay, is trying to persuade his wealthy fatherin-law to let him get...
B. Merwan and the Irani Cafe: A Fading Icon
Recently the news about B. Merwan the iconic Irani cafe with the best Mava cakes in the world, shutting down; has brought a sense of gloom over all those who love the restaurant and in fact the...