There’s a subtle caste system in place. Most Mumbai Parsis don’t want to discuss their tribal brethren. Priests refuse...
Issues Articles
BBC Documentary on the Jiyo Parsi Program, March 2021
The full 9 minute BBC segment on the Jiyo Parsi program including extended interviews with Professor Dr. Almut Hintze;...
A Death Rite At Peril
There are roughly 500 Parsis in Kolkata. But sadly, even this small community finds it difficult to maintain their age-old death ritual owing to a drop in the number of vultures and other problems....
Death in the city: How a lack of vultures threatens Mumbai’s ‘Towers of Silence’
In exclusive Malabar Hill, the city’s dwindling Parsi community continues with the Zoroastrian tradition of disposing of dead bodies by exposing them to scavenger birds. How much longer can this...
Can Higher Salaries Save Parsi Priesthood?
Ardeshir Nariman, 15, is fast approaching graduation. Like many boys his age in Mumbai—educated and upwardly mobile, his curiosity heavily seasoned with ambition—he’ll continue to college to study...
Aging Parsis Turn to Community Charity
The Parsi ward at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital seems a particularly sunny convalescent home. Its full-length gothic windows and yellow-beige walls light 45 beds, which most patients cannot leave. The tiny...
Interfaith Marriages Challenge Parsi Families
Neither Kushroo Anita, 35, nor Viraf Mehta, 30, have found “the one” yet. They’ve both finished school, established careers and grown eager to start families. But even in a city of 18 million,...
Parsis : A Community and a battle for survival
In her spartan office, Dhun Daraius Bagli is answering the third call in half an hour. The query is the same. So is her answer. “Sorry, we are full for December," says Bagli, putting down the...
Parsis debate priest’s organ donation appeal
While most support it, a small section of orthodox Parsis are in opposition claiming the body belongs to god. By Jyoti Shelar | Mumbai Mirror A Parsi high priest's appeal to donate organs has the...
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...
Why Are Parsi Numbers Declining: A TV Report
NDTV one of the mainstream news channels in India does a detailed TV report as a follow up on the recent launch of the Jiyo Parsi advertisement campaign. The phenomenal Shernaz Cama, who heads...
The dying profession of disposing of the dead
The gradual disappearance of vultures years ago almost led to the collapse of the Parsi 's doongerwadi system of disposing the dead. While the tradition now continues with the help of solar panels,...
Why Delhi’s Parsis don’t want non-Parsi spouses in their cemetery
The community is likely to vote against a proposal to allow the husbands and wives of those who marry outside the faith to be buried in the Parsi graveyard. The Parsis – one of India’s smallest...
Ban on Priests: An Open Letter By Dinshaw Tamboly
Published herewith is a letter received from good friend of Parsi Khabar; and ex-BPP Trustee Mr. Dinshaw Tamboly. July 14, 2014 Trustees, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Mumbai. Ladies &...
An Open Letter to BPP Sr Executive Mr Pheroze Patel
From time to time, Parsi Khabar will publish letters it receives from readers on community matters. Below is one such letter sent to us by a regular Parsi Khabar reader Arzan J. Ghadially. ...
What would you prefer: a museum or a thriving art centre?
In the news entirely for the wrong reasons is the Bhabha bungalow. (A little aside here: is anyone or anything ever in the news for the right reason?). The newspapers are full of it, and TV channels...
For Parsi population, eight small beginnings: Jiyo Parsi
Less than a year after the government launched “Jiyo Parsi”, a scheme to check the alarming decline in the country’s Parsi population, the stork is set to visit eight couples from the community who...
BMC allots land in Worli for Parsis who opt for cremation
With conservatives allegedly barring reformists from prayer halls in the Malabar Hill Doongerwadi, the civic body has allotted space to them in the Worli crematorium. By Jyoti Shelar | Mumbai Mirror...
A Burning Question
Mumbai’s Parsis find themselves divided over a crematorium for those who’d rather not opt for the traditional Towers of Silence. By Lhendup G Bhutia |OPEN Magazine When Dinshaw Tamboly was about...
Canadian Parsi body decries its leader’s speech
The Zoroastrian Society of Ontario (ZSO) has denounced a controversial public speech made by its president Sarosh Bharucha, suggesting that Mumbai Parsis should migrate to Canada if they object to...
Can India save its Parsi community with assisted reproduction?
The size of the Zoroastrian population is in sharp decline, reports Jeetha D’Silva, so the federal government has decided to fund advocacy and in vitro fertilisation in the hope of bucking the trend...
Uttar Pradesh government inflating Parsi numbers, says activist
A media activist here has accused the Uttar Pradesh government of falsely showing an increase in Parsi population in the state to siphon off educational scholarships meant for minority communities'...
BBC: India tries to boost its dwindling Parsi community
India is a country full of diverse religions and communities but the Parsis - who boast the highest literacy rate in the country and some of India's best known business families - are dwindling....
Parsis: Beloved, But Endangered ?: An NDTV Special
This is an NDTV one hour special With the Parsi community in a real danger of getting extinct, we debate the challenges within and outside the much loved Parsi community of India. .:
India Urges One Community to Reproduce
The Indian government, though faced with a rapidly expanding population, is trying to encourage one community to have more children. Author: Atish Patel | Source: Wall Street Journal The Parsi...
Jiyo Parsi: Govt scheme to boost population of Parsis
The Parsi community that boasts of the highest literacy rate and sex ratio in India is staring at extinction. In a population of 1.2 billion in India, there are only about 69,000 Parsis. Author:...
Parsis to get govt stimulus for raising their numbers
Under the minorities’ bonanza plan, couples to get Rs 5 lakh for infertility treatment Author: Aditi Tandon Source: Tribune News Service Ahead of elections, the Congress-led UPA government is all...
Supreme Court to Review Gujarat High Court’s controversial decision: Goolrukh Gupta Case
A Special Leave Petition (SLP) has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court’s controversial ruling that a woman who enters into wedlock, even under The Special Marriage...
Goolrukh Gupta: The panchayat is inconsistent
Interview with Goolrukh Gupta, the Parsi woman who petitioned the court seeking freedom to enter Parsi religious places. By Lyla Bavadam | Source: Frontline AN ISSUE THAT HAD ITS ORIGINS IN THE...
Plan to boost Parsi numbers falters
IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI New Delhi, Aug. 9: A central scheme for sponsored fertility treatment among Parsis to arrest their dwindling numbers has found no takers, prompting plans for a new...
Parsi punchayet greens see red
Zoroastrian scholar Khojeste Mistree, who was in charge of forestation at Doongerwadi, quits citing undue interference from Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Dinshaw Mehta. Author: Tinaz Nooshian...
India's dwindling Parsi population to be boosted with fertility clinics
The Indian government is to fund new fertility clinics to help save its dwindling Parsi population which is now under threat of extinction. Author: Dean Nelson Source: The Telegraph UK India's...
Iranian Anjuman Trust Ousts President and is Opposed to Palghar Land Deal with Bhai Thakur
Mehrwan Irani was against selling the community’s 963-acre plot to a company owned by the family of the Vasai-Virar strongman with a long criminal record The Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman,...
Godrej and Tata Institute of Social Sciences Renew Bids for Irani Trust Land in Dahanu
Godrej Properties and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have renewed their offers to develop a 963-acre sprawl in Palghar owned by the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman Trust. By Nauzer K Bharucha,...
Keeping the Fire Alive in Chennai
Pearl (name changed) is married to a non-Parsi, as a result of which her child has not been baptised as Pars. This is the case of several Parsi women married to non-Parsis in the city. This could be...
Irani trust’s land sale kicks off row
Anjuman Asks Its Chief, Who Had Opposed The 963-Acre Deal, To Resign By Nauzer K Bharucha | TNN Mumbai: There is growing opposition within the Zoroastrian community against the sale of 963 acres...
Mumbai's Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman to sell 963 acres of land in Palghar for Rs 732 crore
This could perhaps be the largest chunk of contiguous land to be put on the block in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman, a private community trust, will sell its humungous...
Hyderabad Parsis pray for return of the scavenger bird
The dwindling number of vultures is adding to the woes of the dwindling Parsi community in the city. By Bushra Baseerat | TNN Depending on the scavenging birds to dispose of their dead in the 'Tower...
Surat Parsis concerned over Dokhma's existence
Concerns are being raised over the continuing existence of 500-year-old 'Tower of Silence' or Dokhma at Umarwada, which is not only being used by people of Surat, but also Parsis from distant places...
Giving New Life to Vultures to Restore a Human Ritual of Death
Fifteen years after vultures disappeared from Mumbai’s skies, the Parsi community here intends to build two aviaries at one of its most sacred sites so that the giant scavengers can once again...
Ancient Persian religion on the decline in Pakistan
The Parsis, who fled Iran in the face of the country's Muslim conversation centuries ago, settled across India and Pakistan. But in recent years, the prominent Karachi religious minority is...
Purity makes Parsis an endangered species
IN a country where 70,000 babies are born every day, young Zahan Daruwala's birth three months ago was a relatively rare event. As the child of two Indian Parsi parents, Zahan is one of fewer than...
Union govt okays free fertility treatment for Parsis
The Union government has approved a proposal by the minority affairs ministry to bear the cost of fertility treatment in order to arrest the decline of Parsi population in the country. A similar...
Endangered Minorities: The 21st Century's Ignored Tragedy
Ifyou thought Europe’s demography was sluggish, spare a thought for India’s Parsis, declining at such a rate that the government is allocating money for fertility clinics. By Ed West | The Telegraph...
Race to save dwindling Parsis
Facing extinction, the Parsi population has something to cheer about. The Planning Commission has granted sanction to set up fertility clinics for the Parsis. The Minority Affairs Ministry will now...
Surat Parsi Panchayat: We want our rights and security, not money
Central government might have approved first-of-its-kind scheme to help increase the diminishing number of Parsis in the country through a scientific and structured approach, but there is a lack of...
Plan to boost Parsi numbers gets nod
The Planning Commission has cleared a scheme to arrest the dwindling population of the Parsi (Zoroastrian) community, in what will be the first intervention of its kind. The Plan panel had earlier...
Where Vultures Dare
Soon there shall be 150, yes, 150 vultures at Doongerwadi . This is not a Gustad Gossip story. It is true. Just as we thought that BPP had abandoned its vulture aviary project (for the uninitiated,...
Piroze Khan: Delegate on Parsi Matrimonial Court Suggests Change
DELEGATE OF MATRIMONIAL COURT SUGGESTS CHANGES By Piroz Khan | Mumbai Samachar I am very glad and would like to thank you for giving your article in Mumbai Samachar of the 17th June, 2012, under the...
Overhaul Parsi Matrimonial Law
Phiroze Khan, 87, our friend and insurance agent for many decades is a remarkable gentleman. A loyal employee of Bombay Dyeing for many years, he worked really hard as an insurance agent to bring up...
Parsis petition Centre for survival
The Parsis are a demographically declining community on the cusp of near extinction. This is what Keki Daruwalla, Sahitya Akademi award-winning poet and a member of the National Commission for...
The Promise Of A New Day: World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust
Since the 1990s, The World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust, based in India, has been working in the villages of Gujarat, specifically in the villages of Navsari and Surat, to uplift the lives of poor...