The Ministry of Minority Affairs will host a cultural spectacleThe Everlasting Flame International Programme from March 19, 2016 – May 29, 2016 at premiere cultural institutes of the city under its scheme Hamari Dharohar in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Parzor Foundation.The International Everlasting Flame Programme to be inaugurated on 19th March 2016 is a celebration of the history, beliefs, practices, and contribution of Parsis, the micro-minority communitywhose contribution surpasses its numbers. It will showcase a plethora of cultural events spread over a period ofmore than two months. It will encompass all the elements of the contribution of Zoroastrians and Parsis to the world culture, philosophy and art.

The Everlasting Flame International Programme will present three exhibitions, titled The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination” at the National Museum, Threads of Continuity: Zoroastrian Life and Culture” at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and Painted Encounters: Parsi Traders and the Community” at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) along with many cultural and educational programme.

Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest world religions, originated amongst Iranian tribes in Central Asia during the second millennium BCE and spread to Iran where it became the principal faith until the advent of Islam. Central to the religion is the belief in a sole creator god, Ahura Mazda, his emissary Zarathustra (Zoroaster) and the dichotomy between good and evil.

The exhibition will take the visitors on a journey from the earliest days of Zoroastrianism to its emergence as the foremost religion of imperial Iran. From the shores of Iran to the west coast of India, the maritime journey of Zoroastrians is followed to their settlement in India where they came to be known as the Parsis., The exhibition examines their growth as an immigrant community in India and the later expansions. The narrative is divided into 10 sections.

Today, the Parsis of India make up one of the largest Zoroastrian communities outside their original Persian homeland. Having been at the receiving end of religious persecution in Persia, the followers of Zoroastrians sought refuge in the west coast of India around 937 A.D. Indeed, having blended as Sugar in the Milk, the Parsis mark a distinct thread in the tapestry of multicultural heritage in India having adapted to the Indian context, they have endured their core belief best understood in the triad Humata, Hukata, Huvarashta (Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds). Their contribution to the making of Modern India is remarkable from scientific rigor as seen in the pursuits of Indias First Renaissance Man the pioneer of Atomic Science- HomiBhabha, to marking significant contribution in the Industrial Sector, Entertainment, Philanthropy and the Arts, the community, wherever it has gone carries with itself the mark of excellence.