Indian High Commissioner Navtej Sarna lauded the Parsi community for its role in India’s freedom struggle as well as in post-independence nation-building.
Sarna was speaking at an event held under the aegis of the Zoroastrian All Party Parliamentary Group, in association with the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE), in the committee hall of the British Parliament.
The envoy recalled that a handful of people from Iran had landed on Indian shores more than a thousand years ago seeking a place where they could freely profess and pursue their religion. The Zoroastrians, or Parsis as they came to be known, had been absorbed into India’s patchwork quilt of religions and ethnicities.
Maintaining their strong sense of identity and culture, the Parsis had contributed to India richly over the centuries. The high commissioner recalled personalities like Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Dr Homi Bhaba, Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw and Maestro Zubin Mehta who had all played a great role in various fields in modern Indian history, said an official statement from the Indian high commission on Tuesday.
Sarna was the special guest speaker along with two others, David Landsman, Head of TATA in the UK, and Sir Mominic Cadbury, former chairman of Cadbury and Schweppes, on the topic ‘Faith-based ethics in Business: The Cadbury and The Tata Way’.
The event was chaired by Lord Karan Bilimoria.