Over 1000
years ago, the Zoroastrian Parsis of Iran
emigrated to India but were not welcomed with
open arms by Jadi Rana, the king of Gujurat.
“My country is overpopulated already,”
he said, “How would we find room for you?”
The leader of the Parsi immigrants
called for a bowl of milk filled to the brim and
a spoonful of sugar. He then carefully blended
in the sugar to the milk, not spilling a drop.
“We are like the sugar,” he explained,
“We will only sweeten your country.”
And the Parsis have indeed excelled in India.
Although not the first Zoroastrians on the
subcontinent, they rose to prominence under
British rule, becoming the preeminent class of
bureaucrats under the Raj administration, the
filter through which the British ruled India.
Learning in British schools and identifying with
the colonial quirks of the Raj, the Parsis were
seen as a class apart by the British and
consequently met with great social and economic
success.
Parsi, Rustom Maneck, was
appointed the first broker to the East India
company and set the model for Parsi financial
success thereafter around the economic hub of
Bombay, still today the center of Parsi life in
India. Many of the larger financial bodies in
India are still run by Parsis, including notable
businesses such as Tata whose trucks can be seen
on every road up and down the country.
But the future of Parsis looks uncertain. Whereas the census of 1951 put them at 111,000 strong, it's predicted that their numbers will shrink to around 20,000 by 2020.
