1

REMEMBERING THE PARSIS

Dr Snober Sataravala
Assistant Professor
St Mira’s College for Girls
6, Koregoan Rd
Pune 411001
Maharashtra, India
Phone number: +9120 26124846, 09823350426
Email: snober.sataravala@stmirascollegepune.edu.in
Acknowledgement:
This work was supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research under the
grant for a Minor Research Project.

Biographical Note:

Dr Snober Sataravala is Head of the Department of English at St. Mira's College. She
has had the privilege of presenting part of her research to Padma Bhushan winner, Prof
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, at a masterclass held by the Dept. of English, Savitribai Phule
Pune University. The discussions have been included in a book Readings (2014) published by
Chicago University Press. Part of her current research was presented at the 4th International
Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Science Studies (ICISSS 2016 Cambridge) on July 4th-
6th 2016, University of Cambridge, Newnham College. At the moment her area of interest is
oral history, cultural memory and stereotypes particularly with reference to minorities.

Abstract:
When a community is rendered voiceless, not due to disempowerment but due to
extinction, one of the major sources used to resurrect its past reality is textual evidence. This
paper tries to understand how the Parsi community will be remembered when there are no
more living Parsis to speak for it.
Parsis are Indian Zoroastrians who have evolved their own idiosyncratic culture which
has made them both loved and respected but also the butt of fond and gentle ridicule.
Four paradigms of the queer, the fool, the entrepreneur/ drug dealer and the antichrist
are examined with the concern that the Parsis may be reconstructed to feed the appetite for the
sensational and exotic. In particular, it re-examines canonical poems like T. S. Eliot’s ‘The
Journey of the Magi’ and the all time favourite short story by O’Henry, ‘The Gift of the Magi’
for omissions and misrepresentation of the Magi. The paper also critiques the title of Friedrich
Nietzsche’s book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. A great injustice would be done to the memory of
a miniscule community that has contributed so generously not just to India but the world if
philanthropic efforts of great houses like the Tatas are erased and reconstructed.

Keywords: Parsi, hegemonic, culture, erasure, power, narrative, memory, Eliot, Nietzsche
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Remembering the Parsis

When a community is rendered voiceless, not due to disempowerment but due to
extinction, one of the major sources that remains to resurrect its past reality is textual
evidence. This paper is part of a minor research project that attempts to try and understand
how the Parsis will be remembered, when the community is extinct, by approaching the
problem from two angles. The first part involves a textual analysis of key texts under various
paradigms. The second part is both a qualitative as well as quantitative analysis of interviews
with non-Parsis from metropolitan cities across India to try and understand the power the
dominant majority has in constructing identity. The latter will not be explored in this paper as
it is yet to be undertaken and the scope is too broad for an academic paper, however, the focus
is on the difference between the non-Parsi versus the Parsi perception of the Parsi.
Textual evidence, in itself, is broad in scope as it varies widely from government
documents in the archives, history books, academic articles, newspaper articles, features in
magazines, personal family diaries, correspondence, to fiction, be it novels or stories. Louise
Montrose’s famous statement regarding “the textuality of history” versus “the historicity of
the text” asserts that history is fiction and must be read in that way, by analysing the points of
view and power structures, whilst literature can unveil various aspects of the past that are
deliberately elided by history books.
Although literature is fiction, fabricating stories that are not true, it draws upon real people
and real situations to construct this simulacrum or mirage of a world that existed at some
point in the past. However, the construct is always steered by power. Thus, who write and for
whom, at what point in history are they writing, what time in history are they depicting?
Why? What is the dominant discourse of that time? How are people remembered and by
whom? Are they remembered differently? These are important questions which must be
addressed.
Stuart Hall (1913-2014) has worked extensively in the field of cultural and national
identity as well as the power of representation. In Modernity: An Introduction to Modern
Societies (1996) he defines cultural identity as, “aspects of our identities which arise from our
‘belonging’ to distinctive ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, and above all national cultures”
(Hall, 1996: 596). He explores three concepts of identity: the traditional concept of the
“Enlightened subject” is a masculine one which views man as possessing an essentially
rational and scientific inner core. With time this evolved into what is now understood as the
“sociological subject”, which understands identity as having an essential but not autonomous
core, as it is formed in relation to “significant others” who mediate the subject’s values.
Hence the dominant culture exerts a sort of cultural hegemony where it coerces the margins to
steer their culture into not just being subservient to the dominant culture but also adhering to
its standards of normativity. He concludes with a final category, relevant to the contemporary
post-modern subject, which is fragmented, de-centred, variable and open-end. Interestingly,
the Parsis as a community have been post-modern since as far back as 632 A.D. They have re-
invented their identity over the years, despite not having a king or a single head priest,
evolving from refugees to merchant-princes to eccentrics and perhaps that is the reason they
have survived this long.
The question that arises is how does the dominant group depict the margin? A simplified
version of the answer provided by Edward Said (1935-2003), in his remarkable books
Orientalism (1978) and Culture and Imperialism (1993), is to maintain its dominance. Hall
asserts this happens by manipulating culture. So how has the identity of the Parsis community
been formed? How much of it has been determined by the Parsis themselves, as opposed to
that constructed by the dominant majority be it: the Hindus, the Muslims, the British, western
academics or contemporary colloquial discourse. National identities or “imagined
communities” “are not things we are born with, but are formed and transformed within and in
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relation to representation” (Hall 1996: 612). Thus, for him a nation, and in this case a
community, is a system of cultural representation.

National cultures construct identities by producing meanings about ‘the nation’

with which we can identify, these are contained in the stories which are told about
it, memories which connect its present with the past, and images which are
constructed of it. (613)

Hall elaborates on five elements that help imagine the modern nation or in this case
the community. They are narratives of the nation like histories and symbols in popular
culture; emphasis on origins and traditions to provide a seamless continuity and timelessness;
invention of traditions; foundational myths which are stories that locate origin like the ‘milk
and sugar’ story that marks the arrival of the Parsis in India.

The Parsi Myths:

Every family, let alone every community, allows stories to grow symbolically and take
on mythical stature which positions them as various types of heroes. Ruth Finnegan in her
essay “Family Myths, Memories and Interviewing” 1 establishes several paradigms under
which these stories grow. There is the “last straw” incident, the courtship ritual often leading
to a “love-at-first-sight” or test between competing suitors variant, quarrels and feuds. She
feels that migration that separates people enhances the symbolic depth of the selected
memories. Those who enunciate and guard these traditions and narratives are not “passive
transmitters but active creators” (178) and the myths that evolve may not be accurate in
factual terms but they definitely mould the family or in this case the community’s view of
themselves and their experiences.

Sugar and Milk:

A narrative of the Zoroastrian religion’s origin, chronicled by Taraporevala, begins
with the mighty Persian Empire ruled by first Cyrus and later Darius who were part of the
Achaemenian Empire (559BC-330BC). It was threatened two hundred years later by
Alexander the Great, who inspired by Xenophanes’s (c. 570-c. 475 BC) narratives of mighty
rulers, sacked their capital Persepolis. The religion was resurrected five and a half centuries
later by Ardeshir from the Sassan dynasty which ruled from (226 AD-641AD). Once again,
when ruled by a twenty-year-old boy Yazdegar (632 AD), it was threatened by the Arabs
from the south. The invasion was so complete that people today cannot conceive of a non-
Islamic Iran.
However, a small band of devoted Zoroastrians fled over the mountains to India. Their
first port of call was Diu, Gujarat. After residing there for nineteen years, they journeyed to
Sanjan in 936 AD/ 716 AD (the dates are debatable) where the Hindu ruler, Jadhav Rana gave
them asylum under certain conditions. They completely integrated themselves and yet
retained their unique identity, fighting alongside their Hindu neighbours when the Muslim
Sultanate invaded and sacked Sanjan, yet managing to protect their sacred fire.
The famous sugar and milk parable 2 , describing the arrival and integration of the
Parsis, has been used as much by the Parsis as well as the non-Parsis to highlight and praise

1
Ruth Finnegan and Michael Drake (eds), Studying Family and Community History: 19th and 20th Centuries.
Volume 1: From Family Tree to Family History, Cambridge: CUP in association with The Open University, 1994,
pp 117-122.
2
On arrival in Sanjan the king Jadhav Rana said that the land was full and hence there was no place for the
refugees. In response, the wise Parsi priest requested a glass of milk and sugar. The sugar dissolved in the milk
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their ability to assimilate thus not only creating a foundational myth but also inventing
traditions. When the Parsis came ashore their head priest was granted an audience with the
then ruler Jadi Rana. The story goes that the Rana showed the priest a glass of milk as a
metaphor for his land that was full to the brim; a subtle hint that there was no room for these
foreigners. The head priest requested for a spoon of sugar which he stirred into the milk
without a drop over flowing. He said the Parsis would mingle and sweeten the land as did the
sugar, the milk. The Rana yielded on the condition that the community must adhere to certain
promises.
Mythically, the promises often alluded to are: Parsis would adopt the Gujarati
language, way of dress and culture which they did. However, this is a living community and
hence the culture grows dynamically allowing for inclusions, modifications as well as aspects
of preservation. The fire which mythically came from Iran is said to be preserved along with
parts of the religion and yet much changed, as it must in order to survive. The problem being
addressed is the consequence of change imposed from outside without a living voice from the
inside to clarify or counter it.
Other promises, or inventions of tradition, were that marriages would be after sunset,
the community would keep its culture and religion private and there would be no conversion.
With time the community thrived and thanks to the British they flourished and became very
wealthy. Thus, undeniably, there is a sense of superiority within the community that they have
donned and has been given to them not just because of the afore mentioned reasons and their
English-speaking abilities but also because of the colour of their skin. The latter becomes an
unmentioned, not unconscious, narrative for preserving racial purity and hence the decline of
the community. The former reasons along with promises to the Rana are oft brought to the
forefront in public debates regarding demographic decline. This notion of racial purity and
superiority due to skin colour is conveniently assumed but never articulated. The image of the
‘fair and lovely’ Parsi cannot be sullied by the dark and dusky.
The advent of the East India Company in 1736 gave rise to trading and ship building
ventures which changed the fortunes of the Parsis who migrated in large numbers to Mumbai
where they still dominate the landscape in particular parts of the city. The main industry was
shipbuilding pioneered by Lowji Nusserwanji Wadia and the opium trade led by the
merchant-prince Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy who was a far cry from a mafia don or the wheeling
dealing drug pedlar in the Hindi movie Mangal Pandey: The Rising.
The narratives of Parsi fascination with British royalty often over shadow their
contribution to the freedom struggle whether it be the efforts of Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-
1917), Madame Bhikaiji Cama (1861-1936) or the President of the Indian National Congress
(1890) Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915).

Qissa-i-Sanjan3:
As already mentioned the most popular myth that informs Parsi identity based on its
arrival on Indian shores and the community’s future and social conduct on Indian soil has its
source in the Qissa-i-Sanjan4. It must be mentioned that the Qissa is not entirely accurate and

sweetening it without causing displacement. This metaphorically symbolised the Parsis promise to integrate
into local culture which they did still preserving their own culture and religion.
3
Translated by Shahpurshah Hormasji Hodivala, M. A., from Studies in Parsi History (Bombay, 1920, pp. 94-
117.) Electronic edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, copyright 2000. Hodivala refers to an earlier English
translation of the Qissa by E.B. Eastwick published in the first volume of the Journal of the Bombay Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society as being far from correct. According to him the Gujarati version by Dastur Framji
Aspandiar Rabadi in 1931 is better. Hodivala has relied mainly on the manuscript of Dastur Dorab Hormazdyar’s
Rivayat written in 1680 A.D.
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does have some lacunae but on the other hand it provides valuable insights into that time. The
Qissa was written by Bahman Kaikobad Hamjiar Sanajan sometime in 1600 A.D. Little is
known about the author other than he was one of the original ten priestly families. His father
possessed a literary leaning and was a leader among the Sanjana priests settled in Navsari.
The 854-line poem is an account of the emigration of the Zoroastrians from Iran to
India and their settlement in Sanjan in 936 A.D, the promises to Jadi Rana and the battle with
the Muslims during the sacking of Surat which probably took place in 1465 A.D. It also
describes how the sacred fire Iranshah was saved and moved to Navsari. The poem begins
with an invocation and paeans of praise to the almighty, omniscient, omnipotent creator of the
universe and man. There is a distinct conflation between Zoroastrian and Christian mythology
in the text for man is referred to being created out of clay and humanity consists of the
children of Adam. Man is created by God to be superior to the Angels. It is an invocation to
God to be merciful as Bahman, who refers to himself in the third person, is old and accepts
that death will be upon him soon.
The next section of the Qissa declares it will tell one part of the wondrous tale of the
coming of the men from Khorasan to India which has been recounted by mobeds 5 and
ancients. Dastur Hoshang is referred to as a primary source. It historically chronicles how:
Saintly Zartosh showed us the true path in Religion in the days when
King Vishtasp lived. He had described in the Avesta all the stages
through which his faith would pass. (4)
It alludes to Sikander (Alexander the Great) who burnt all the scriptures threatening
the religion till about 226 A.D when Ardeshir seized the kingdom and revived the faith only
for it to lose currency till King Shahpur [III] (309-379 A.D) came to power. After his death,
the Qissa claims that Iran was shattered and all laymen and dasturs had to go into hiding for
about fifteen years.
The sage dastur prophesized by looking at the stars that their tenure in Iran had come
to an end and for survival they must flee along with their women and children to Hindustan.
The anchor first fell at Div [Diu] where they stayed for nineteen years. The stargazer once
again prophesized a move which took the refugees to Gujarat. En route they were struck by a
disastrous storm and the priest prayed promising to “kindle a great fire to Waraharan” (7) if
delivered safely. As per the myth the storm promptly stopped and herein lies the genesis of
the Iranshah which is considered to be one of the most sacred fires in the Parsi faith.
On landing in Sanjan the travellers met the generous and virtuous Raja Jadi Rana.
However, he was wary of the strange people with alien customs. It is at this point he will
extract five promises which have in present day myth been diluted to three quite different
ones.
Let me first of all see what your beliefs are and we will then arrange
for your residence here. Secondly, if we gave you shelter, you must
abandon the language of your country, disuse the tongue of Iran and
adopt the speech of the realm of Hind. Thirdly, as to the dress of your
women, they should wear garments like those of our females.
Fourthly, you must put off all your arms and scimitars and cease to
wear them anywhere. Fifthly, when your children are wedded, the
marriage knot must be tied at evening time. If you give a solemn
promise to observe all of this, you will be given places and abodes in
my city. (8)

5
Parsi priests
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In the Qissa there is no mention of the sugar and milk parable nor is there any censure
on conversion which people claim to be one of the original promises made to the Raja. To
quell the Raja’s misgivings the priest explains their flight and plight. He elaborates that they
honour the Cow, Fire, Water, Sun and the Moon. He goes on to describe other rituals
followed like tying the Kusti and how menstruating women kept themselves aloof. The kind
Raja is convinced and allows the dastur to choose a fine spot for their dwelling which is
thereafter named Sanjan.
A scholar Dr Mody assumes five years passed before the consecration of the fire
temple however the Qissa simply mention ‘One day...’ they sought permission to consecrate
the Fire of Bahram [Warharan]. However, in order to do that the land had to be cleared. The
head priest approached Jadi Rana saying:
No alien should be there present, save and except the Wise Men of the
Good Faith. No person belonging to another creed might be there.
Then only will the fire be consecrated. (10)
The Rana was liberal and gave permission. It is ironic because what originated in liberalism,
inclusiveness and tolerance is now missing from this land and community. The Qissa states
for several days and months the priest recited prayers called Yasnas and Yashts. People,
including the Raja, sent offerings and the consecration was successful. Seven hundred years
of peace and prosperity passed and the Parsis dispersed in the lands of Hind.
The next section deals with Shah Mahmud who sent an army against the Raja of
Sanjan. The Raja called upon the Mobeds, Ervads and laymen to help, in exchange for the
asylum they were given in the past. The ancient Mobed said, “Do not, O Raja, be heavy-
hearted on account of this host. So long as even one of us is alive, the heads of a hundred
thousand (of the foes) will we scatter” (13).
He then goes on to describe the battle field, the armour and the clash with Alf Khan
which resulted in the Hindus fleeing the field. However, Ardeshir led the Parsis into the fray
and was triumphant. After that Ardeshir and Alf once again met on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, the Raja was killed and “the People of the Good Faith” i.e. the Parsis crept into
a hill name Bahrot to save their lives. Twelve years passed until taking the sacred fire
Iranshah with them they went to Bansdah where after fourteen years their fortunes took a
turn.
Three Dasturs brought the Iranshah to Navsari due to the patronage of a wealthy
Parsi. The Qissa ends with a thanksgiving and a declaration that the Iranshah remained at
Navsari for two hundred years thereafter therein ending the Quissa or story/myth.

Ilm-e-kshnoom

Another more recent myth that is relatively unknown is that of the mystical sect
known as Ilm-e-kshnoom. Dr Ramiyar Karanjia, Principal of Athornan Madressa6, explained
that about 120 years back a gentleman called Behramshah Shroff from Surat 7 proclaimed that
he had gone to an unknown destination in Pakistan. From there he revealed that he was taken
by some spiritual people to unidentified special mystical place in the Damovand mountains
where he was kept for a span of about two and a half years and he was telepathically given
special spiritual knowledge about the religion which he was told not to reveal until instructed.
When he returned to India for some years he was silent till one day he chanced upon a
religious class and he felt the instruction being imparted was incorrect. Mythically that
defined the moment he received the signal to go forth and spread what he learnt.

6
A school to train young Parsis from priestly families to become dasturs or priests
7
A city in Gujarat in India
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The myth goes that he spoke about the fire and its significance with such profound
insight that people were amazed by his knowledge. He came to Bombay and acquired a set of
disciples like the Chiniwala brothers and Masani brothers who started documenting what he
said. This group referred to themselves as Ilm-e-kshoom. On the other hand, there was some
opposition to the group as they felt his teachings were not exactly consistent with the
Zoroastrian religion. For example, the concept of reincarnation that he spoke of is not part of
or acceptable to the mainstream religion.
In addition, there were certain concepts that they preached which were not in the
documented Zoroastrian texts like the idea that souls of the world are divided into 5 groups
and all the major religions of the world have those divisions. So, part of what he said was an
extension of what the religion propounded but part was completely different. That is how this
school of thought was formed and till date they have some ardent followers. They even tried
to start their own fire temple called the Fasli Agiary because they believed in Fasal or season
and took 21st March as their New Year.
It is believed that Behramshah Shroff was from a priestly family but he was not a
priest. His knowledge was not through academic learning or scholarly research rather it was
telepathically transferred from mind to mind. He was not even consciously aware that he was
getting all this information. The story goes that the reason why he was chosen was that in his
past life he helped a spiritual person in a war. He was chosen to repay that debt.
Thus, the term literature in this paper is used to include all written or spoken material
and becomes a valid site to study community because inadvertently, in the process of
fictionalizing and myth making, a certain degree of documentation takes place. This is what
persists, captures the imagination of a people and then becomes their reality. Other sites like
cinema, advertising and architecture also translate culture and community but this research
will focus primarily on written fiction. However, “National culture has never been simply a
point of allegiance, bonding and symbolic identification. It is also a structure of cultural
power.” (Hall 1996: 615)
In short, Parsis are Indian Zoroastrians who have evolved their own idiosyncratic
culture which has made them both loved and respected but also the butt of fond and gentle
ridicule. To think that a community that contributed to the sciences, arts, literature,
architecture will disappear after struggling for thousands of years to survive is heart breaking
but to have their identity usurped, reinvented and distorted must be prevented against and one
way is to document their culture through the written, celluloid and digital medium. The
Jewish people never let the world forget what the holocaust did to them by documenting it
repeatedly and creating narratives of victimhood that have dominated popular imagination to
such an extent that they are unable to see them otherwise. The Parsis, in order to counter
popular culture and the stereotype of the ‘yeda Parsi’, must also preserve and document
extensively and repeatedly; for all historical fiction is the act of constantly erasing and
rewriting history and in the process, one must preserve the trophies as well as the scars of a
community.
In particular, the research project focuses on written evidence in novels under four
paradigms of the queer, the fool, the entrepreneur/ drug dealer and the antichrist with the
concern that the Parsis may be reconstructed to feed the appetite for the sensational and
exotic. Since there will be no living voice to object, they could be museumized and their
identity usurped, used in the process for purposes that might be against their will. Due to their
extreme minority status 8 and alterity, the chances of them being positioned as prominent
leaders of the nation will be slim and what will persist is the clown of cinema who has
entertained audiences for centuries.

8
ostensibly the number is at 75,000 and dwindling
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On strolling through the Parsi Panchayat in Mumbai, mighty yet dusty paintings of
grey bearded Parsis in richly embroidered (and now faded) clothes stare intensely at you or
more nurtured portraits of dearly departed hang in the Agiary or Fire temple but these are for
the Parsi gaze only. The non-Parsi views the caricatures available in mainstream cinema. The
character of the effeminate yeda9 Parsi, dominated by his scolding shrew mother or on a rare
occasion his wife, is a recurring trope. He is a person who stands up for principles that are no
longer meaningful, polishing his ancient vehicle that is no longer manufactured and yet in
mint condition, dressed in his sadra10 and topi11. The mighty statues that guard over sacred
wells like the Bhika Behram Well merge with the architectural landscape and simply become
Mumbai.
One way of preserving memory is through ethnography or the study of a community
which is what the exhibition in New Delhi attempts to do. However equally important is to
question cultural paradigms or stereotypes as these tend to become problematic as not only do
they erase difference and reduce something vibrant to a static common denominator, they also
involve a sense of exclusivity, judgement as well as exclusion. Being a wealthy, relatively
honest minority community that has done a great deal of charity, which again is in itself a
stereotype; the Parsis have not experienced overt discrimination.
Definitely efforts are being made to resurrect the glory of the past so it overshadows
the burlesque of the present. This is being done through narratives of the community and
emphasis or origin. Recently, Threads of Continuity: Zoroastrian Life and Culture, a
remarkable exhibition was held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi
from the 22nd to 29th March 2016. The exhibits came from around the world and it was
sponsored by Dr Cyrus Poonawalla. In addition, United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organisation along with the Ministry of Minority Affairs Government of India also
supported the exhibition. So, endangered as the Parsis are, they definitely have a greater
chance of being remembered than many other tribal minorities in India. However, inevitably,
what overshadows the narrative of the community will be that of the Nation which consists of
the dominant culture.
Perhaps because the Parsis are a progressive community or maybe because of
inbreeding or simply due to a genetic inclination there has been a significant number of Parsi
homosexuals who have had the courage to be publicly queer. Hoshang Merchant (1947) in his
autobiographical book The Man Who Would Be Queen (2011) opens a window into that
world, inadvertently resonating to the unknown Parsi, Freddie Mercury of ‘Queen’ fame. The
dominant discourse tends not to read this as a narrative of personal suffering but rather feels
this is an unnatural racial flaw and the cause of the community’s demographic decline; others
put the decline down to the powerful economically self-reliant women who have no patience
for the effeminate ‘mama’s boy’ and hence have looked outside to greener pastures. Both of
these are stereotypes, and to label the entire community as queer and blame their extinction on
inbreeding, is to do a great disservice to a community that has contributed significantly to
India.
The next externally ascribed category deals with the term fool which has many traces.
At one level it resonates back to that of the Elizabethan fool who was slightly touched in the
mind and hence given the license to blurt out facts that people thought but dare not utter
which is visible in the quintessential image of the yeda Parsi. Hindi cinema has captured this
character in movies like Qurbani, Khatta Mitha, Pestonjee and more recently in Munna Bhai
MBBS, Ferrari ki Sewari, Shirin Farhad ki Nikal padi, Being Cyrus, Bombay Velvet and Little
Zizou. The number of movies reinforces how dominant the stereotype is. However, there has

9
mad
10
An inner vest of fine muslin of religious significance
11
A velvet skull cap worn whilst praying
 9

been a distinct change in the portrayal of the Parsi. The earlier films like Khatta Mitha are
very generous in their portrayal of the Parsis who despite their quirks have great dignity,
decency and honesty. Values like the family over ride petty personal politics. With time the
quirkiness gets amplified from obsessive carrom players in Munna Bhai MBBS to
pathological homicide in Being Cyrus. Contemporary Indian cinema now seems fascinated
with the Parsi as the diabolical criminal whether it be in Bombay Velvet or the most recent
biopic Sanju that blames the misdemeanour of the bad boy of Hindi cinema Sanjay Dutt on
his Parsi friend. On the other hand, Rohinton Mistry (1952) in his writings, at a more serious
and sensitive level, explores this trope in the character of the idiot Tehmul in Such a Long
Journey (1991).
Michel Foucault (1962-1984), another great twentieth century thinker, also feels that
the outspoken madman has a great role to play in society as he has the courage to say the truth
which the sane dare not. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975), Foucault is
concerned when society tries to coerce people to conform to the dominant normative
standards. At an overt level this has never happened but at a more covert level perhaps that is
what the label yeda Parsi attempts to do, for it is a label given by non-Parsis. However, by
good-naturedly allowing the epithet perhaps the Parsi has exploited it, taking a licence to
behave in a way that is not permitted to others.
A narrative of origin, tradition and continuity is told by Parsi surnames which reflect
either their profession or their origins. So, surnames like Tyrewala, Canteenwala,
Watchmaker are quite common, interestingly, Sodabottleopenerwala has now become the
name of a hip resto-bar in Mumbai and hence no longer associated with identity or surname.
Surnames like Bharucha, Poonawalla, Sataravala are rooted in the names of towns or cities
like Bharuch in Gujarat or the colonial name for Pune which was Poona. The surname Sethna
is interesting for at one level it alludes to the Parsi Seths or merchant-princes but at another
level the suffix ‘-na’ translates as ‘belonging to’ and hence implies the illegitimate children of
the Seth.
The Parsi as the entrepreneur will live thanks to the Tatas, Godrejs, Wadias,
Poonawallas and so on. These become part of great narratives of the nation leading people to
forget that the names belonged to Parsis, as in the case of B.J Medical College, Pune. The
erasure is that the initials stood for Behramji Jeejeebhoy, something which people have
forgotten. The fact is these doyens are remembered for their class and status and not the
religious community they belong to. On the other hand, perhaps it will be the character of the
wealthy opium dealer Bahram in The River of Smoke (2011) by Amitav Ghosh (1956) and his
wife Shireen in Flood of Fire (2015) that will live in the imagination of people. The Hindi
movie Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) depicts the Parsi, in the role of a collaborator with
the British and their opium trade, who exploited the Indians which was not true of the whole
community. Ironically, the movie Guru was made to tell the story of the great entrepreneur
Dhirubhai Ambani but no movie has been made on the Tatas who built India as a nation both
through their pioneering entrepreneurial spirit as well as philanthropic generosity. Sir Dorab
Tata donated all his money to charity which now is a huge part of the Tata Trust which till
date supports art, education, sport, agriculture not just in India but around the world.
Finally, the title of Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1883-1891) book Thus Spoke Zarathustra
(1974) has nothing to do with Zarathustra, the Parsi prophet, but appropriates his name to
loosely signify a kind of antichrist proclaiming that God is dead and man is superman.
Ironically, the Parsis will be dead, nobody will read Nietzsche’s book but popular imagination
will know Zarathustra’s sayings as what Nietzsche wrote into existence in his book.
Sooni Taraporevala (1957) in the introduction of her extraordinary book The
Zoroastrians of India Parsis: A Photographic Journey (1980-2000) (2000), writes that her
book, ‘...has its genesis in that childhood desire to hold on tight to what is precious, not allow
 10

it to change or disappear’ and for her that is possible through photographs that ‘freeze time
and survive death’ ( Taraporevala, 2000: 9). Any culture is precious but that which is on the
verge of extinction must be treated with extreme care lest it disappear forever or worse still
get distorted and disfigured beyond recognition.
Taraporevala comments that part of her childhood school banter involved her being
called a ‘mad Bawaji12’. She even narrates a comic anecdote from whilst she was studying in
America where on mentioning the name of the Parsi prophet Zarathustra her fellow students
would say “Zorro who?” (Taraporevala, 2000: 11) and she would clarify referring to
Nietzsche who wrote the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Richard Strauss who composed
the Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) (1896) inspired by the former. This
music was used in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Ironically, neither
have anything to do with the prophet. Comically, she continues, the Parsi Panchayant
enthusiastically ordered several hundred copies of Nietzsche’s book only to discover to their
horror that neither did it have anything to do with the prophet nor could they understand it.
Thus, Spake Zarathustra most blatantly appropriates an exotic name based on an
Orientalist’s assumption that none of the original ethnic followers will read or understand
what is written. Nietzsche could have invented a name or used an ordinary ‘everyman’s’ name
but he uses an unusual name of an ancient community to legitimize his theory without
considering that he is violating the sentiments of a living community which in his mind did
not exist, inspiring other people to create in that name knowing nothing about it. What will
happen when that community really does not exist?
All these paradigms become traces of the signifier Parsi but exploring which one will
dominate over the others to generate a simulacrum that will persist in the minds of future
generations is the purpose of this research.
Hall in the introduction of Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying
Practices (1997) elaborates that, “Primarily, culture is concerned with the production and the
exchange of meanings—the ‘giving and taking of meaning’—between members of a society
or group’ (Hall 1997: 2) and this is achieved through language. The representations are not
important for what they are but what they do. They are constitutive and ‘...representation is
conceived as entering into the very construction of things...” (Hall 1997: 6). Discursive
formations or the way people talk about a particular topic actually defines and establishes
what knowledge is true and which people embody it. This is the politics of representation and
the effects and consequences are that power regulates conduct, makes up and constructs
identities and “defines the way certain things are represented, thought about, practiced and
studied” (Hall 1997: 6).
In the chapter, “The Spectacle of the ‘Other’” he asserts “knowledge linked to power
not only assumes the authority of ‘the truth’, but has the power to make itself true” (Hall
1997: 8). Thus, one is not just the subject of discourse but subjected by it. He goes on to
analyse “Why is ‘difference’ so compelling a theme...What is the secret fascination of
‘otherness’ and why is popular representation so frequently drawn to it?” (Hall 1997: 234).
He identifies four theoretical accounts that justify why difference matters. The first is
Saussurean which states that meaning is possible only through binary opposition. Thus, one is
non-Parsis because one is not a “yeda Parsi”. The next is based on a Bakhtinian derivative
from Saussure that meaning is not fixed but sustained by dialogue between two or more
speakers. Third, du Gay, Hall et al (1997) feel “...culture depends on giving things meaning
by assigning them to different positions within a classification system” (Hall 1997: 236)
forming superior /inferior, dominant/subordinate social groups that impose meaning. The
fourth explanation is psychoanalytic and in a Freudian sense it invokes an Oedipus complex-

12
Colloquial term for Parsi
 11

like desire for “the Other”. Thus, there is a divided legacy to difference which explains the
fondly indulgent portrayal of the Parsi as mad. For Hall “Stereotyping tends to occur where
there are gross inequities of power” (Hall 1997: 258).
The lacuna in these theories is they presume the presence of the “Other”. Similarly,
Foucault’s revolutionary redefining the circulation of power as being available for anyone to
seize assumes the presence of another. However, in the case of the Parsis due to extinction
neither will they be around to participate in the dialogue nor can the dead seize power. Thus,
the regime of representation will neither be challenged nor contested or reformed.
From a western perspective, when considering the delightful short story ‘The Gift of
the Magi’ (1905) by O. Henry (1862-1910), what is erased by history, the writer belonging to
the dominant community, the readings and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English
Dictionary which defines the Magi as ‘the three wise men from the East who brought gifts to
the baby Jesus’ (706) is that the Magi most probably were Zoroastrian Kings. At a more
scholarly level A. Berrierdale Keith deals with the controversy in “The Magi” (1915) to refute
Professor J. H. Moulton’s argument that the Magi were neither Aryan nor Semitic rather they
were aboriginal priests who appropriated and altered the teachings of Zoroaster, which is
another instance of erasure. Interestingly, the less scholarly source Wikipedia does mention
the Zoroastrian lineage whilst the popular Christmas carol ‘We Three kings of Orient are’
does not and cannot, for the memory does not exist. More problematic is T.S. Eliot’s (1888-
1965) poem ‘The Journey of the Magi’ (1927) which deals with the imaginary angst of the
kings rejecting:

...the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

At no point does the imagination of the presumptuous dominant majority accept the
presence of the minority; instead they speak for them, imagine their emotional upheaval and
write their alterity as primitiveness. What could have been a narrative of the Magi’s
magnanimity, religious tolerance and respect for a miracle of survival turns into self- loathing
through the eyes of Eliot. Thus, sometimes more dangerous than erasure is ‘re-membering’. If
the Magi have been distorted so, the future of the Parsis is indeed bleak.
Perhaps the most shocking distortion is in the Hollywood movie 300 (2006) directed
by Zack Snyder based on a 1998 comic series by Frank Miller and the sequel (2014) directed
by Noam Murro based on Miller’s unpublished graphic novel Xerxes. One may argue that it is
plain action and fantasy but there are clear racist overtones where the blond brave bare-
chested Greeks are contrasted with the dark skinned black clad Persians metonymic for
America versus Iran.
First the Iranian rulers referred to in the movie are Darius and Xerxes who were
Zoroastrian kings akin to the Magi who went to pay respects to Christ. Dr. Kaveh Farrokh in a
paper entitled "The 300 Movie: Separating Fact from Fiction" 13 notes that the film falsely
portrays “the Greco-Persian Wars in binary terms: the democratic, good, rational ‘Us’ versus
the tyrannical, evil and irrational, ‘other’ of the ever-nebulous (if not exotic) ‘Persia’”. His
paper makes an in-depth analysis of the historical, political and religious features of that time.
He mentions the contribution of the Achaemenid Empire to the creation of democracy and
human rights. “The founder of the Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus the Great, was the world's first
world emperor to openly declare and guarantee the sanctity of human rights and individual
freedom”, “Cyrus was a follower of the teachings of Zoroaster, the founder of one of the
world's oldest monotheistic religions”, and to put his own words in action “When Cyrus

13
http://www.ghandchi.com/iranscope/Anthology/KavehFarrokh/300/
 12

defeated King Nabonidus of Babylon, he officially declared the freedom of the Jews from
their Babylonian captivity. This was the first time in history that a world power had
guaranteed the survival of the Jewish people, religion, customs and culture.” According to Dr
Farrokh, Darius built the first “Imperial Navy” and the conflict with Greece was due to
Persia’s economic strength.
He quotes Dr. Ahmad Sadri (College Professor of Islamic World Studies, Lake Forest
College) rather astute comments:
“Snyder’s Persians – I am not talking about the disposable extras covered up to their
eyes in male burqas – are predominantly black and by implication of mannerism and affect,
homosexual. Allowing the widest berth for the genre and medium one still marvels at
Snyder’s audacity in demonizing the “Asiatic hordes” while morphing the Spartan warrior
into the typical white American survivalist. Snyder’s Spartans are white guys fighting a sea
of racially inferior blacks, yellows and browns.”

“300's Persians are ahistorical monsters and freaks. Xerxes is eight feet tall, clad
chiefly in body piercings and garishly made up, but not disfigured. No need – it is strongly
implied Xerxes is homosexual which, in the moral universe of 300, qualifies him for special
freakhood.”

In the sequel not only is the god-king Xerxes made to look inhuman but through the
treatment of the slaves who are chained to the oars and whipped in contrast to the free Greeks
the entire race is dehumanised. Artemisia the powerful naval general who is responsible for
Xerxes’s transformation is of Greek origin implying the Persians cannot achieve anything on
their own and it is only by surrender to evil, the god-king is born.
In the end Artemisia almost rises to tragic hero status as she dies like a true warrior
impaled against her only worthy opponent’s sword, after all she is of Greek origin whilst the
freak god-king slinks off like a coward.
The success of these films is evident from the fact that a sequel was made and 300 was
nominated for best picture at the MTV Awards. The problem is that the number of people
who will go to at the least a Wikipedia let alone a history book to research on what the
Zoroastrian Iranian kings where really like is miniscule compare to the number of people who
watched the movies and believed the stereotype. Thus, the erasure is almost absolute.
This paper perhaps has posed more questions that it has answered, however, the issues
at stake are beyond the scope of a paper and hence the minor research project. The aim of the
paper is to bring to light the dangers the Parsi community will face in the future. It may
appear fatalistic as it presumes the death of the community and the denial of its last will and
testament. As Hall asserts, universally the question of identity is at stake, as for the pure-
blooded Parsi, that has always been more of a myth than reality and in the future, it is an
impossibility, whether it be for demographic reasons or because of ‘shifting identities’.
For Hall, the post-modern subject is historically and not biologically defined. ‘If we
feel we have a unified identity from birth to death, it is only because we construct a
comforting story or “narrative of the self” about ourselves’ (Hall 1996: 598). What stories
about themselves can Parsis create when they are no more? What stories will be told about
them and why? What memory of the Parsi will the world inherit? Will they disappear like the
Magi, will they be distorted into self-rejecting Magi or will they become akin to the antichrist
who says, ‘God is Dead’, or will they be merchant-princes? All are possibilities.
Descartes famously says, ‘I think therefore I am’, in the case of the Parsis it will
translate as ‘They remember therefore we are.” The question is how will we be remembered?
 13

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 14

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