The Parsis of Chennai

I attended an excellent, informative, sweeping, humorous lecture on the Parsis of Chennai, by Tehnaz Bahadurji, on March 4, 2015, under the auspices of INTACH, at Alliance Francaise in Chennai. I posted this on Facebook, but not yet in my blog. Here are my notes.

For context,  Iran is modern Persian word for Arriana (Land of Aryans). Pars is a town in Iran, which gave them the name Persians - like the word Madrasis used by North Indians collectively for South Indians. The Iranians consider themselves Aryans - as a race. Parsis are Iranians of Zorastrian religion who refused to convert to Islam when Iran was conquered by Arabs in the 7th century. Some Zorastrians stayed in Iran, the group that sought refuge in and settled in Gujarat were called Parsis. A later group of Zoroastrian Iranians immigrated to India in the last few centuries, and they are called Iranis.

Sheer pride in the accomplishments of the Parsis through history, especially in the last two hundred years shone through. So did the wistful longing for good times gone past and a community fading as rapidly as the credibility of opinion polls. Only about 60000 (Sixty thousand) remain in India today - the Government of India has a special program attempting to increase their population. (Let's just say that Parsis still are doing better than original natives of the Andaman Islands.)

Dadabhai Naoroji and Feroz Gandhi were the only politicians she named. Apparently Parsis do better in business. And law. And the military. And sports. And social service. And hoteliering. And...

Names of industrialists like Tata, Wadia, Godrej, lawyers of distinction Nani Palkivala, Fali Nariman, the much beloved Field Marshal Manekshaw, cricketers Farokh Engineer, Polly Umrigar, Nari Contractor, the Iranis and the Screwvalas of the cinema world were all mentioned. Haridas, the superhit Tamil movie of the 1940s, starring the first superstar of Tamil cinema, MK Thyagaraja Bagavathar which ran for three Deepavalis, was produced by a Parsi!

She covered everything from the origins in Persia with the prophet Zarathushtra, their holy text, the Zend Avesta, the first monotheistic religion with their God Ahura Mazda, the three basic principles :

Humata - good thoughts,

Hukta - good words,

Huvarashta - good deeds,

the Navjoth ceremony and its attendant costumes, rituals, feasting and drinking, the emigration of a large group of Parsis to Gujarat, the legend of sugar in milk, the Parsi love for food - with strong and repetitive emphasis on their irrepressible carnivorous tastes. The thread ceremony - Navjoth - is for both boys and girls. Also, with beer mutton and chicken served afterwards, the feast is quite different from Hindu functions. Their "gathas" and "Avesta" their holy books in the Avestan language are only understood by a small minority.

Then she moved on to their arrival in Chennai, the contributions of Mary Clubwala Jadhav, a very active socialite and philanthropist of the early 20^th century, and the centenary celebration of the Chennai fire temple with President Abdul Kalam as chief guest.

Most remarkable to me was her mention that Cyrus Poonawala heads Serum Institute of India, whose products vaccinate two-thirds of all children in the world! That is indeed astounding.

Thank you, marvelous Parsis. May your tribe increase.

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Punjabis Marwadis Parsis in Madras

These are my notes from a lecture by Anuradha Oberoi on August 23, 2016 at the Press Institute of India, Taramani, as one of the five Madras Day lectures held over the week. Her talk was supposed to be about five communities, including Sindhis and Bengalis, but I have notes only for these three. I cant remember if she ran out of time, or my fingers gave up typing on the cellphone. 

Punjabis in Madras There were only four Punjabi families in Chennai before the India-Pakistan Partition. Most notable names are General Gill and Sri Dhawan, who picked up partition refugees from Madras Central railway station and gave them food shelter and community support. The early community were mostly traders, who did not emphasize education, dismissive of it, now totally different. Now there are several first generation IIT graduates. Extremely friendly,  often lived beyond their means, spent loads of money on clothes. This is captured by the phrase Jeb me ek, haath me das (one rupee in the pocket, ten in the hand). They suffered Culture Shock in the first few years at the insularity of Chennai but now prefer Chennai to Punjab. Life is more casual here. Punjabis are much more skeptical about women's education than south Indians, think women should stay home with kids.

Marwadis in Madras  Marwadis never address each other by name, only by relationship term like chachee, bhabi etc. Extremely supportive of each other socially, helping cook etc. They lend each other money at low rates, but dont loan to outsiders, that is non-Marwadis, at least not at the same low rates. They spend a lot on weddings, far beyond their means. Joint families are mostly the norm. The majority  of Marwadis are vegetarian, except Rajputs. They use lot of basin in cooking. Marwadis tend to recreate their homeland, the Marwar region of Rajasthan-Gujarat, wherever they go. Taking people for theertha yatra (journey to sacred rivers and temples) is considered very blessed. Wherever we go we have a home. People three generations apart will happily stay at relatives houses on tour. Tremendous community help, often exploited.

Parsis in Madras Only 210 Parsis are left in the city now. It's a very articulate community. Elegance in conversation. 

The early legend is of Zoroastrian migrants from Iran (called Pars or Persia, hence the Parsis) fleeing the invasion of Islam, who first settled in Gujarat. When they asked for some land to stay, the king at that time showed them a full bowl of milk to indicate there was no space for them. The leader asked for a spoon of sugar, stirred it in the milk, and indicated that they would sweeten the land without taking up space, like sugar in milk. This delighted the king who allowed them to stay on five conditions.

Parsis are also noted for their tremendous community help. They provide low rent housing to fellow Parsis like Marwadis. Self depreciating humor. Ardent bike lovers. "We love bikes because they don't talk back, like our wives". Love eggs. They are polite to everyone but mix socially only amongst  themselves. The first Parsis in Madras made money as dubashis and in opium trade but spent money on philanthropy.

They don't allow conversion into community and hence have the problem of shrinking numbers. There has been  a Population Implosion. This is a subject of earnest debate within the community, but has not resulted in any significant change. If they drop below twenty five thousand globally, they will be declared a tribe. Parsi priests in Madras will not do rites for cremated, only for those taken to Tower of Silence (in Mumabi), in accordance with the original Avestan traditions of Zoroastrians. Vultures are extinct in Chennai, so no Tower is feasible here.

You may like these other blog essays

1. A report in The Hindu of this talk

2. A comparative timeline of Gujarat and Tamilnadu

3. Marriages in India - some statistics

4. Madras and its American connections

5. A Madras Day Interview - Sriram V & Sanjay Subramaniam

6. Madras - India's first modern city

7. FW Ellis: An Englishman's Tamil inscription

8. A Welsh evening in Madras