Parsis and Jews of India

[Sanket]

Parsis and Jews of India

Paris and Jews of India are amongst the smallest communities in the country. There are about 69,000 Parsis and . 5000 Jews nationwide, most living in Mumbai, and their numbers are fast declining.

Members of both communities have played a major role in making Mumbai the city it is today.

Ancestors of both arrived in India more than a thousand years ago, to escape persecution in the lands they came from.

The early immigrants of both communities were given land by the local Hindu rulers to help them settle down, where they established their places of worship, their homes, and their businesses. They were free to follow their faith and had equal opportunities in every field. The Parsis and Jews intermingled and assimilated very well with the welcoming host communities. In Cochin, the King gave land, adjacent to his palace, to the newly arrived Jews to build their synagogue.

Both communities placed a lot of emphasis on education, picked up local customs and manners, while retaining and following their faith.

Through hard work, foresight, diligence, good business practices and education - both communities rose in stature, and made immense contributions to the society. Mr. Jamsetji Tata, a Parsi gentleman, was a visionary who brought India its first steel plant, its first state-of the-art cotton mills, its first world-class luxury hotel. This happened in India of late 19th century. JRD Tata started the aviation industry in India.

What Tata family is to the Parsis, Sassoon family is to the Jews. Both families were based in Bombay, now Mumbai. David Sassoon, in the latter half of the 19th century, set up businesses which gained in strength, set up schools, and libraries. His grandson Jacob Eliyahu Sassoon, in early 20th century, carried the business house forward. Both gave huge sums to both Jewish and public institutions.

More importantly, Parsis and Jews have never sought minority status from the government.

And the nation is proud of them.

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ZOROASTRIANISM IN INDIA

Parsism or Zoroastrianism is about 2600 years old and finds its origin in Persia. The religion was founded by Spenta Zarathustra or Zoroaster, who is considered as the Prophet of the Parsis. Zoroastrian practice is based on the responsibility of every man and woman to choose between good and evil, and to respect God's creations. Prophet Zarathustra, who lived in Iran in 6000 BC, expounded a dualistic philosophy, based on the opposing powers of the good and the evil. Zarathustra preached the oneness of god and believed that Ahura Mazda was the one and only god, who is formless and has six great aspects called the Amesha-Spentas. These are Ardibehest, Bahman, Shahrivar, Spendarmad, Khordad and Amardad. The mortals can worship Him in one of these forms. The Parsis believe that the Ahura Mazda is eternally in conflict with Angra Mainyu or Ahirman, who represents the evil force. Man has a free will to align himself to good or evil. Soul is immortal and upon death, the good go to Heaven and evil fall into Hell. The Parsis believe in the coming of the Saoshyant (Saviour) to the earth to defeat evil and further righteousness (Ashoi). They belief that when the Saoshyant comes, the final spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil will commence, resulting in the utter destruction of evil. Ristakhiz, the resurrection of the dead will take place - the dead will rise, by the Will of Ahura Mazda. The Final Judgement of all souls will commence, at the hands of Ahura Mazda the Judge (Davar) and all sinners punished, then forgiven, and humanity made immortal and free from hunger, thirst, poverty, old age, disease and death.

The Parsi place of worship is called the fire temple. Five daily prayers, usually hymns or Gathas uttered by Prophet Zarathustra are said in the home or the temple, before a fire, which symbolizes the realm of truth, righteousness and order. The fire-temples and rituals of the Yasna are sacred and are necessary for the religion, such as the Nirang-din ceremony, which creates the Holy Nirang. Fire is regarded as the son of Ahura Mazda, and represents god. In Zorastriniasm, Dakhma-nashini is the only method of corpse-destruction. This involves the destruction of the dead body in the stone-enclosed Dakhma, by the flesh-eating bird or the rays of the Sun.

Religious Scriptures

Zenda Avesta is the religious scripture of the Parsis. It contains the teachings, sermons and prayers composed by Prophet Zoroaster himself and also by his disciples and followers. Avestha is also the name of the language in which it is composed. It is divided into five parts: the Yasna (worship with ceremony and offerings), the Videvdad (laws against demons), the Yashts (worship), the Khordeh Avestha, which comprises of selected portions of the Avestha and forms the book of daily prayers of the Zoroastrians, and the five Gathas - Ahunavaiti, Ushtavaiti, Spenta-Mainyu, Vohu-Khshathra and Vashishta-Ishti, which contain the 17 hymns of God received by Prophet Zarathushtra by way of a Divine Revelation.

Sects

There are three principle sects among the Parsis: Shahenshai, Kadmi and Fasli. The only difference between the three sects is the calendar they adhere to. The Faslis follow the traditional Persian calendar; the Shahenshais calculate their calendar from the last Sassanian king, Yazdegard III and the Kadmis claim their calendar is the oldest and most accurate.

PARSIS OF INDIA

Parsi Reform Movement in India: Dababhai Naoroji, Naoroji Furdonji and others set up the Rehnumai Mazdayasan Sabha (Religious Reform Association) in 1851 to carry out campaigns against the strict orthodoxy in Zoroastrianism. They laid special emphasis on modernising the Parsis and raising the social status of women by providing for their education.

The first Zoroastrians to enter India arrived on the Gujarat coast in the 10th century and by the 17th century, most of them had settled in Bombay. Today, there are approximately 90,000 Parsis in India and are concentrated largely in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

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David Sassoon , Indian Businessman

David Sassoon was born in 1792 in Baghdad.He came off a Nasis family .His ancestors were the leader of Jewish community. David Sassoon was the son of Saleh Sassoon,a rich person of Iraqi origin.Saleh Sassoon was a Government treasurer. Sassoon`s family had to escape from Iraq during the period of Muslim and Turkish rules in Baghdad. David Sassoon came to Bombay in 1933 with his wife and family. Sassoon did not manage to bring full wealth of his family.

David Sassoon started business in Bombay with very limited money and business place. Soon David Sassoon set up a company named David Sassoon & Co.and established himself as one of the wealthy men in Bombay. He had a great power to convince all the enterprises of Bombay better than his main business competitor. The company had branches at Calcutta, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong. During the period of 1850s, it was said of him that "silver and gold, silks, gums and spices, opium and cotton, wool and wheat - whatever moves over sea or land feels the hand or bears the mark of Sassoon and Company". David Sassoon exported opium in China and Japan though in that time China Government banned opium.He generated huge profit from this opium trade. He established a two synagogues in the Fort area and Byculla .He also setup a school, Mechanics` Institute, a library and a convalescent home in Pune.He became British citizen in 1853. David Sassoon passed away in Pune in 1864.

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Jamsetji Tata

Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata (March 3, 1839 - May 19, 1904) was a pioneer in the field of modern industry. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India.

He founded what would later become the Tata Group of companies. Jamsetji Tata is regarded as the "father of Indian industry".

However, the foundations laid by him and hard work by his successors ensured that each of the ideas were eventually established and are respectable entities in their respective fields today:

Tata Steel (formerly TISCO - Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited) is Asia's first and India's largest and became world's fifth largest steel company,after it acquired anglo-dutch Corus group producing 28 million tonnes of steel annually.

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was founded by Dr. Homi Bhabha. Dr. Homi Bhabha approached J.R.D Tata requesting his support towards the establishing of a scientific institution. The institution was founded in 1945.

The Tata Power Company Limited is India’s largest private sector electricity generating company with an installed generation capacity of over 2300 MW.

Among his notable ventures that did bear fruition during his lifetime was the historical Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba district in Mumbai. The hotel was completed for a princely sum of Rs. 4,21,00,000 on 16 December 1903.

Tata Group Revenue - US$ 72.5 billion

Latest Tata acquisitions - Jaguar Cars and Land Rover

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Farewell, Field Marshal

Lt Gen J F R Jacob: I knew Sam Manekshaw from 1950 when he was Director, Military Operations at Army Headquarters. I used to visit his house frequently. He was very generous and his wife was a charming hostess. She used to throw nice candlelight dinners for us.

Sam used to bring home files and would ask me to help clear them. He was under great pressure at that time as there was a proposal to run the Army down to 100,000 which was known as plan 100. It was to the credit of Sam that he strongly opposed it and ensured that the arm was not run down.

He was also kind enough to give me a dog called Ponting which was my companion for a long time.

My next interaction with him was at Staff College when he was a very popular Commandant and took part in a lot of social activities. He was a keen fisherman and used to go out fishing a lot for trout. Sometimes I went with him. He used to carry a smoker with him to smoke the fish on site.

Unfortunately for him, Lt Gen B M Kaul was very apprehensive and envious of him and instigated an inquiry against him for anti-national activities. I was asked to give evidence and I refused. The charges were stupid and the inquiry was dismissed.

From there he moved to a Corps and Army commander and later as Chief. My next interaction with him was when he was Army Chief and in 1969 he came to see us with the Home Secretary. We had long discussions and he gave us the directive to deal with Naxalites in West Bengal. I asked for more troops and he was kind enough to give us two more divisions.

The Naxals were driven out by mid-1971. This was on the initiative of Sam, that was based on the instructions of Mrs Indira Gandhi.

In April ‘71, after the crackdown on Bangladesh, a lot of refugees were coming in and Manekshaw told me that the government was pressuring him that the army should move into Bangladesh. I told him we have Mountain Divisions, the monsoons are about to begin, we have no bridges, are lacking transportation and we need time to train.

We could not get ready for the war.

There was a meting held in the Operations Room in Army Headquarters. Mrs Gandhi came to the meeting. It is to the credit of Manekshaw that Mrs Gandhi was briefed as to why it is inadvisable to move in now and that the earliest date would be after the monsoon. He insisted on that and Mrs Gandhi accepted this.

As Army Chief, Manekshaw got along very well with Mrs Gandhi and others. He was able to get from the government the equipment and weapons that we required. He also got on with the bureaucracy but stood up to them.

It is to Sam’s credit that he stood up for the Army and did not let the bureaucracy ride over us. He maintained throughout the izzat of the Indian Army. That is one of his greatest contributions. He raised the prestige of the Indian army. We should not forget that.

Sam was very gregarious, he mixed a lot, met people and was very popular with troops. He had a great personality and the ability to charm people. The Army needed someone and Sam was there. Sam became an icon.

— Lt Gen J F R Jacob was the Chief of Staff, Eastern Command during the 1971 war and negotiated the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers from General Niazi.

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Lt Gen J F R Jacob (Jewish) & Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw (Parsi)

Thank you Sirs for your contributions to India!

[maven]

Lovely Parsis, a living example to everyone. And still vegetarian and kind to animals.

[Sanket]

Lovely Parsis, a living example to everyone. And still vegetarian and kind to animals.

Parsis are Vegetarians ?

My friend calls himself vegetarian but he eats chicken leg and calls it vegetarian.


Parsi = Zoroastrian follower who came to India about 1000 yrs ago from Persia.

Irani Parsis = Zoroastrian follower who came to India about 300 hundred years ago.

Irani Parsis speak farsi while the original Parsi imigrants speak Gujarati as the mother tongue.