ABSTRACT
The Parsis of India have been referred to as a minority as agents of social change (Kulke 1974). The history of the Parsis may well be interpreted as the attempt to preserve and shape a common community identity in India in the midst of historical change (Palsetia 2001). Historically, as one of the smallest communities in India, the Parsis have exerted considerable influence, out of proportion to their numbers, in the interests of the safeguarding and strengthening of Parsi identity. From the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries the Parsis passed through key phases, emerging from being an insular group to a highly Westernized community of pluralistic outlook. By the nineteenth century, the Parsis were a most socially adaptive community safeguarding an orthodox faith. The Parsis’ social adaptability proved very successful under British colonialism, and the Parsis emerged as a model of Indian community that had accommodated itself to the transition to British power. The Parsis played a significant role in the commercial, educational and civic milieu of Bombay city. In the nineteenth century, Bombay became the headquarters of the Parsi community of India and exercised influence over the world Zoroastrian diaspora (see Hinnells 2006). The Parsis also shaped Bombay colonial society and the development of Indian public culture. This form of agency on the part of the Parsis in the urban setting represents an extension of internal processes to the benefit of Parsi identity. The Parsis’ socio-economic pre-eminence under colonialism can be seen as part of the larger Parsi historical imperative to safeguard identity and remain economically, social and politically relevant as a community at any given time.
