ABSTRACT
There is an elementary aim at the heart of this essay. It is to understand the relationship between Parsi entrepreneurs and ‘community’ in Bombay in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will situate this process in a concrete historical period: that of a colonized economy in western India, and we hope to understand the social and economic behavior of Parsi entrepreneurs and its impact on their business activity. The relationship between Parsi merchants and institutions of charity also engages our attention. The chapter concludes with an examination of the relevance of the concept of ‘community’ for understanding Parsi enterprise. But before we venture into these areas, let us explore how the world of scholarship has perceived Parsis and their history over the years. This will also enable us to situate our narrative in the larger history of writings on them. The chapter is based on unpublished and published sources.1
