ABSTRACT
It is widely thought that the climax of Parsi political social and economic power was in the late nineteenth century, with major leaders in Bombay, the rest of India and even with a Member of Parliament in London – Dadabhoy Naoroji in 1892. The Jijibhoys (see Palsetia in this volume), the Wadias, the Petits and the Tatas were industrial giants in India. Parsis were prominent in the field of social reform, notably female education (S.S. Bengali), and in law (see Sharafi in this volume on Davar). Perhaps the year in which they felt at their most powerful was 1905-6. Dadabhoy Naoroji still strode the international political stage; he was the only person who could hold together the moderate and the radical wings of the Indian National Congress (INC) and so was invited for a unique third time to preside at the annual Congress in Calcutta (Mambro 2005: 44-59; Masani 1939). Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, who had been recently knighted, was dominating western Indian politics (Mody 1997). In 1906 Sir Muncherji Bhownaggree (see McLeod in this volume) was coming to the end of his second term as a Westminster MP. Sir Dinshah Wacha was the organizational heart of the Bombay Presidency Association (Kulke 1974; Palsetia 2001: 277-319). The Tatas were making huge inter-communal charitable bequests.
