“Are you Parsi?”

Farzan B. Mazda’s letter, "Are you Parsi?” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, February 2004) certainly strikes a chord. Yes, our forbears were certainly enterprising pioneers (the Wadias, Godrejs, Tatas, et al), and as the writer states, this is no longer the case. I suspect that the reasons for this shift are due partly at least to circumstances and to history.

In the gol-den age of the "Parsi pioneer,” British influence was paramount. We took to the Brits like "a duck to water!” We soon became their favorites and the fact that the Hindus and Muslims were antagonistic to each other, made it all the easier for us to progress; so when a promotion was in the offing, in order not to upset the Hindu and the Muslim, the Brits would push the Parsi ahead (the larger community members would not object too much to a Parsi being promoted in their stead). The fact that we were generally lighter skinned than our compatriots (and allegedly a pure, non-mixed race), also helped our cause. We took to western classical music, western dancing, and western dress also, indeed to all things western, which endeared us to our colonial masters. Then we began anglicizing our names, both first names and surnames (enter Jimmy, Freddy, Contractor, Cooper, et al). Paradoxically however, the three aforementioned great families did not seem to need to do so, at least not their surnames, and yet they achieved greatness! I think it would be fair to say that with the passing of the Raj, the former greatness of the Parsis passed with it. Maybe (and this may hurt), in a secular and non-colonial meritocracy that is India today (at least in theory!), we cannot compete on even terms, or at best complacency has set in and hence we are now happy to just drift along.

ADIL PAVRI

Harrow, Middlesex, UK