We salute our forebears

On March 5, 2005, a Hindu friend, Kishanlal Agrawal, the present president of Shri Radhakrishna Gaushalla, Mhow Cantonment, presented me with a xeroxed statement of account of the Gaushalla spanning an eight-year period from 1933 to 1941, in which he excitedly pointed out an entry stating that my father Khan Bahadur Byramshaw K. Illava had donated 37.45 acres of land in Dongergaon village, just outside Mhow Cantonment, bordering N.H. 3, the nationally famous and important Bombay Agra Road. He further went on to inform me that this land was subsequently sold by the Gaushalla to the Madhya Pradesh Government in or about 1960, on which today stands the Government Degree College, Mhow, having a strength of over 1,500 students, and the prestigious and nationally known Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Institute of Social Studies. The current value of this land would be around two crores of rupees. This was the first time that I knew about such a donation.

The president of the Gaushalla then was a Zoroastrian, Shapurji Parekh. The compound wall of the Gaushalla, about a kilometer in length was constructed by another Zoroastrian, Faramroze Patel for Rs 5,300 (a princely sum in those days) as a donation. Khan Bahadur R. B. Parekh donated Rs 1,000 worth of Government Bonds to the Gaushalla. Besides, there were five monthly Parsi contributors to the Gaushalla.

Coming to know of these munificent contributions by our forebears for a cosmopolitan public cause, I thought it in order to inform our community members, through your prestigious magazine, the other contributions that our small Parsi community has made for the betterment of Mhow town and its residents.

In the field of education, we Parsis of Mhow were pioneers. The name of Khan Bahadur Edulji Pestonji Ghaswalla stands out most prominently in this field. He was instrumental in setting up the K.B.E.P. Parsi School for boys and girls. The School once boasted of two Parsi cricket teams. The Anglo Vernacular School and the Khan Bahadur Edulji Pestonji Memorial High School (having over 2,000 students today) stand as a tribute to his memory. Similarly, the first girls’ school in Mhow was built by Khan Bahadur N. M. Khory in 1888.

The Cantonment Board Hospital for the poor was established by Ghaswalla in memory of his late elder brother Dorabji in 1875 for a then initial princely sum of Rs 10,000. The Hospital is still functioning.

Rustomji Cowasji Jal, industrialist and Member of the Legislative Assembly for 25 years, donated about Rs 1,50,000 towards the construction of the degree college at Mhow, and donated a large amount for the Town Hall at Mhow, which bears his name. He also donated the Jal Sabha Griha (Town Hall) at Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, just 21 km from Mhow.

The R. C. Jall and Khan Bahadur B. K. Illava Charitable Trusts are a great source of medical, educational and poverty aid for the cosmopolitan poor of Mhow, Indore and the vast rural areas around, distributing about seven to eight lakhs in aid per year.

Edi Cooverji Cowasji established the Mhow Electric Power House in Mhow in 1928, and ran it most efficiently till the 1960s when the State Government acquired it. Old-timers still remember the wonderful service provided by him.

The Dotiwallas, Bhotes, Bhayas, Meharbai Gorwalla, etc have left a wonderful legacy of bungalows and houses for the Parsi community at Mhow in which over 60 percent of the fast dwindling Parsi population is still staying at very nominal rents. The present value of these 14 properties is about ten crore rupees, now being managed by the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman, Mhow.

Dotiwalla constructed the tarred road from One Tree Hill to Bairchha Lake, which was then the only source of water for Mhow. He constructed the five-kilometer stretch from One Tree Hill to the turn off to the Parsi Tekdi (Doonger­wadi), free of cost, with the stipulation that the Cantonment would maintain the side road leading to the Tower of Silence. That assurance has never been implemented.

Recently, the Mhow Anjuman has created about 15 million litres of water harvesting capacity per annum in the properties under its control. This has greatly helped in increasing the water table in general.

PHIROZE B. ILLAVA

Mhow