“The Prince and the Parsis”

I found the cover story "The Prince and the Parsis” (Parsiana, November 21-December 6, 2021), about the riots involving Parsis, very interesting. Parsis in India have rightly been credited with nation building and philanthropy, having contributed way beyond our numbers in almost every field. Many took part in the freedom struggle as well, perhaps none more so than Dadabhai Naoroji, one of the founding members and thrice president of the Indian National Congress.
At the same time, Parsis also had allegiance with British rule in India, many of them openly expressing admiration for "Aapri Rani (our Queen).” This seems to be borne out by the fact that there was a welcome address by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet for Edward, the Prince of Wales, disregarding the boycott call of the Congress.
I was particularly fascinated with one quote by historian Dr Dinyar Patel in the article: "Many Parsis denounced a post-riot petition circulating within the community that thanked the government for its protection during the disturbances. Their denunciations signaled a subtle change in sentiment towards the British and a dawning acceptance of the Parsis’ place within Indian society.” It set me thinking — when Parsis fled Iran and sought refuge in India, for many generations they probably harbored the hope of someday being able to return to their madar-e-watan, their homeland. Even as they spread to all parts of the country from the small kingdom in Gujarat where they had first settled, did they continue to consider themselves Iranian? At what point did the Parsis start considering themselves as Indian and as part of Indian society.
I wonder if there are any studies on the gradual process of assimilation of Parsis in Indian society? I would appreciate it if Parsiana can publish a piece on this in a future issue.
POURUCHISTI MEHERHOMJI
Thane, Maharashtra
pourushah@gmail.com

The editors reply:
If some scholarly papers are written on the subject, Parsiana would be happy to report on their findings.