They Helped Build Modern India but Are Shrinking as a People
Parsis have supported many of the country’s institutions and nurtured business and the arts. But their numbers have dwindled at an alarming pace.
Supported by
Hari Kumar and
UDVADA, India — From the porch of his century-old home, Khurshed Dastoor has a front-row seat to a tragedy that he fears may be too late to reverse: the slow extinction of a people who helped build modern India.
On the wall of his drawing room hang portraits of the ancestors who led prayers for generations of Parsis, followers of Zoroastrianism who escaped Muslim persecution in Persia 1,300 years ago and made India home. Outside, across a narrow alley, workers are once again renovating the majestic fire temple, where the marble has been polished clean and the stone of the outer walls treated with chemicals to resist decay.
Around him, emptiness encroaches. Only one or two families remain within the tastefully built houses on the surrounding streets. Moss grows on the brick-and-pillar walls. Weeds grow out of arched windows.
Congregants remain in some of those homes, Mr. Dastoor said, but many are too old and frail to attend services.
“I am 21st in the tradition,” said Mr. Dastoor, 57, pointing to portraits of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, all priests. “By the time I live my life and I pass my legacy to my son, I doubt that the last of the houses will also be open.”
Advertisement