*SALUTE TO ALL PARSIS*
*No Indian community internalized the civilizing mission of the
British as did the Parsis. Only 50,000 remain in Bombay today, mainly in
South Bombay, the most disciplined and cultured part of India.
In South Bombay, the cutting of lanes by drivers is punished, jumping a
red
light is impossible, parking is possible only in allotted areas, roads are
clean, service is efficient, the restaurants are unmatched-civilization
seems within reach. South Bombay has some of the finest buildings in
India,
many of them built by Parsis.
*
*The Parsis came to Bombay after Surat's port silted over in the 17th
century. Gerald Aungier settled Bombay and gave Parsis land for their
Tower
of Silence on Malabar Hill in 1672. The Parsis made millions through the
early and mid-1800s and they spent much of it on public good.
The Ambanis built Dhirubhai Ambani International School, where fees are
Rs.348,000 (US $8,000 a year in a country where per capita income is $600
per year) and where the head girl is Mukesh Ambani's daughter. !!!
The Kingfisher Mallyas gilded the insides of the Tirupati temple with
gold.
Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth richest man in the world says he's too young to
think of charity!! ... He's 57 and worth $45 billion.
The Birla Family built 3 temples in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Delhi .
Hindu philanthropy means building temples. They do not understand social
philanthropy.
The Hindus' lack of enthusiasm for philanthropy is cultural. The Hindu
cosmos is Hobbesian and the devotee's relationship with God is
transactional. God must be petitioned and placated to swing the universe's
blessings towards you and away from someone else. They believe that
society
has no role in your advancement and there is no reason to give back to it
because it hasn't given you anything in the first place. Two centuries of
British education was unable to alter this.*
**
*The Parsis, on the other hand, understood that philanthropy - love of
mankind - recognizes that we cannot progress alone. That there is such a
thing as the common good. They spent as no Indian community had ever
before,
on building institutions, making them stand out in a culture whose talent
lies in renaming things other people built. **
The Parsis built libraries all over India, they built the National Gallery
of Art. The Indian Institute of Science was built in 1911 by Jamshedji
Nusserwanji Tata, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was built by
Dr Homi Bhabha, the Tata Institute of Social Science was built in 1936 by
the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
The Wadias built hospitals, women's colleges and the five great low-income
Parsi colonies of Bombay. JJ Hospital and Grant Medical College were
founded
by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy.
By 1924, two out of five Indians - whether Hindu, Muslim or Parsi -
joining
the Indian Civil Services were on TATA scholarships.
They gave Bombay the Jehangir Art Gallery, Sir JJ School of Art,
the Taraporevala Aquarium. The National Center for Performing Arts, the
only
place in India where world-class classical concerts are held is a gift of
the Tatas. There are 161 Friends of the Symphony Orchestra of India
(SOI) -
www.soimumbai.in 92 of them are Parsis. For an annual fee of Rs 10,000,
Friends of the SOI get two tickets to any one recital in the season, they
get to shake hands with artistes after the concert and they get to attend
music appreciation talks through the year.
The Parsi dominates high culture in Bombay. This means that a concert
experience in the city is unlike that in any other part of India.
Classical
concerts seat as many as two thousand. Zubin Mehta, the most famous Parsi
in
the world, is Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969.
He
conducts the tenor Placido Domingo, the pianist Daniel Barenboim and the
soprano Barbara Frittoli. Four concerts are held at the Jamshed Bhabha
Opera
House and then one at Brabourne Stadium with a capacity of 25,000.
No other city in India has this appetite for classical music and in Bombay
this comes from the Parsis. Despite their tiny population, the Parsi
presence in a concert hall is above 50 per cent. And they all come.
Gorgeous
Parsi girls in formal clothes - saris, gowns - children, men and the old.
Many have to be helped to their seats. Most of them know the music.*
*The people who clap between movements, thinking that the 'song' is over,
are non-Parsis.** Symphony Orchestra of India concerts begin at 7 pm. Once
the musicians start, latecomers must wait outside till the movement ends.
The end of each movement also signals a fusillade of coughs and groans,
held
back by doddering Parsis too polite to make a sound while Mendelssohn is
being played. No mobile phone ever goes off as is common in cinema halls:
his neighbors are aware of the Parsi's insistence of form and his temper.
The Parsis were also pioneers of Bombay's Gujarati theatre, which remains
the most popular form of live entertainment in Bombay. Any week of the
year
will see at least a half dozen bedroom comedies, murder mysteries, love
stories and plays on assorted themes on stage.
The Parsis were the pioneers of this, writing and acting in the first
plays
of Bombay. They also built the institutions that supported this. Bombay 's
first theatre was opened by Parsis in 1846, the Grant Road Theatre,
donations
from Jamshetjee Jejeebhoy and Framjee Cowasjee making it possible.
The Parsi in Bollywood caricature is a comic figure, but always honest,
and
innocent as Indians believe Parsis generally to be, rightly or wrongly. In
the days before modern cars came to India the words 'Parsi-owned' were
guaranteed to ensure that a second-hand car listed for sale would get
picked
up ahead of any others. This is because people are aware of how carefully
the Parsi keeps his things. His understanding and enthusiasm of the
mechanical separates him from the rest. Most of the automobile magazines
in
India are owned and edited by Parsis.
The Parsis are a dying community and this means that more Parsis die each
year than are born (Symphony concert-goers can also discern the
disappearing
Parsi from the rising numbers of those who clap between movements).
As the Parsis leave, South Bombay will become like the rest of Bombay -
brutish, undisciplined and filthy.
Preserve this race...You are privileged if you have a Parsi Bawa as your
friend... He/She is indeed a "Heritage" to be treasured forever**.*
--
abhi
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