There’s a subtle caste system in place. Most Mumbai Parsis don’t want to discuss their tribal brethren. Priests refuse to live in the villages and no fire temples have been built.
Udvada and Navsari towns in Gujarat were once home to a thriving Parsi community that is now rallying to increase its numbers, archive its history, safeguard its memories, and restore its records.
When Delhi-based professor Shernaz Cama told the Parsis about the disgrace in which historical accounts were lying at the Meherjirana library, it became an emotional discovery for them.
Marriage, divorce, inheritance, and temple rights are all skewed in favour of men. Four Parsi women see UCC as an equaliser but Bombay Parsi Punchayet wants 'total exemption'.
The Centre has revamped Jiyo Parsi scheme to arrest the declining population of Indian Parsis. For every 150 Parsis born in a year, there are 600 deaths.
It used to be Tatas and Birlas in the loose political rhetoric of the 1970s and the 1980s. Today, it is Adani and Ambani in the heated Lok Sabha election campaign.
About 300 employees had called in sick Wednesday, allegedly in protest against mismanagement of airlines. Remaining staff given ultimatum to rejoin work by end of Thursday.
Even in the weeks leading up to Chamkila’s assassination there were massacres every other day. To airbrush all of this is sheer intellectual cowardice if not a crime.
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