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April 20, 2003
EXCERPTS: A story of philanthropy
The Parsis arrived in Bombay before the British. There they built a strong financial base for themselves which grew out of a vigorous overseas trade they conducted. This was possible because of the diaspora — the Parsi communities scattered in many parts of the world. John R. Hinnells highlights the role of the Parsis in Karachi
In chronological terms the next distant base was Hyderabad in Sindh which dates back to the 1820s and shortly afterwards the Parsis came to Karachi. It was with the first and second Afghan wars from 1839 that Parsi agents acquired their fortunes. Generally the families who traded in Sindh were different from those active in the China Seas.
The Jussawallas were active in Kabul, Hyderabad, Sindh, and Multan in the 1820s. From the 1830s came the Panday, Marker, Rajkotwalla, Ghadially families and also the Readymoneys who were in the China trade. Like the China Sea communities the groups in Sindh were mostly traders, but some professionals also settled there, for example Nusserwanji Shapurji Bhedwar went in 1839 to Kabul with the Commissariat Office and later rose to important positions in Karachi and Hyderabad.
By the 1840s Kaikhushroo Fardoonji was a surveyor in the Public Works Department in Karachi. Earlier, in 1836, his older brother, Navroji Fardoonji, then a student, went with Captain Alexander Burns who had been sent on an important diplomatic mission on behalf of the British government as an ambassador to Kabul.
By the 1840s Karachi was beginning to emerge as the main Zoroastrian settlement in the region and the first burial ground was set aside: between 1839 and 1844. Numbers grew so much in the second half of the nineteenth century that various community material provisions were made: a dakhma was built in 1847 and a second added in 1875. The first agiary, Seth Hirjibhoy Jamshedji Behrana Dar-i Mihr, was consecrated in 1849 and a second, Seth Wadia Dar-i Mihr, was consecrated in 1869.
The first school, the Karachi Parsi Balak Shalla, later the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala Parsi School, was established in 1859. A second for all communities was founded in 1880 by a serving priest, Ervad Rustomji Pestonji Rabadi. This was followed by the establishment in 1918, of a girls school, the Mama Parsi Girls High School. One of the leading names in nineteenth century Karachi Parsi history is that of Edulji Dinshaw. He began as a trader and agent, subsequently he invested in real estate and became a major land owner in the region. He and his family are noted for charitable foundations of many kinds, but particularly in health care with dispensaries opened in 1882, 1887 and 1903. He was by far the largest donor to the funding of the Lady Dufferin Hospital, founded in Karachi in 1894.
The Parsi story of growth, of building, political and charitable work continues into present times. The Dinshaws, for example, helped fund the Nadirshah Edulji Dinshaw Engineering University in Karachi.
The Karachi settlement was different from that in China, in that a higher proportion of the men brought their families with them, hence the development of the communal infrastructure of temples, schools, Zoroastrian clubs, and hospitals was created. As a result Karachi Parsi ties with Bombay were weaker than those of the China communities. Most China Parsis envisaged returning back to “the old country” and did so, whereas many of the leading families listed above as settlers in Karachi in the mid-nineteenth century still have their descendants in the city in the twenty-first century.
One consequence of this is that less of the amassed wealth was taken back to Bombay so that Karachi Parsis contributed less to the economic development in Bombay. All things are relative, of course, because there was travel and trade between the two cities, especially when both cities were part of British India. Another philanthropist, Jehangir Kothari left an enduring legacy for the citizens of Karachi. He built the Jehangir Kothari Parade at Clifton, and gave his bungalow and the surrounding land for building the promenade which has become a landmark of the city.
At the end of the century Karachi sent the young M.N. Dhalla, then a strict orthodox, to study in the developing religious education climate of Bombay, before he went to New York to work for an MA and then a PhD under A.V.W. Jackson. This experience transformed Dhalla into the ‘Protestant Dastur’, a reforming teacher, prolific writer and in the memories of those who knew him, a man of quiet charm and devotion. Dhalla’s attempt to modernize the religion met with resistance among the orthodox Zoroastrians.
The nineteenth century Parsi diaspora in Britain was of a different kind from that in any other country. There were two particularly distinguishing features. Firstly, it had a major educational dimension which resulted in considerable technological development back in India as well as a legal training which benefited some important Indian politicians and a medical training resulting in an important social standing for the community. Secondly, it also had a unique political dimension by providing the parliamentary platform for the presentation of arguments directly to the heart of government.
There was a third element to the British community, which it shared with others, namely, that some of its members acquired wealth which was, in part at least, used back in India. But for Britain, unlike China and East Africa, that is not the significant feature of the community. Whereas substantial wealth could be acquired in those trading centres, Parsis in Britain were mostly middle class professionals. There were some very rich individuals who chose to live at “the heart of empire”, for example, Ratan Dadabhoy Tata and Sir Dhunjibhoy Bomanji, but these were rare exceptions.
At least in earlier times, the British Zoroastrian community probably received more money from, than it gave to, Bombay. But what it did give were educational and political opportunities.
Wealth and leadership
Bombay Parsis commonly emphasise that their community is the wealthy one, with all the necessary infrastructure in terms of religious and social resources, which has endowed huge charities for the poor not only in India but also overseas, which has produced the political and economic giants, where so much has been achieved and where the indications of success are at their greatest. Clearly there is much truth in this.
But there can be little doubt that throughout the nineteenth century, the Bombay community, the very pinnacle of Parsi power and success, owed an enormous debt to its diaspora communities for its wealth and for its political influence. Without the China trade, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy would not have amassed the wealth to found the Parsi Benevolent Institution with all its help for the poor and with its pioneering educational activities.
What is true of Jejeebhoy is true of others. The wealth and leadership of the mid-nineteenth century Bombay community, about which Sir Dinshaw Wacha writes with such pride in his memoirs, owes much to diaspora Zoroastrians whom he rarely acknowledges. Relatively few nineteenth century Parsis became rich or powerful simply by remaining in Bombay. Yet the diaspora communities are consistently treated as insignificant and peripheral in historical works.
The main era of overseas development for Bombay Parsis was approximately 1840-1890. It was both based on, and contributed to, Parsi wealth, though the nature of that “reinvested” wealth was sometimes financial and sometimes educational or political. Bombay Parsi entrepreneurship, influence in Indian politics, and leadership in the Indian industrial revolution, all have to be seen in an international perspective. What the relationship of the new twentieth century diaspora communities in America, Australia and Canada will be with the development of the Parsi community in India is a subject for future historical studies.
Excerpted with permission from
A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion and Culture
Edited by Pheroza J. Godrej and Firoza Punthakey Mistree
Mapin Publishing (Pvt) Ltd, 31 Somnath Road, Usmanpura, Ahmadabad-380013, India.
Email: mapin@icenet.net
Website: www.mapinpub.com
ISBN 81-85822-71-9
762pp. Rs11,475
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