Curious Case of Parsi(Zoroastrian) in India

Zoroastrianism is another one of the oldest religions of the world. Once upon a time it flourished in the region of present day Iran and was major religions of the land. After the Arab invaded this land in 7th century and brought Islam with them, Zoroastrians were put to the sword and forced to convert or die. This expanded the Umayyad Caliphate in Iran and proved to be a death knell for Zoroastrianism in Iran.

               At this time Zoroastrian sought refuge in India. One of the Major migration happened through present day state of Gujarat in India. The king at the time there was a Hindu king Jadav Rana, the migrants asked specifically for two assurance (1) Provide some land for them to setup the sacred fire(Atash Behram), which is to be kept continuously burning (2) No  non-Zoroastrian should be allowed to go in the vicinity of this fire. You can very well imagine at this time the majority of population the kingdom was Hindu still they wanted none of the majority Hindu to come near this fire. King granted them both their wishes, needless to say here that the second condition would have been difficult for the king to fulfill if the tolerant Hindus would not have supported willingly the restriction upon themselves. This comes from ingrained culture of tolerance of the land for the other faith. This trust was never broken by the Hindus in the one and a half millennia! It is no surprise that there is no instance of any friction in the recorded history of India between the Parsi and other Indic religions. You can find more detail about it here.

                Zoroastrian who came to India were called Parsi. Today India has the biggest population of Zoroastrian in the whole world even more than their native land of Iran. Parsi not only lived peacefully but thrived in India and they rightly call India their home today. Even though Parsi were a miniscule community but they were much more affluent, educated and versatile, still they never faced any persecution from the majority Hindus. This was due to the fact they embraced India wholeheartedly and accepted the ethos, culture and people of this land and never nurtured any animosity with the native people or never had any superiority complex that they came from other land and were superior. Actually Parsi has contributed immensely to the cause of India, be it Science, Technology, Industry, Military, Sports, Academia, Freedom Movement among others. There has been many luminaries produced by this tiny Parsi community including Dadabhai Naoroji, Homi J. Bhabha, J. R. D. Tata, Jamsetji Tata, Ratan Tata,  Ardeshir Godrej, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw,  Farokh Enginee, Zubin Mehta, Boman Irani to name a few. You can refer to a more exhaustive list here .

                Among these, one interesting case is of Neville Wadia, owner of the Bombay Dyeing one of the most reputed textile mill in India. Not many people know he married the only daughter of Muhammad ali Jinnah, name Dina. Jinnah, is the same person who partitioned Indian into India and Pakistan. Jinnah himself married the daughter of his Parsi Friend Dinshaw Petit when she was 18 year old and him 42. When Jinnah's daughter wanted to marry Naville, he opposed this marriage tooth and nail and insisted Dina should marry a Muslim. Dina married Neville anyway and never lived in Pakistan and their descendant continue to live in India. Karma came full circle to Jinnah, he took away the daughter of his Parsi friend, another Parsi took away his own daughter and both pairs of father and daughter remained estranged life long after their marriage.