A spot of ethnography: The Parsees

As any student of anthropology will tell you, we understand our own society better by looking at other societies. I thought therefore that I might offer a quick sketch of an ethny that most people know little about but which is yet very successful in many ways

Sometimes called “the Jews of India” (though India does have a few real Jews) the Parsees are descendants of Zoroastrian true-believers who fled the Persian empire at the time of its conquest by Muslims about a thousand years ago. They took refuge in what is now the Indian State of Gujurat and have Gujurati as their native language to this day. Perhaps because of their typically Iranian energy or their very un-fatalistic religion, they have prospered mightily in India. They founded India’s steel, nuclear, computer and airline industries and one of their sons (Rajiv Gandhi) even became Prime Minister of India for some time while another (Sam Manekshaw) headed the Indian Army. Other distinguished Parsees could be mentioned. Two even sat in the House of Commons as representatives of British constituencies many years ago. Such achievements for a population of only 90,000 people out of 900 million Indians are truly staggering. It certainly shows what a small minority can do both to maintain itself and lead the larger society.

So in spite of India’s generally abject poverty the Parsee living standard has long been more or less at a Western level. Their over-representation among the upper strata of Indian society makes any eminence that Western Jews have achieved seem puny by comparison. If “jealousy” is the reason behind the persecution of Jews, the Parsees should be the most persecuted minority on earth. Yet amid the seething hot-bed of religious, racial, caste and communal hatreds that is India, the Parsees have remained unscathed. They are, in fact, somewhat popular. How do they do it?

The answer is rather simple. The Parsees have always been grateful to the host community that gave them safe refuge from the Muslims. Instead of regarding their hosts with fear and reserve, they actually tend to appreciate their hosts. They certainly make great efforts not to offend their hosts (e.g. they tend to avoid eating beef and pork not because Zoroastrianism forbids it but because one offends Hindus and the other Muslims). This has beneficial results at many levels, not the least of which is the interpersonal level. The level that is most visible, however, is the ultimate level when Parsees are deciding what to do with the fortunes that many of them accumulate. Such fortunes are almost always used for charitable ends. Parsee charitable foundations are in fact legendary. Such foundations usually have as their first duty the succour of any needy Parsees but as the Parsee community is very small Indians generally are also major beneficiaries. The Parsees, in other words, not only say “thank you” but say it very nicely and very convincingly. There is nothing in Zoroastrianism that tells them that they are “chosen” in any way. They are quite endogamous (though a lot are pretty brown so past intermarriage has been considerable) but this is normal and understood in India. In fact, their endogamy seems Indian rather than Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism teaches that the help of all men is needed in the fight against evil.

So the Parsees show pretty plainly that a prosperous and dominant minority can have both earned their position fairly and have done no harm in doing so.

A fuller ethnography of the Parsees than the few notes given above is to be found in Kulke, E. (1978) The Parsees in India: A minority as agent of social change New Delhi: Vikas. There is an oldfashioned but informative article about them here and there is more than you will ever want to know about them here

Posted by jonjayray on Monday, June 27, 2005 at 06:19 AM in Ethnicity and Ethnic Genetic Interests
Comments (8) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Matra on June 27, 2005, 12:53 PM | #

Interesting that these “Jews of India” are grateful to their host community. I take it they don’t control Bollywood and use it to undermine the majority culture of India.

Steve Sailer has written about the Parsees - http://www.isteve.com/2002_Parsis_Success_Threatens_Survival.htm

Posted by Phil on June 27, 2005, 02:44 PM | #

The Parsees have always been grateful to the host community that gave them safe refuge from the Muslims

As opposed to…........?

Posted by Benjamin on June 27, 2005, 06:14 PM | #

Hrm, I wonder how they relate to the caste system. How are foreigners living in India reconciled with that system?

Posted by John S Bolton on June 27, 2005, 07:56 PM | #

It would be good to know what their politics tends to be, for comparison to other such diasporic minorities. The examples above suggest a moderate left tendency.

Posted by jonjayray on June 27, 2005, 07:57 PM | #

Parsees a pretty fair-skinned usually so are seen as high caste. So Europeans too are very high caste. You can tell how successful a man is in India by how fair his wife is. That is why Razib likes blondes. But Parsees are outside the caste system in one sense and a caste of their own in another.

Posted by jonjayray on June 27, 2005, 07:58 PM | #

Yes. I think Parsees tend to be do-gooder Leftists

Posted by Fred Scrooby on June 28, 2005, 12:27 AM | #

As Steve Sailer mentions in his excellent article on Parsees linked in Matra’s comment above, Freddie Mercury (lead singer of the group Queen) was one.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on June 28, 2005, 09:22 PM | #

I like John’s “Parsee” spelling, btw, and shall use it from now on in preference to “Parsi.”

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