India’s Zoroastrians have long resided along the western coast of the subcontinent, arriving there after fleeing their ancient Persian homeland over 1,000 years ago, and have contributed immensely to the country’s social and economic development.  Today, though, adherents, known as Parsis in India, are struggling to keep their faith from dying out amid growing demographic and doctrinal concerns.

Demography

The Zoroastrian Parsi population in India has been on the decline over the course of the past century.  In 1900, there were said to be approximately 93,000 adherents,[1] but this number dropped to 79,382 in 1991,[2] according to the national census taken that year, and has now fallen to 69,601, according to the latest census figures from 2001.[3]  This downturn has been linked to a number of factors including low birth rates,[4] increasing rates of emigration[5] and intermarriage,[6] as well as the ethno-religious group’s continued stand against proselytizing,[7] accepting converts[8] or allowing for passage of the Zoroastrian faith via matrilineal inheritance.[9]

Geographic Distribution

Zoroastrian refugees fleeing persecution in Islamic-dominated Persia first arrived in India in the 10th century C.E.,[10] and settled in modern-day Gujarat (Sanjan, Nausari and Udvada were once home to large communities).[11]  During the 1800s, many would move down India’s western coast and into the Mumbai area in the present-day state of Maharashtra.[12]  Today, this region is home to the vast majority of adherents, as well as the global leaders of the faith.[13]  However, extant communities do remain in Gujarat.  And Sanjan, Nausari and Udvada still retain their cultural importance to adherents[14] – indeed, Udvada is the site of the country’s major Zoroastrian temple, which is said to contain a flame that dates to 941 C.E.[15]

Zoroastrian Parsi leaders in Mumbai today help to oversee the delivery of community-level social welfare services through their participation in the city’s Parsi Panchayat, a local council.[16]  Mumbai is also home to the sacred Towers of Silence, stone structures where Zoroastrians have long brought their dead to be exposed to the sun in keeping with the traditional practice of avoiding desecration of the hallowed elements of earth, fire and water.[17]

Historic Hardship

It seems that India’s Zoroastrians were completely isolated from their Iranian brethren for some time after the initial 10th century exodus, although it is unclear how long it took for transnational contact to be established.  Some scholars have made the case that Iranian adherents were sending religious texts to India by the 13th century,[18] while others argue that linkages did not occur until the 19th century.[19] 

While Zoroastrians in India long ago agreed to make some religious concessions, such as discontinuing bull and cow sacrifice, to accommodate Hindu pressure,[20] most accounts of the group’s history in the country focus on the high standing that they attained during British rule.  Parsis were apparently known as India’s leading foreign traders for several centuries after the British conquests of the 17th century and the group would come to play an integral role in India’s industrial development.[21]  Jamshedji Tata, often regarded as India’s most prominent industrialist, was a Parsi[22] and adherents established Bombay’s first hospital, university and municipal corporation.[23]  Moreover, much of the construction that took place in the city during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the construction of the famed Taj Mahal, was Parsi financed.[24]  Because of their high socioeconomic standing and strong ties with Westerners, there was a high degree of assimilation to British culture among the Parsi community during colonial times.[25]  After India became independent from Great Britain in 1947, discrimination against adherents became more prevalent and migration out of Bombay intensified, reaching high levels during the 1960s.[26]

Ongoing Hardship

Today, the Parsi community is facing a growing crisis as the number of Zoroastrian adherents in India continues to decline – a problem that has been largely brought on by internal issues rather than overt mistreatment or marginalization.  Zoroastrian doctrine in India holds that the faith can only be transmitted from one generation to the next patrilineally; acceptance of converts is not allowed; and rising rates of intermarriage and emigration have been coupled with declining birth rates.  Taken together, these trends have led scholars to predict that the community will only contain 21,000 members by the year 2020.[27] 

While many Parsi concerns do center on internal problems, rising conservative currents within India in recent years also pose a distinct threat.  The growing clout of the right-wing Hindu, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is of note, as some have asserted that the party has targeted religious minorities in remote out-of-sight rural locales with campaigns of forced conversions or enticed conversions through government subsidies.[28]  Additionally, discriminatory attitudes against non-Hindus have been promulgated through educational curricula, as the 2003 U.S. International Religious Freedom Report claims that Gujarat textbooks suggest that Parsis, Muslims, Christians and Jews are foreigners.[29]

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