The story of Calcutta’s Parsi community: Once thriving, now dwindling

“My maternal grandfather wasn’t too pleased with this,” she chuckles. “He would chide my mother, saying, ‘You’re marrying a hoarding painter!’”

Prochy N Mehta

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The history of the Parsis in India is both fascinating and enigmatic. Kisseh-e-Sanjan, an epic poem composed by Parsi priest Baman Kaikobad in AD 1600, remains the only known account of their migration to India in 636 CE to escape Arab persecution. It details their arrival in Sanjan, Gujarat. However, as Mehta notes, much of this narrative is steeped in historical fiction. Historians remain uncertain about the precise date, location, and number of Parsis who first arrived.

In her recent book, Who is a Parsi?, Mehta argues that Parsi migration was predominantly male-driven, with settlers intermarrying with Indian women. Over time, the community expanded across Gujarat, integrating into local economies and establishing trade networks. 

One of the key trading hubs for the Parsis was Surat, where they engaged in commerce alongside Armenian brokers. When these brokers moved to Murshidabad, a prominent trading center in Bengal, it is likely that Parsi traders followed suit, eventually bringing them to Calcutta. 

In Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta, Mehta writes, “Till the early 1700s, when the British came to India, the Parsis existed as a tribe amongst the Hindus, many following Hindu customs and procedures.”

The British presence, coupled with the Parsis’ growing involvement in trade with China, brought newfound affluence. They were appointed as middlemen for European merchants in trading and banking operations. Academic Dalia Ray, in The Parsees of Calcutta, notes that Parsis “served the Company as interpreters, contractors, and brokers.” This economic prosperity fostered a stronger sense of religious identity, leading to the establishment of Parsi places of worship and distinct funeral practices.

The first documented Parsi in Calcutta, Dadabhai Behramji Banaji, arrived in 1765, the same year the Battle of Buxar ended with the Treaty of Allahabad, solidifying British rule in eastern India. A successful trader from Surat, ‘Banaji Seth’ was patronised by John Cartier, then-Governor of Bengal, and became the patriarch of the influential Banaji family, shaping Bengal’s commercial and industrial landscape.

As Calcutta prospered, more Parsis from Bombay and Gujarat followed. By 1797, as historian Dinyar Patel notes in The Banaji and Mehta Families: Forging the Parsi Community in Calcutta, a small group of Parsi traders controlled 11.2 percent of Calcutta’s non-European export trade with London, nearly matching the 11.4 percent held by local Hindu Bengali firms. This influence is particularly striking considering that the city’s Parsi population grew from just 141 in 1881 to 274 by 1901.

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“My father was the first to put up a hoarding in India!” Mehta exclaims. However, when he began his journey, he was denied entry to Advertising Club meetings simply because he wasn’t English or part of the elite. Mehta says that class has always been a deep divide in society, highlighting the sharp contrast between the affluent Parsi Sethias (the upper class) and families like hers, who came from more modest backgrounds.

“That said, most Parsis in Calcutta were affluent, having come to the city in pursuit of wealth.” Shipping, Mehta recollects, was one of the key industries in which they thrived. Her father’s business, too, flourished over time, but his contributions extended beyond commerce. Deeply committed to social service, Gimi founded a school for children with hearing impairment. Fire temples also played a role in charity, funding medical treatments and children’s education.

Source: Prochy N Mehta

A key part of community life was the Parsi Club on Maidan — a lush green expanse in the heart of the city. Established as a cricket club in 1908, “it soon became a vibrant hub for Calcutta’s Parsis, reflecting their deep engagement with sports,” says Mehta.

“It was an affable community — both economically prosperous and socially engaged.”

Prochy N Mehta on the field

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After Dadabhai Banaji’s arrival in 1765, other prominent Parsis followed, including Rustomji Cowasji Banaji in 1812. Rustomji built a thriving business in shipbuilding and the lucrative China trade, which was heavily tied to opium smuggling. His fortunes soared during the First Opium War (1839-1842).

Ray explains that as the capital of British India, Calcutta served as a key transit point between China and Bombay for the opium trade. While Indian opium and raw cotton were central to British commerce, private traders had monopolised opium marketing in China since 1786. By 1809, Parsi merchants had overtaken the Armenians, who had led the opium trade until. Shipping primarily in their own vessels, the Parsis controlled the trade in partnership with English private firms like Beale & Magniac and Jardine Matheson & Co from 1810 to 1842. “Thus, trade in opium and raw cotton became the mainstay of the Parsee Seths in Calcutta,” says Ray.

In June 1828, Rustomji founded the Sun Insurance Company and carried on a very extensive business. He, along with Dwarkanath Tagore, were the only Indian members selected in the executive committee of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce established in 1834. In July the same year, he was elected Director of the Union Bank. “The British also honoured him by appointing him among the twelve Justices of the Peace created in 1835,” notes Cyrus J Madan in his short essay The Parsis of Calcutta. 

By 1837, not only did Rustomji own a fleet of 27 ships but also bought the Calcutta Docking Company, the Khidirpur Docks. Subsequently, Rustomji defied social norms by relocating his entire family from Bombay to Calcutta in 1838. “He also permitted the women of his family to relinquish the ‘purdah’ and mix freely with men,” adds Ray. He was known to generously contribute to famine funds, and was a member of the Committee for ‘the relief of the native poor’ established in 1833.

At the time, Calcutta had a notorious reputation for disease and filth. For the improvement of sanitation and water supply, Rustomji constructed a canal in the northern part of the city. To address the fire hazard, he excavated several tanks at his own expense. Among the hospitals founded with his donations include the first Fever Hospital, Native Hospital and Medical College Hospital. He died on April 16, 1852. 

Seth Jamshedji Framji Madan was another notable Parsi. In 1885, at the age of 29, he established a wine and provisions business on Dharmatala Street (now Lenin Sarani). He later became a pioneering figure in India’s cinema industry. In honour of his contributions, the British government awarded him the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1918, followed by the CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 1923 — distinguished accolades within the British honorary system.

After the Banajis, RD Mehta emerged as a figure of comparable stature. He carried forward their legacy through public office, philanthropy, and the opium trade. A member of the Asiatic Society, he also served as the vice president of the Indian Association — one of Calcutta’s leading political organisations — and as the municipal chairman of Maniktala in north Calcutta.

“Both the Banajis and the Mehtas translated their commercial success into political and social capital… forging friendships with the city’s Bengali and British elite, and earning honours and appointments from the government,” writes Patel.

Fire temples were central to Calcutta’s Parsi community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first, established by the Banaji family on September 16, 1839, operated at 26 Ezra Street until the 1970s, when street hawkers took over the site. The second, inaugurated at the Mehta family’s Atash Adaran on October 28, 1912, was later entrusted to Calcutta’s Zoroastrian Anjuman, transforming it from a private shrine into a community institution.

A report, cited by Mehta, from the centenary celebrations of the Seth Rustomji Cowasji Banaji Atash Adaran, held on August 26, 1939, stated: “A well-organised community dinner followed… About a thousand Parsis participated in it, marking the first time in the history of the Parsis of Calcutta that such a large number sat down to dinner together.”

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“I was born a few years after India’s independence, a period that would alter the fate of the Calcutta Parsis,” Prochy Mehta says with a grim expression. In newly independent India, the struggles of the past were still fresh in people’s minds.

Little Prochy Mehta with her family friend Roshan Ginwala

Prochy Mehta grew up hearing stories about Pherozeshah Mehta, a prominent Parsi leader from Bombay who played a key role in India’s fight against British rule. “My father would tell us, only occasionally,” she laughs, recalling a rare admission, “that he too went to jail for a year while in college in Poona (now Pune) for his role in anti-British agitations.”

(Source: Prochy N Mehta)

The role of Calcutta’s Parsis in India’s freedom struggle is often overlooked, though it was undeniably significant. “However, with the British departure, the Parsis began to lose the influence and prosperity they had once enjoyed,” she says.

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While Calcutta’s Parsis thrived in the 19th century, they were also deeply engaged in the political currents of the 20th century.

In the mid-1880s, as the Indian National Congress was taking shape, RD Mehta maintained regular contact with Dadabhai Naoroji, the prominent nationalist leader who co-founded the Congress in 1885. He played a crucial role as a bridge between Naoroji and the Bengali intelligentsia, exemplifying how Parsi nationalists leveraged community ties for broader political engagement. “During the 1880s and 1890s, Mehta, it appears, was one of the most important points of contact in Calcutta for Naoroji,” observes Patel.

Their correspondence sheds light on Mehta’s political stance — he was a typical early Congress moderate, advocating for political reform without demanding self-rule. 

By 1906, as Naoroji was elected Congress president to mediate between moderates and radicals, Mehta remained supportive. Patel’s study of their letters, preserved in the National Library archives in New Delhi, highlights this connection. In one letter, Mehta wrote: “I am sure your [Naoroji] presence would tend to settle the matter down smoothly.” That same year, Naoroji stayed with the Mehtas during his visit to Calcutta for the Congress session.

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Things changed drastically for Calcutta’s Parsi community with the emergence of the new nation. The opening of the Suez Canal shifted trade in favour of Bombay, diminishing Calcutta’s economic significance. “By the 1960s, Parsis began leaving the city, and the exodus worsened in the 1970s,” Prochy Mehta recounts. “They moved to Bombay and across the globe: Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada…”

Despite this mass migration, her family remained. “My father enjoyed remarkable social and economic leverage in the city, so we stayed. But that wasn’t true for all Parsis.”

Prochy Mehta fondly reminisces about the community’s close-knit nature in the past. “The good old days,” she sighs. “We had unique ways of staying connected. One was a donated bus that shuttled elderly Parsis to the Parsi Club for tea and snacks.” She also recalls biannual trips to Globe Cinema near New Market for a free movie. “A Parsi owned the hall, and during the interval, we feasted on sweets and snacks!” she laughed before adding, “Such days are long gone.”

Prochy Mehta’s family on an outing with their friends, the Pardiwalas and Ginwalas

Today, Calcutta’s Parsi population has dwindled to around 350, with only 30 children under the age of 20 and nearly 80 people over the age of 80. “We are now a shrinking and aging community.” Efforts to revive the community, such as campaigns urging Parsis to have more children, have failed. Both Mehta and Patel point out that many young Parsis today choose not to marry or have children, and interfaith marriages have further contributed to the decline.

A zoom get together of Calcutta’s Parsis during covid (Source: Prochy Mehta’s Facebook)

The Minorities Commission of India recognises Parsis as a minority group alongside Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains. “More than a community, Parsis today are holding onto their wealth,” Mehta concludes.

Prochy N Mehta with her family

Further reading:

1.  Who is a Parsi? by Prochy N Mehta 
2.  Pioneering Parsis of Calcutta by Prochy N Mehta 
3. The Parsees of Calcutta by Dalia Ray
4. The Banaji and Mehta Families: Forging the Parsi Community in Calcutta by Dinyar Patel