>>520513777
Zoroastrians in the Great Game
At the turn of the 20th century members of the small Zoroastrian community of India, known as Parsis, debated the merits of establishing their own colony. The key proponent of this scheme was Khan Bahadur Burjorjee Patel, a wealthy Parsi who lived in the city of Quetta. According to the Parsi – ‘The English Journal of the Parsis and a High Class Illustrated Monthly’ – in 1905, Patel spent several months ‘agitating’ in the Rast Goftar (The Truth Teller), a Parsi-run Anglo-Gujarati newspaper, for ‘the necessity of establishing a colony’ for the community. Patel’s campaign was likely influenced by the activities of the Zionist Organisation, which had been founded in Basel a few years earlier in 1897. Indeed, one location considered by the Parsis was an area in present-day Kenya that Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, had proposed as the site of a Zionist colony in his 1903 ‘Uganda Scheme’. However, in an article published in the Parsi in December 1905, the argument was made that ‘the one great feature of a Parsi colony should be its location either in our fatherland of Iran or somewhere near it’. Among the potential sites suggested were Baluchistan, Sindh, Makran, and the region of Sistan, an area contested by Iran and Afghanistan which also bordered British India. Significantly for the Parsis, Sistan was regarded as the homeland of the legendary Kayanian dynasty of Persia, referenced in ancient Zoroastrian texts. The idea of a Parsi colony was first voiced in the 1880s, at a time when there was an increased interest among Parsis in their ancient heritage. This was provoked, in part, by criticisms made by Christian missionaries. To prove that Zoroastrianism was just as suited to the contemporary world as Christianity, Parsis looked to their ancient texts and argued that Zoroastrianism, in its essential and original state, was a religion that promoted modern values.
11/3/2025, 9:14:53 PM
No.520513096
[Report]
>>520513614
>>520513777
>>520514071
>>520514104
>>520514329
>>520514393
>>520514482
>>520514710
>>520514844
>>520514955
>>520515068
>>520517401
>>520518314
