Why and how is it that, for a minuscule community that numbers about 57,000 but will soon be down to 23,000, the Parsis cut such an inordinately high profile and exert huge influence—as tycoons (the Tatas, Wadias, Mistrys and Godrejs), jurists and lawyers (Nani Palkhiwala, Soli Sorabjee, Justice Rohinton Nariman), nationalists and rebels (Dadabhai Naoroji, Madame Cama, Kobad Gandhy) not to speak of soldiers, scientists, musicians and artists—from Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to Homi Bhabha, Zubin Mehta to Freddie Mercury, Homai Vyarawalla to Jehangir Sabavala? And the name that outstrips them all in our anxious pandemic-afflicted age, Adar Poonawalla, of the flamboyant family that is the world’s largest vaccine producer, is also a Parsi.
In her book, Coomi Kapoor examines the Parsis’ intricate ties of kinship and their unflagging zeal…
