Parsis and Hindutva's Ethnic Nationalism in India

[r3alist]

Remove one, and you've already lost. Same as us. Just in larger numbers. Survive longer.

Nomadic warriors as you were, finally you had to set down root.

It was a pact.

Don't disturb us. We will call ourselves Hindu and provide the blood and muscle.

Rhe Brahmins got what they wanted. Needed. Their supremacy undisturbed.

Your tribe got to finally rest. On warm fertile soil. Weapons getting a breather.

You are Iranic. But central Asian wing. Probably never Zoroastrian. In that I am not inclined to disagree.

Cheers, Doc

Just very plainly and purely put.

 

[Peregrine]

Zoroastrians of North America:

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Actually @vsdoc , I forgot to mention one more Parsi closely tied in with my arc in HK.

I had British teacher in very first grade (really early intake grade before 1st grade kind of post-kindergarten) and she basically took a chance on me (given limited slots for intake) for that school....i.e English was not my mother tongue, I was very shy etc and so the interview of little me didnt really go that well....but she saw something in me anyway which I am thankful for....it impacted greatly.

But she a few years later married a Parsi (a Shroff and she became a Mrs. Shroff) and there was even a small assembly presentation later introducing the culture too. Very old foggy memory on this stuff though, but yet another HK Parsi connection for me. Its been great reaching out to them later in life and show what a journey its been since heh.

Didnt know Jackie Shrof was parsi.
For some reason i thought he was a Nepali.

I know that Aftab Sivdasani is a parsi too. And there was famous actress in the 90s who also was a parsi. But i dont remember her name.

Everyone probably knows Farok Bulsara.

 

[Nilgiri]

Didnt know Jackie Shrof was parsi.
For some reason i thought he was a Nepali.

I know that Aftab Sivdasani is a parsi too. And there was famous actress in the 90s who also was a parsi. But i dont remember her name.

Everyone probably knows Farok Bulsara.

Shroff is not only a Parsi name. Jackie Shroff is not parsi from what I remember.

You may find this interesting:

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[Joe Shearer]

Didnt know Jackie Shrof was parsi.
For some reason i thought he was a Nepali.

I know that Aftab Sivdasani is a parsi too. And there was famous actress in the 90s who also was a parsi. But i dont remember her name.

Everyone probably knows Farok Bulsara.

Persis Khambatta.
How could you forget?

 

[Muji.Iqbal]

Hindus don't care about Parsis, because they are an insignificant minority who are not a threat to the Hindus in power in India.

 

[Nilgiri]

As an outsider and one who has not read any hindu religious text, it seems to me hinduism in reality is a conglomerate of various beliefs, cultural traditions, teachers, teachings, deities and so on. Bound by loose similarity in some traits, and strong similarities in other cases.

But i might be wrong.

Lets take the example of Middle East where there is varoius religions like Islam, Christianity, Judaic. But also huge number of smaller less well known religions Alawites, Bahai, Mandaeism, Yazidi and Zoroastrianism.
They all have some similarities and yet are not the same. Some denominations have loose similarities while other have strong similarities.

I suspect we should characterize even Buddhism and Hinduistic beliefs under more approperiate name like Bharatism, Indianism or something like that. Even though it may sound like name of a nationalistic ideology than a religion.

Maybe the religions in middle-east in similar fashion can be meshed together adademically too and be named something like Nileoxusism…but in Islam its just called People of the Book.
Maybe indians also have a similar concept?

Anyway, the religions in both of these cultural regions would be better understood as interconnected web of traits, stories, characters, interpretations and ethics, that somehow still fit into the whole as one unit.

W.r.t Chinese sphere, its often just called Chinese folk religion (from the outside), since these have evolved through mergers and waxing and waning of mainstreams of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. These are in addition to the underlying animistic and metaphysical beliefs of the Chinese people. There is great variance from region to region just like in India.

Even within Hinduism there is course of waves and rocks that remain unmoving (w.r.t region particularities). The war God of the Tamils (default name: Murugan, a name not found in the North) has strong monolatry precedence predating the arrival of more mainstream hinduism theology (w.r.t vedanta). Ceyon the red one (cehappu = red, tamil etymology is huge subject). It is not without reason he is still "THE" Tamil God. He even explained the meaning of OM to father Shiva. This is extremely different to Shiva taking much more dominant form in the North compared to the son.

The very prioritization of the stories, the channels and course of the water so to speak are oriented around the earliest unmmoving rocks. i.e what was the nature of the Tamil theologies and religious practices during the Sangam era and also before and afterwards.

I have been to other parts of China, and while some are cognisant of some of the deities in "Yue" areas (i.e HK environs)...most really dont know specifics (and vice versa), its very much same thing, there is shifting priority and localism that orients the theology, metaphysics and philosophy....and some would even say psychology. But there is cross-over influence as well in operation a long time too. A lot of this in end reflects how communities made larger social groups which evolved into civilisations and then which evolved into larger nations and so on.

 

[Nilgiri]

Were the Scythian not Zoroastrian? They were Iranic, as we all know.

AFAIK they had something downstream in their own way to the steppe belief (that moved in its way to Iran and India and "settled down" respectively).

The kind of things that would also later influence the other steppe folks like Turkics, Hunnics, Uralics, Mongols, Tungusics et al. w.r.t tengriism, steppe and forest animism... and all related beliefs as well....lot of common elements here w.r.t earth, the sky and the wind (given the open steppe).

The fire, water, metal etc really come into more view theologically when dense civilisation occurs (i.e rivers, permanent dwellings, forges etc) compared to steppe elements.

I mean if they were Zoroastrian, Cyrus finale w.r.t the Scythian queen (and rationale of that conflict to begin with) would not have been as it was....at least in the accounts Herodotus gave.

Accounts of the Scythians further west/north west with the black sea, Caucus, Greeks et al. there are all very interesting to read about too.

I just now stumbled across some of the earlier replies of this thread....and thought I would reply as well.