On Navroz, Delhi takes a slice out of Parsi way of life

New Delhi: They may be few in number, but Parsis are an integral part of Indian culture. A series of exhibitions and events on the community's culture and tradition are currently being held across the city on the occasion of Navroz and will continue till May 29. Organised by the ministries of minority affairs and culture, the initiative comes on the heels of the Jiyo Parsi program, which was launched in 2013 by the government to address the problem of the community's dwindling population.
"Homai Vyarawalla (India's first woman photojournalist) used to be asked, yeh Parsi kya cheez hai? Now, so many years later we're trying to explain kya cheez hai", said Shernaz Cama, academic, cultural conservationist and one of the moving spirits behind the initiative.
The most ambitious of these exhibitions-The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination-is being held at the National Museum in collaboration with SOAS, the British Library and the National Museum of Iran.
The exhibition provides a chronological account of the birth of Zoroastrianism, the contact between Jewish and Iranian communities, how it influenced Judaism and later Christianity and Islam. There are also sections on the Silk Road trade and the splendours of imperial Iran.
Prayer fragments in the Avestan script, excerpts from religious texts, an enamelled reliquary casket from Limoges, a delicate griffin bird carved in bone, a faded mural of warrior Rustam spearing an enemy, among others are on display.
A more accessible show, Threads of Continuity, on the living culture of the Parsis has been organised by the Parzor Foundation and will feature performances and events till May.
"The kusti (the 72-thread sacred girdle) is an unbroken tradition from the Bronze Age till now. It is woven on the same loom then and now, in Iran, India and elsewhere," said Cama. "That's the kind of continuity we wanted to bring alive."
Although the anecdote about Parsis promising to blend into India like sugar in milk is apocryphal, this show details that happy accommodation in Gujarat, Mumbai, and the Deccan. There are glimpses of the diaspora and influential Parsis from the Tatas to Homi Bhabha to Sam Manekshaw, as well as imposing portraits, knick-knacks like candelabras and tinkling music boxes.
"For 18 years, we have documented the philosophy and faith, the multicultural amalgam that Parsis are in India," said Cama.
Meanwhile, the National Gallery of Modern Art is hosting a twin show titled Painted Encounters-Parsi Traders and the Community, and No Parsi is an Island, curated by Nancy Adajania and Ranjit Hoskote. These shows trace the works of 14 Parsi artists, who worked in film, theatre, poetry, classical dance and crafts, over the past 150 years.
"We wanted to breach the notions of canon, temporality, style and period. We were more interested in the 'worlding' of Parsis," said Hoskote.
From 19th century oil paintings, dance sketches and photographs by Shiavax Chavda, Piloo Pochkhanawala's sculptures and Gieve Patel's canvases, the exhibitions show how Parsis shaped themselves to colonial modernity, nationalism, Indian modernism and global culture.