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Parsis were the original inhabitants of Bombay. They are a very enterprising Community.

The original inhabitants are the community called he East Indians, but there is no denying that the Parsees are hugely responsible for making Bombay " That enchanting place"... giving it a distinct cosmopolitan character. Sadly , that's eroding, due to the aggressive efforts of some who wish to turn it into their fiefdom.

Sreerupa is right again. The original inhabitants of Bombay are the Maharashtrians. The Parsis came later (after being expelled from Iran owing to the intolerance of their victors) and enriched Bombay with their enterprising skills and philanthropic spirit that was unknown in India.

The Parsees had come and settled in parts of Coastal Gujarat after their persecution in Iran after Iran (literal meaning land of Aryans) was annexed to Islam.They had planned to flee to Europe but ended up sailing in the wrong direction and landed on coastal Saurashtra. The term Parsi is a misnomer that gained currency over time and is originally drawn from Farsi (people of Faras or Persia). As the story goes when their ship-loads arrived in Gujarat the ruler who they still refer to as 'Rana' had a meeting with their principal priest. The Gujaratis showed the Parsees a big bowl brimming with milk symbolising that they are already full. The Parsee priest took out some sugar and dissolved it in the milk meaning to say that we will enrich your culture by dissolving in it like sugar. The Rana extracted a few promises from them that the Parsee women will wear saris respecting local sentiments and that they will make no attempt to propagate their religion.Of course the saris have vanished over time but their promise of not spreading their religion holds true to this day and no non-Parsee can ever enter an Agiary (Parsee fire temple). They never mixed blood with the native Indians and have managed to keep their gene pool intact to this day even after twelve hundred years.Their population still inhabits coastal Gujarati towns like Navsari, Bharuch, Diu etc. They were both land-owners as well as business-men and were successful business-men already by the time the British were firmly entrenched in India. After the British received the islands of Bombay in dowry from the Portuguese they founded 'black town' in south Bombay. This is still called the fort / town area.These seven islands which had settlements of fishing communities of Kolis ,were all joined together through land reclamation efforts and are today known collectively as Mumbai which is now a solitary long island. The British invited prosperous Gujarati Hindu , Muslim and Parsee businessmen to settle in their presidency town of Bombay. All minorities flourished under the British because it was their policy to promote them as they themselves were in a minority in India.Along-with Memons, Khojas , Vaishnav Gujaratis these Parsis also flourished under the British and in fact out-shone all others in academics and business. After having made it big in fields of business through their relentless efforts in their adoptive mother-land the Parsis brought their holy fire from Iran and housed it in Udwara near Vapi in Gujarat.It is a place of pilgrimage for them now.They made attempts to mingle with the minuscule surviving Zorastrian population that still inhabits Iran but discovered to their dismay that they had both evolved too separately in these centuries. The original Iranian Zorastrians would not mix blood with them anymore.Tours to the great Zorastrian places like Persepolis , Isfahan and Shiraz etc are still undertaken by them to observe the ruins of their once great civilization which produced great kings like Darius and several others. Today India's biggest business conglomerate with 79 companies is the Tata group which is Parsi.It is the most employee friendly group and even today 10 % of their profits are compulsorily spent exclusively on charity. The philanthropy of the Parsis is legion. As promised to the Rana king they have sweetened Indian culture and business forever by their presence.

@DigVijay :+1 !!!

The Tata Group comprises 114 companies and subsidiaries in seven business sectors, 27 of which are publicly listed. 65.8% of the ownership of Tata Group is held in charitable trusts !! More at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Group

Just a clarification here... Asad, the term Maharashtrians is a very modern , post Independence term.. and one should not club all under that umbrella.... the Bombay Presidency consisted of marath /konkani i speaking people.. they could be chitpawans, Saraswats. Marathis , CKps etc.... So to say that maharahtrians were in Bombay in its infant years may not be totally correct. The inhabitants were these fishing folk Kolis ( other wise called East Indians) and one still finds them in the remnants of the little villages in Bandra etc... A lot of them are mistaken for Goans as they too embraced christianity.... About the name Iran( AYran)... the country's name of changed by Reza Shah Pehlavi from Persia ( and its Farsi equivalent) when he wanted to promote Aryan supremacy in a big way.... got a little mislead by what Hitler was doing in Germany.... His megalomaniac tendencies forgot their boundaries !!!! @ Digvijay.... superb effort to put all facts in place

Bombay was a Fishing Island where kolis' or Fishermen Lived. It was the Parsis who built the City under the British Patronage. if u visit South Bombay you will find all Parsi owned Buildings and Parsi Fire Temples Which are as old as !700 AD. Kolis the orignal inhabitants who are kokani Speaking People refer to Maharashtrians as Ghatis. there is a difference between the two. and as far as the city is concerned it was a parsi city without any doubt. then came other communities

I believe, the East Indians of Mumbai, generally concentrated in and near Vasai to the North of Mumbai embraced christianity under the influence of the Portugese (Mumbai was originally a Portugese territory and was handed over to the British as a wedding gift!) hence the confusion with Goans who also embraced christianity under the influence of the Portugese during their long rule. Mumbai developed due to contributions in various forms by not Parsis alone but a number of communities, including, notably the labour that migrated from Konkan areas and western Maharastra and worked in textile mills, port, etc., gujaratis, besides the original fishermen communities.

Sreerupa: I used the term "Maharashtrian" to include all indigenous groups, chiefly Marathas and Konkanis, and other smaller groups I did not know about. The Parsees arrived late and Digvijay has summarized their arrival with considerable lucidity. To compare the Shah of Iran with Adolf Hitler is not correct; he did commit some crimes against his people but nothing on the scale of Hitler. Actually, he was almost entirely a creature of American making. His removal was totally justified but look at what replaced him! A gang of Mullahs who have no use for any difference of opinion. But the Iranis are highly intelligent and cultured people and I am optimistic that it will work out eventually. The idea of an Aryan nation "Aryaan" comprising of British India, Afghanistan, and possibly Iran originated in India around the late 20's, possibly against British imperialism, and perhaps also influenced by developments in Germany. One important personality in that movement was Raja Mahinder Pratap Singh. He was a truly secular person, was only interested in promoting the idea of one nation for all Aryans. He even donated a scholarship at Aligarh Muslim University for the student standing First in the first year of Science. I was the lucky recipient of his scholarship in 1953, valued at Rs. 4/- month, which was just enough to keep my bicycle running (to the great envy of some of my classmates). The Raja had obviously forgotten to account for inflation! So, if you plan to start scholarships in India, remember to add 5 per cent for inflation.

Yes Asad, About Iran. .. I live in this region ,so tell me more !!!!! Have always been very taken by the shah and shah banu etc as a child... used to follow a lot of the happenings... when I mention shah and hitler in the same breath, I do not compare the atrocities ( though the Savak were very brutal).... but bringing back this name Iran had a lot to do with his being influenced by the aryan supremacy theory of hitler.... at that point he was being drawn towards the axis powers... the world knows that he was totally under American influence , but there are stories within stories, and a lot of intrigues which did not surface at that time... everybody wanted the anglo Iranian oil company as their own toy.... Ofcourse I agree totally with you about the present condition of Iran... a very intellegent race going thru extremely unfortunate times.... a constricted existence... Infact Khameini now want a total revision of social science courses at the unversities.. coz he realised that the students are a force to reckon with... Having said all this, am sure Asad, there is a lot of truth in what you said about the aryan idea achieving strong ground in India... Multiple ideas and multiple sources.. that's what makes history so interesting...

Shah Reza Pehelwi was by no means an Adolf Hitler. He was a puppet/ titular ruler installed by the Amercans in cahoots with the British, as rightly pointed out by Asad uncle ,so they could continue to plunder the oil reserves of Iran.He made valiant attempts to modernise the country, banned the hijab absolutely and dreamed to restore Iran to her former glory in his short stint.Creating a Aryan state and harping on Aryan supremacy were all owing to this reason to create a sense of pride among his country-men.His efforts in that direction are indeed praise-worthy.He was a well read intelligent man for his station.Today it is un-imaginable that the Iranian Queen wore frocks and drank pink champagne ! The western powers are to blame for the present middle-eastern crises. Whether it is 10 billion dollars that the Americans are pumping into Israel annually or the Gulf war and devastation of the only progressive Arab country or the alienation of Iran through plunder of it's oil wealth .The hands of the western powers are tainted with blood and un-necessary meddling in internal affairs of countries.Whole of the middle east is full of West supported despots why was Saddam singled out and removed ?Saudi Arabia with the world's largest oil reserves is a time bomb ticking away and will go the way of Iran , the Wahabi way. Iran with second largest depoists is out of their hands so Iraq had to be annexed to manage both conveniently from there.The ancient Mesopotamian civilisation and the Shia religious shrines be damned.The allied powers invaded purely for oil it is plain for the whole world to see now. My hypothesis is that even Islam had to change when it came to Iran. The religion was not accepted easily by a refined people who found it barbaric to their beliefs and tastes .They had rich traditions of sculpture, painting and flourishing arts of music and dance.Islamic architecture acquired the dome from the Iranians. The depiction of animal and bird figurines in carpets and paintings and non-religious text and context are hall-marks of Iran which are anathema to Islam. Most Sufi silsilas and khanqahs got established there and trace their origin to Iran.The concept of safeguarding and sustaining the Syeds through state means and veneration of the twelve imams is central to Shia Islam. Even today Iran is eighty per-cent Shia (followers / party of Hazrat Ali). The Iranians are a great civilisation and they will not remain subdued for long under this tyranny. It is the only middle-eastern country where election results (and president Ahmednijaad) are being questioned and people have come out on the streets demanding democracy. Persia was able to evolve a culture and tehzeeb that was aped both in the east (by the Mughals) and west (the Ottomans) .It has been a thriving civilisation throughout history both with and without Islam.

@ Digvijay...cannot agree with you more on that... persia has always had its own culture which has survived ,despite Islam.....

Persians have their own Persian Shite form of Islam with a mix of their Zorashtrian background. but just because the ruler was moderate does not mean that the society was represented by him. yes a large section of elite and ruling class indeed belonged to that category yet the Majority of the People esp the people in rural Iran were practising Muslims and the revolution was brought in because it was a people's revolution and not a western led forced revolution that we see in Iraq today.

Sameer : http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html

@Sameer : I would suggest you read the autobiography of Khatoun Sattareh Farmaan Farmiyan " Daughter of Persia" ....it is a brilliant day by day and month by month account of how Iran was usurped by the mullahs and how Ayatollah Khomaini came to assume the reins of power. Do you know who is the heriditary head of state of Iran after the revolution? The answer might surprise you.

@ Digvijay I have decent knowledge of Persian Society and Persian Language I don't need any reference from any Author, I know Iranian Society and Iranian Culture first hand. I know that the present Islamic Regime is not very popular and among the urban intellectual Iranians but The Fact is Fact that the Iranian Islamic Revolution was a Popular Uprising because Shah was an Elitist who was not in Touch with the Have nots . people from all sections of society were in that revolution and at that time no body knew what shape the Revolution is going to take. they were certainly not expecting the present day Islamic Regime. but that does not mean that shah was popular, and finally some half baked cakes have found is easy to indulge in Islam and Muslim bashing over a drop of Hat they need to first get some decent knowledge of History

@Sonya it is originally published in great Britain by Bantam Press a division of Transworld Publishers. Bantam Press edition published 1992 Corgi edition published 1993 Corgi Books are published by Transworld Publishers 61-63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA a division of Random House Group Ltd. www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm