The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City (Brill's Indological Library, V. 17) [Hardcover]

Jesse S. Palsetia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2001 | Series: Brill's Indological Library, V. 17 (Book 17)

This volume examines a much-neglected area of Asian studies. In tracing keypoints in the development of the Parsi community, it depicts the Parsis' history, and accounts for their ability to preserve, maintain and construct a distinct identity. For a great part the story is told in the colonial setting of Bombay city. Attention is given to the Parsis' evolution from an insular minority group to a modern community of pluralistic outlook. Filling the lacunae in the literature on British colonialism, Indian society and history, and, last but not least, Zoroastrianism, this volume broadens our knowledge of the interaction of colonialism and colonial groups, and elucidates the significant role of the Parsis in the commercial, educational, and civic milieu of Bombay colonial society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The Parsis of India "must surely take a rightly deserved place at the very peak of studies on this dwindling but undaunted community. It is congruent with Kulke's 1974 classic which it now both supplements and surpasses'
Farrokh Vajifdar, "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2002.
'"Palsetia has produced a solid, well-informed, balanced, and highly readable [] account.'
Michael Stausberg, "Numen, 2002.

About the Author

Jesse S. Palsetia, Ph.D. (1996) in History, University of Toronto, is a research scholar who has published in the field of the history of the Parsis in India.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004121145
• ISBN-13: 978-9004121140
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,702,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > History > Asia > Bhutan

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Palsetia's : The Parsis of India / A review, August 13, 2001

By 

Noshir M. Khambatta (DURHAM, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Parsis of India: Preservation of Identity in Bombay City (Brill's Indological Library, V. 17) (Hardcover)

Dr. Palsetia is to be congratulated on writing a very well researched book on the Parsi community of Bombay, India. He has researched the most valuable original sources of the Parsi community like the "Parsee Prakash", "Rast Goftar", the "Panchayat Publications" etc. to put in about 400 pages one of the very best readable book on the history of the Parsi community of Bombay in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. With elaborate footnotes and an excellent bibliography, Dr. Palsetia has lighted the very salient features of the Parsi community in one volume, what would otherwise occupy over a dozen volumes to treat a complex and difficult subject. I urge every Parsi and friends and admirers of Parsis to study this book to obtain a correct glimpse of the Parsi community of Bombay. The publishing house of Brill is to be once again congratulated and thanked in providing scholars with an excellent monograph on a difficult and rare subject, as they have often done in the past. I have no doubts this book will be a standard reference for several decades on the history of the Parsis in Bombay.