Osob kiwalan
Orang Parsi (terj. har. '"Persia"' dalam bahasa Persia) adalah sebuah kelompok etnoreligius di anakbenua India yang beragama Zoroastrianisme. Leluhur mereka berpindah dari Kekaisaran Sasaniyah pada saat penaklukan Muslim di bawah Kekhalifahan Rasyidin pada abad ke-7. Mereka adalah kelompok yang sama dengan orang Irani, yang berpindah ke India pada saat kejayaan Dinasti Qajar di Iran pada abad ke-18. Berdasarkan epik Zoroaster, Qissa-i Sanjan, orang Parsi berpindah dari Iran ke Gujarat, India pada abad ke-8 hingga ke-10 kemudian mereka diberi perlindungan dari persekusi oleh Muslim selama dan setelah penaklukan Muslim awal.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
 | |
| Daerah dengan populasi signifikan | |
|---|---|
 India | 69,000 (2014)[1][2] |
 Pakistan | 1,092[3][4] |
| Bahasa | |
| Inggris (India), Gujarati dan Hindi–Urdu | |
| Agama | |
| Zoroastrianisme | |
Pada saat penaklukan Muslim di Persia, agama yang berkuasa di wilayah tersebut adalah Zoroastrianisme, sebuah agama Iran yang dijadikan sebagai agama resmi Kekaisaran Sasaniyah. Beberapa tokoh Iran terkemuka seperti Babak Khorramdin secara aktif memberontak melawan tentara Rasyidin dan kekhalifahan Islam setelahnya selama 200 tahun,[12] sementara yang lain memilih untuk melestarikan identitas agamanya dengan melarikan diri ke India selama ini.[13]
Orang Parsi memberikan sumbangsih yang besar dalam sejarah dan perkembangan negara India mengingat jumlah populasi mereka yang kecil. Beberapa markah tanah di Mumbai dinamai dari tokoh Parsi, termasuk Nariman Point. Bukit Malabar di Mumbai adalah kawasan bagi beberapa Parsi terkemuka. Orang Parsi yang menonjol dalam gerakan kemerdekaan India, antara lain Pherozeshah Mehta, Dadabhai Naoroji, dan Bhikaiji Cama.
Definition and identity
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica,
Parsi, also spelled Parsee, member of a group of followers in India of the Persian prophet Zoroaster. The Parsis, whose name means "Persians", are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims. They live chiefly in Mumbai and in a few towns and villages mostly to the south of Mumbai, but also a few minorities nearby in Karachi (Pakistan) and Chennai. There is a sizeable Parsee population in Pune as well in Bangalore. A few Parsee families also reside in Kolkata and Hyderabad. Although they are not, strictly speaking, a caste, since they are not Hindus, they form a well-defined community. The exact date of the Parsi migration is unknown. According to tradition, the Parsis initially settled at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf but finding themselves still persecuted they set sail for India, arriving in the 8th century. The migration may, in fact, have taken place as late as the 10th century, or in both. They settled first at Diu in Kathiawar but soon moved to South Gujarāt, where they remained for about 800 years as a small agricultural community.[14]
The term Pārsi, which in the Persian language is a demonym meaning "inhabitant of Pārs" and hence "ethnic Persian", is not attested in Indian Zoroastrian texts until the 17th century. Until that time, such texts consistently use the Persian-origin terms Zartoshti "Zoroastrian" or Vehdin "[of] the good religion". The 12th-century Sixteen Shlokas, a Sanskrit text in praise of the Parsis,[15] is the earliest attested use of the term as an identifier for Indian Zoroastrians.
The first reference to the Parsis in a European language is from 1322, when a French monk, Jordanus, briefly refers to their presence in Thane and Bharuch. Subsequently, the term appears in the journals of many European travelers, first French and Portuguese, later English, all of whom used a Europeanized version of an apparently local language term. For example, Portuguese physician Garcia de Orta observed in 1563 that "there are merchants ... in the kingdom of Cambaia ... known as Esparcis. We Portuguese call them Jews, but they are not so. They are Gentios." In an early 20th-century legal ruling (see self-perceptions, below), Justices Davar and Beaman asserted (1909:540) that "Parsi" was also a term used in Iran to refer to Zoroastrians.[16][17] notes that in much the same way as the word "Hindu" was used by Iranians to refer to anyone from the Indian subcontinent, "Parsi" was used by the Indians to refer to anyone from Greater Iran, irrespective of whether they were actually ethnic Persian people. In any case, the term "Parsi" itself is "not necessarily an indication of their Iranian or 'Persian' origin, but rather as indicator – manifest as several properties – of ethnic identity".[18] Moreover, if heredity were the only factor in a determination of ethnicity, the Parsis would count as Parthians according to the Qissa-i Sanjan.[17]
The term "Parseeism" or "Parsiism", is attributed to Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, who in the 1750s, when the word "Zoroastrianism" had yet to be coined, made the first detailed report of the Parsis and of Zoroastrianism, therein mistakenly assuming that the Parsis were the only remaining followers of the religion.
In addition to above, the term "Parsi" existed even before they moved to India:
- The earliest reference to the Parsis is found in the Assyrian inscription of Shalmaneser III (circa 854-824 BC).
- Darius the Great (521-486 BC) establishes this fact when he records his Parsi ancestry for posterity, “parsa parsahya puthra ariya ariyachitra”, meaning, “a Parsi, the son of a Parsi, an Aryan, of Aryan family (Inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam, near Persepolis, Iran).
- In Outlines of Parsi History, Dasturji Hormazdyar Dastur Kayoji Mirza, Bombay 1987, pp. 3-4 writes, “According to the Pahlavi text of Karnamak i Artakhshir i Papakan, the Indian astrologer refers to Artakhshir (Sasanian king, and the founder of the Empire) as khvatay parsikan ‘the king of the Parsis’.
- Herodotus and Xenophon, the two great historians who lived in the third and fourth centuries BC, referred to Iranians as Parsis.[19]
Asal-usul
Sebagai komunitas etnis
Over the centuries since the first Zoroastrians arrived in India, the Parsis have integrated themselves into Indian society while simultaneously maintaining or developing their own distinct customs and traditions (and thus ethnic identity). This in turn has given the Parsi community a rather peculiar standing: they are mostly Indians in terms of national affiliation, language and history, but not typically Indian in terms of consanguinity or ethnicity, cultural, behavioural and religious practices. Genealogical DNA tests to determine purity of lineage have brought mixed results. One study supports the Parsi contention[20] that they have maintained their Persian roots by avoiding intermarriage with local populations. In that 2002 study of the Y-chromosome (patrilineal) DNA of the Parsis of Pakistan, it was determined that Parsis are genetically closer to Iranians than to their neighbours.[21]
A 2004 study in which Parsi mitochondrial DNA (matrilineal) was compared with that of the Iranians and Gujaratis determined that Parsis are genetically closer to Gujaratis than to Iranians. Taking the 2002 study into account, the authors of the 2004 study suggested "a male-mediated migration of the ancestors of the present-day Parsi population, where they admixed with local females [...] leading ultimately to the loss of mtDNA of Iranian origin".[22] A study was conducted in 2017 which found that Parsis are genetically closer to Neolithic Iranians than to modern Iranians who have witnessed a more recent wave of admixture from the Near East, and that there were “48% South-Asian-specific mitochondrial lineages among the ancient samples, which might have resulted from the assimilation of local females during the initial settlement.”[23]
Self-perceptions
The definition of who is, and is not, a Parsi is a matter of great contention within the Zoroastrian community in India. It is generally accepted that a Parsi is a person who:
- (a) is directly descended from the original Persian refugees, and
- (b) has been formally admitted into the Zoroastrian religion, through the navjote ceremony.
In this sense, Parsi is an ethno-religious designator, whose definition is of contention among its members, similar to the contention over who is a Jew in the West.
Some members of the community additionally contend that a child must have a Parsi father to be eligible for introduction into the faith, but this assertion is considered by most to be a violation of the Zoroastrian tenets of gender equality and may be a remnant of an old legal definition of the term Parsi.
An oft-quoted legal definition of Parsi is based on a 1909 ruling (since nullified) that not only stipulated that a person could not become a Parsi by converting to the Zoroastrian faith but also noted:
the Parsi community consists of: a) Parsis who are descended from the original Persian emigrants and who are born of both Zoroastrian parents and who profess the Zoroastrian religion; b) Iranis [here meaning Iranians, not the other group of Indian Zoroastrians] professing the Zoroastrian religion; c) the children of Parsi fathers by alien mothers who have been duly and properly admitted into the religion.[24]
This definition was overturned several times. The equality principles of the Indian Constitution void the patrilineal restrictions expressed in the third clause. The second clause was contested and overturned in 1948.[25] On appeal in 1950, the 1948 ruling was upheld and the entire 1909 definition was deemed an obiter dictum – a collateral opinion and not legally binding (re-affirmed in 1966).[19][26])
There is a growing voice within the community that if indeed equality must be re-established then the only acceptable solution is to allow a child to be initiated into the faith only if both parents are Parsi.
Nonetheless, the opinion that the 1909 ruling is legally binding continues to persist, even among the better-read and moderate Parsis.
Population
| Year | Population | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 91,266 | |
| 1981 | 71,630 |  -21.52%
|
| 1991 | ||
| 2001 | 69,601 | |
| 2011 | 57,264 | -17.73%
|
According to the 2011 Census of India, there are 57,264 Parsis in India.[27][28] According to the National Commission for Minorities, there are a "variety of causes that are responsible for this steady decline in the population of the community", the most significant of which were childlessness and migration.[29] Demographic trends project that by 2020 the Parsis will number only 23,000. The Parsis will then cease to be called a community and will be labeled a 'tribe'.[30]
One-fifth of the decrease in population is attributed to migration. There are sizeable Parsi communities in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States.[31] A slower birthrate than deathrate accounts for the rest: as of 2001, Parsis over the age of 60 make up for 31% of the community. Only 4.7% of the Parsi community are under 6 years of age, which translates to 7 births per year per 1000 individuals.[32] Concerns have been raised in recent years over the rapidly declining population of the Parsi community in India.[33]
Other demographic statistics
The gender ratio among Parsis is unusual: as of 2001, the ratio of males to females was 1000 males to 1050 females (up from 1024 in 1991), due primarily to the high median age of the population (elderly women are more common than elderly men). As of 2001 the national average in India was 1000 males to 933 females.
Parsis have a high literacy rate; as of 2001, the literacy rate is 97.9%, the highest of any Indian community (the national average was 64.8%). 96.1% of Parsis reside in urban areas (the national average is 27.8%). Parsis mother tongue is Gujarati.
In the Greater Mumbai area, where the density of Parsis is highest, about 10% of Parsi females and about 20% of Parsi males do not marry.[34]
History
Arrival in the Indian sub-continent
According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, the only existing account of the early years of Zoroastrian refugees in India composed at least six centuries after their tentative date of arrival, the first group of immigrants originated from Greater Khorasan.[5] This historical region of Central Asia is in part in northeastern Iran, where it constitutes modern Khorasan Province, part of western/northern Afghanistan, and in part in three Central-Asian republics namely Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
According to the Qissa, the immigrants were granted permission to stay by the local ruler, Jadi Rana, on the condition that they adopt the local language (Gujarati) and that their women adopt local dress (the sari).[35] The refugees accepted the conditions and founded the settlement of Sanjan, which is said to have been named after the city of their origin (Sanjan, near Merv, modern Turkmenistan).[5] This first group was followed by a second group from Greater Khorasan within five years of the first, and this time having religious implements with them (the alat). In addition to these Khorasanis or Kohistanis "mountain folk", as the two initial groups are said to have been initially called,[36] at least one other group is said to have come overland from Sari, Iran.[37]
Although the Sanjan group are believed to have been the first permanent settlers, the precise date of their arrival is a matter of conjecture. All estimates are based on the Qissa, which is vague or contradictory with respect to some elapsed periods. Consequently, three possible dates – 716, 765, and 936 – have been proposed as the year of landing, and the disagreement has been the cause of "many an intense battle ... amongst Parsis".[38] Since dates are not specifically mentioned in Parsi texts prior to the 18th century, any date of arrival is perforce a matter of speculation. The importance of the Qissa lies in any case not so much in its reconstruction of events than in its depiction of the Parsis – in the way they have come to view themselves – and in their relationship to the dominant culture. As such, the text plays a crucial role in shaping Parsi identity. But, "even if one comes to the conclusion that the chronicle based on verbal transmission is not more than a legend, it still remains without doubt an extremely informative document for Parsee historiography."[39]
The Sanjan Zoroastrians were certainly not the first Zoroastrians on the subcontinent.[butuh rujukan] Sindh touching Balochistan, the easternmost periphery of the Iranian world, too had once been under coastal administration of the Sasanian Empire (226-651), which consequently maintained outposts there.[butuh rujukan] Even following the loss of Sindh, the Iranians continued to play a major role in the trade links between the east and west.[butuh rujukan] The 9th-century Arab historiographer Al-Masudi briefly notes Zoroastrians with fire temples in al-Hind and in al-Sindh.[40] There is evidence of individual Parsis residing in Sindh in the tenth and twelfth centuries, but the current modern community is thought to date from British arrival in Sindh.[41] Moreover, for the Iranians, the harbours of Gujarat lay on the maritime routes that complemented the overland Silk Road and there were extensive trade relations between the two regions. The contact between Iranians and Indians was already well established even prior to the Common Era, and both the Puranas and the Mahabharata use the term Parasikas to refer to the peoples west of the Indus River.[42]
"Parsi legends regarding their ancestors' migration to India depict a beleaguered band of religious refugees escaping the new rule post the Muslim conquests in order to preserve their ancient faith."[42][43][6][7][8] However, while Parsi settlements definitely arose along the western coast of the Indian subcontinent following the Arab conquest of Iran, it is not possible to state with certainty that these migrations occurred as a result of religious persecution against Zoroastrians. If the "traditional" 8th century date (as deduced from the Qissa) is considered valid, it must be assumed "that the migration began while Zoroastrianism was still the predominant religion in Iran and economic factors predominated the initial decision to migrate."[42] This would have been particularly the case if – as the Qissa suggests – the first Parsis originally came from the north-east (i.e. Central Asia) and had previously been dependent on Silk Road trade.[16] Even so, in the 17th century, Henry Lord, a chaplain with the English East India Company, noted that the Parsis came to India seeking "liberty of conscience" but simultaneously arrived as "merchantmen bound for the shores of India, in course of trade and merchandise."
Early years
The Qissa has little to say about the events that followed the establishment of Sanjan, and restricts itself to a brief note on the establishment of the "Fire of Victory" (Middle Persian: Atash Bahram) at Sanjan and its subsequent move to Navsari. According to Dhalla, the next several centuries were "full of hardships" (sic) before Zoroastrianism "gained a real foothold in India and secured for its adherents some means of livelihood in this new country of their adoption".[44]
Two centuries after their landing, the Parsis began to settle in other parts of Gujarat, which led to "difficulties in defining the limits of priestly jurisdiction."[45] These problems were resolved by 1290 through the division of Gujarat into five panthaks (districts), each under the jurisdiction of one priestly family and their descendants. (Continuing disputes regarding jurisdiction over the Atash Bahram led to the fire being moved to Udvada in 1742, where today jurisdiction is shared in rotation among the five panthak families.)
Inscriptions at the Kanheri Caves near Mumbai suggest that at least until the early 11th century, Middle Persian was still the literary language of the hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood. Nonetheless, aside from the Qissa and the Kanheri inscriptions, there is little evidence of the Parsis until the 12th and 13th century, when "masterly"[46] Sanskrit translations and transcriptions of the Avesta and its commentaries began to be prepared. From these translations Dhalla infers that "religious studies were prosecuted with great zeal at this period" and that the command of Middle Persian and Sanskrit among the clerics "was of a superior order".[46]
From the 13th century to the late 16th century, the Zoroastrian priests of Gujarat sent (in all) twenty-two requests for religious guidance to their co-religionists in Iran, presumably because they considered the Iranian Zoroastrians "better informed on religious matters than themselves, and must have preserved the old-time tradition more faithfully than they themselves did".[47] These transmissions and their replies – assiduously preserved by the community as the rivayats (epistles) – span the years 1478–1766 and deal with both religious and social subjects. From a superficial 21st century point of view, some of these ithoter ("questions") are remarkably trivial – for instance, Rivayat 376: whether ink prepared by a non-Zoroastrian is suitable for copying Avestan language texts – but they provide a discerning insight into the fears and anxieties of the early modern Zoroastrians. Thus, the question of the ink is symptomatic of the fear of assimilation and the loss of identity, a theme that dominates the questions posed and continues to be an issue into the 21st century. So also the question of conversion of Juddins (non-Zoroastrians) to Zoroastrianism, to which the reply (R237, R238) was: acceptable, even meritorious.[48]
Nonetheless, "the precarious condition in which they lived for a considerable period made it impracticable for them to keep up their former proselytizing zeal. The instinctive fear of disintegration and absorption in the vast multitudes among whom they lived created in them a spirit of exclusiveness and a strong desire to preserve the racial characteristics and distinctive features of their community. Living in an atmosphere surcharged with the Hindu caste system, they felt that their own safety lay in encircling their fold by rigid caste barriers".[49] Even so, at some point (possibly shortly after their arrival in India), the Zoroastrians – perhaps determining that the social stratification that they had brought with them was unsustainable in the small community – did away with all but the hereditary priesthood (called the asronih in Sassanid Iran). The remaining estates – the (r)atheshtarih (nobility, soldiers, and civil servants), vastaryoshih (farmers and herdsmen), hutokshih (artisans and labourers) – were folded into an all-comprehensive class today known as the behdini ("followers of daena", for which "good religion" is one translation). This change would have far reaching consequences. For one, it opened the gene pool to some extent since until that time inter-class marriages were exceedingly rare (this would continue to be a problem for the priesthood until the 20th century). For another, it did away with the boundaries along occupational lines, a factor that would endear the Parsis to
- ^ (26 November 2014). "India's declining Parsi population". Al Jazeera.
- ^ Dean Nelson. "India's dwindling Parsi population to be boosted with fertility clinics". The Telegraph.
- ^ "Two decades from now, Pakistan will have no Parsis".
- ^ Desmukh, Fahad (28 November 2012). "The Parsi Community in Karachi, Pakistan". Public Radio International.
- ^ a b c Hodivala 1920, hlm. 88.
- ^ a b Boyce 2001, hlm. 148.
- ^ a b Lambton 1981, hlm. 205.
- ^ a b Nigosian 1993, hlm. 42.
- ^ Khanbaghi 2006, hlm. 17.
- ^ Jackson 1906, hlm. 27
- ^ Bleeker & Widengren 1971, hlm. 212
- ^ Akram, A. I.; al-Mehri, A. B. (2009-09-01). The Muslim Conquest of Persia. Maktabah Publications. ISBN 9780954866532.
- ^ PARSI COMMUNITIES i. EARLY HISTORY – Encyclopaedia Iranica. Iranicaonline.org (2008-07-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
- ^ "Parsi (people)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Diakses tanggal 2013-07-28.
- ^ Parsi legend attributes it to a Hindu author; cf. Paymaster 1954, hlm. 8 incorrectly attributes the text to a Zoroastrian priest
- ^ a b Stausberg 2002, hlm. I.373.
- ^ a b Boyce 2002, hlm. 105.
- ^ Stausberg 2002, hlm. I. 373.
- ^ a b Jamshed Irani v. Banu Irani (1966), 68 blr 794, Justice Mody
- ^ Qamar et al. 2002, hlm. 1119.
- ^ Quintana-Murci et al. 2004, hlm. 840.
- ^ a b Chaubey et al. 2017.
- ^ Sir Dinsha Manekji Petit v. Sir Jamsetji Jijibhai (1909), 33 ILR 509 and 11 BLR 85, Justices Dinshaw Davar and Frank Beaman
- ^ Sarwar Merwan Yezdiar v. Merwan Rashid Yezdiar (1948), Parsi Matrimonial Court, Justice Coyaji
- ^ Merwan Rashid Yezdiar v. Sarwar Merwan Yezdiar (1950), 52 blr 876, Justices Chagla and Gajendragadkar
- ^ "Where we belong: The fight of Parsi women in interfaith marriages". 2017-10-24.
- ^ "Parsi population dips by 22 per cent between 2001-2011: study". The Hindu. 2016-07-25.
- ^ Roy, Unisa & Bhatt 2004, hlm. 8, 21.
- ^ Taraporevala 2000, hlm. 9.
- ^ Roy, Unisa & Bhatt 2004, hlm. 21.
- ^ Roy, Unisa & Bhatt 2004, hlm. 14.
- ^ "Saving India's Parsis". BBC.
- ^ Roy, Unisa & Bhatt 2004, hlm. 18, 19.
- ^ Hodivala 1920, hlm. [halaman dibutuhkan].
- ^ Vimadalal 1979, hlm. 2.
- ^ Paymaster 1954.
- ^ Taraporevala 2000.
- ^ Kulke 1978, hlm. 25.
- ^ Stausberg 2002, hlm. I.374.
- ^ Hinnells 2005, hlm. 199.
- ^ a b c Maneck 1997, hlm. 15.
- ^ Paymaster 1954, hlm. 2–3.
- ^ Dhalla 1938, hlm. 447.
- ^ Kulke 1978, hlm. 29.
- ^ a b Dhalla 1938, hlm. 448.
- ^ Dhalla 1938, hlm. 457.
- ^ Dhalla 1938, hlm. 474–475.
- ^ Dhalla 1938, hlm. 474.