It was interesting to read the review of the book on the Parsis of Mhow ("Mhow, a mine of material,” Books, Parsiana, September 7, 2016).
Some interesting details need to be added. MHOW was an acronym created by the British Infantry for "Military Headquarters of War.”
The prominent family of Cooverji Dinshaw Masalawala deserves mention. (The four sons dropped the surname and became Dinshaw.) Cooverji was believed to be the richest Parsi of Central India (CI), having had 17 contracts to provide supplies for the British and Indian armies. During the 1857 Mutiny his family was left untouched as he had placed outside his large compound 10 times more food grains than what was demanded by the mutineers. He was a big zamindar.
One of his sons, Meherwanji, was a big distiller in the Barwani State, now a district of Madhya Pradesh. Another son, Khan Bahadur Shavux, was the first Parsi of CI, to be a BE (Mech. Engg) from Ranchi "the seat of engineering,” and the first Indian to be the general manager of Gwalior Motor Works.
His elder brother, Jal, was the first Parsi from CI to be a B.Agri. His eldest son, Adi, a businessman, died young.
Cooverji was legendary. As an agent of the Crown for the British Government, while returning to Mhow with bag-loads of revenue in coins he was blindfolded and abducted by two dacoits who took him to a forest hideout 50 miles from Mhow where he was held captive for one year. He wore his tattered sudreh and his kusti on his right forearm.
The British Government announced a reward of Rs 1,000 (Rs 10 lakhs today) for his safe return. It was only with the help his captors’ mother that he found his way back to Mhow, arriving there in a disheveled condition after a journey of four days. His captors were never apprehended.
A portrait and profile of Cooverji can be found in Portrait of a Community, published by Chemould Publications and Arts in 2002, owned by the late Khorshed and Kekoo Gandhy of Gallery Chemould.
An authentic local source on the Parsis of Mhow is Pervin, wife of ophthalmic surgeon Dr Rumi Jehangir. For a while the late Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was commandant of the Infantry School, at Mhow. B. T. DASTUR