I address this to fellow Parsis who continue to rejoice over the rise of the right-wing establishment and seeing certain individuals as their modern day saviors.
On March 13, 2024 the Maharashtra Government renamed the Mumbai Central and Charni Road Stations. Jagannath Shankarsheth Murkute, after whom the current Mumbai Central Railway station has been renamed, was a co-founder of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway which preceded the Central Railway. Do you know who the other founder was? Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (needs no introduction, right?).
Do you know how Charni Road Station, now renamed Girgaon, obtained its name? Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and Lady Avabai purchased land in the area for the locals to graze their livestock on for free. The term "charni” is derived from the Marathi word "charne,” which implies grazing.
While we as a community never seek accolades and will always value Murkute’s contribution, along with that of Jejeebhoy and many others in creating the city we all love, let us not fail to acknowledge that when majoritarianism engulfs society, the minority is reduced to second class citizens. While we are too minuscule a community for someone to bother to speak for us tomorrow, the least we can do is not get carried away by meager acts of appeasement that are merely meant to create an illusion and pit us against our fellow Indians to divide us further.
Even though none of us will agitate and demand a station or a city to be named after a Parsi, it is pertinent to stop seeing ourselves as refugees lest we collectively forget the crucial role our forefathers played in the formation of modern Indian state and in the independence movement.
RUZBEH HODIWALA
London, UK
ruzbeh.hodiwala@gmail.com