I read with some concern "When tea was not a party and opium was a trade” and the Editorial Viewpoint, "A lotus cannot bloom...” (Parsiana, March 21, 2012), about the Parsi involvement in the opium trade. Both pieces gave the impression that Parsis dominated the opium trade and were therefore primarily responsible for the ensuing addiction of the Chinese populace and for the destruction wreaked on the Chinese by the British in two Opium Wars.
In fact, the major share of the trade (reference: jewishencyclopedia.com and wikipedia.com) belonged to David Sassoon, a Baghdadi Jew, who immigrated to India in order to......