The China trade left an indelible mark on the Parsi community
There was "Cantonization of the Parsis instead of westernization," contended novelist Amitav Ghosh before a gathering of scholars and lay people from around the world at the First Dastoor Meherjirana Library Conference in Navsari on January 14, 2013. In his talk titled, "The Parsi Presence in Canton in the 19th Century," Ghosh argued that the community’s trade with the orient exerted a greater influence on the Parsis than their exposure to the West.
Author of River of Smoke, a novel that deals with the opium trade between India and China during the 18th century and whose protagonist is a Parsi,......