Karachi's invaluable Parsi connection

The Parsis of Karachi are renowned for their emphasis on education and looking after their own. With their highly developed sense of duty and responsibility towards community and country, they have added immeasurably to civil society in Karachi

By Amna Rizvi

When one dreams of an ideal society where everyone is looked after by the community itself and not just the State alone; a society, where the privileged use their resources to provide for the poor and the unfortunate, one only needs to look at the Parsi community of Pakistan to see these principles at play. Of course the Parsis have their problems like any other community, but even so, they are very good at dealing with them, and when they can't they simply make the best of what they have in hand.

The Parsi community of Karachi is an ageing one. Of the 1800 Parsis who reside in the city, about 60 percent are over 60 years of age. During the last five to eight years, a number of younger Parsis, along with their families but without their ageing parents have opted to leave Karachi in search of better opportunities in countries like Australia, Canada and the United States. Furthermore, because the community as a whole is affluent with a literacy rate of 100 percent, an average Parsi lives to be about 90 years old, which comparatively, far exceeds the life span of an average resident of Karachi. This could account for the reason as to why the elderly dominate the Parsi population in the city today.

Despite a dearth in the population of young Parsis, the elderly are well looked after and provided for by the entire community. During the early 1900s, various affluent and prominent members of the community gave a hefty portion of their wealth for the establishment of community housing and health care. The various donations resulted in the construction of nine Parsi residential colonies in areas such as Mehboodabad, various areas of Saddar and near the Cantt. Station. These residential colonies are home to majority of the Parsis, rich, poor, young and old, with only about 400 living elsewhere in the city. The rent required is a token and very nominal amount and the maintenance of the residential colonies is taken care of by the various wealthy Parsi families. Also established within each colony are community centers designed to engage the residents in various social, recreational and welfare activities. And of course, health care has long been a part of the incredible Parsi community agenda.

The Bomanshaw Minocher Homji Medical Association, located in Saddar and popularly known as the Parsi General Hospital, has been catering to ailing Parsis since its inception in 1935. Originally a hospital with just 8 beds and one dispensary, the Parsi hospital is now well equipped with numerous beds, a small laboratory, X-ray machines, physiotherapy equipment and an infirmary. Today, the hospital and the infirmary are both vital to the well being of the Parsi residents and there are days when all the beds in the Private Rooms and the General Wards are completely full.

Edulji Dinshaw, a millionaire and a philanthropist, started out as a trader and an agent but ultimately invested heavily in real estate and consequently owned half of Karachi by 1893. He used his wealth and influence to build three dispensaries in areas like Saddar and Kemari. These charitable institutions, to this day, provide the predominantly low-income residents of the localities with easy-access to medical treatment. Also due to the benevolence of Dinshaw, The Lady Dufferin Hospital came into existence in 1894 on, what is now knows as, Chand Bibi Road. The hospital was named in memory of the Governor General's wife Lady Dufferin who had devoted her life to the provision of medical aid to the women of India. The hospital began with 25 beds and currently has over 200 beds. It carried out over 7000 surgeries, including 4000 deliveries in the year 2001. The relatively poor people living in the vicinity primarily utilize the medical-facilities provided by the hospital.

Dr. Kaikshrow N Spencer, a son-in-law of Dinshaw and a renowned ophthalmologist of his time, founded the Spencer Eye Hospital in 1940 in the Lea Market area to provide the poor people living in the neighborhood with treatment for their various eye ailments. The management of the hospital was ultimately handed over to the Karachi Municipal Committee. Today, on an average, about 600 major and minor eye surgeries are performed every month and 6000 cornea transplants have been done to date.

Other health trusts have also been established over the years by well off Parsis to provide funds for the treatment of the ill within and outside the community. These health trusts cater to the poor and the middle-class by not only providing money for their medical treatment, but also providing service by accompanying the elderly to the various doctors and overseeing their treatment process.

Education is given tremendous importance resulting in a literacy rate of 100% in the Zoroastrian community. Most will not find it surprising then that Karachi has two Parsi academic institutions that are known for their academic brilliance and their dedication in providing excellent knowledge and wisdom to all children who attend. Bai Virbaji Soparivala Parsi High School, popularly known as BVS High School, started out as a small elementary school, in 1859, with only one teacher teaching Gujrati, simple arithmetic and prayers. Today, the institution is one of the most progressive schools for boys in all of Sindh. Similarly, in 1918, The Mama Parsi Girls' Secondary School was established in order to provide the women of the city with an all-round education covering academics and various other extra-curricular activities. Today, The Mama Parsi School has about 2000 students of which only eighty are Parsi.

The Nadirshaw Edulji Dinshaw Engineering College (NED Engineering College), has imparted valuable engineering education to the citizens of Karachi since its inception in 1924. The college was named after Dinshaw after he made a generous donation worth Rs. 150,000 towards the engineering institution.

Over the years, various Parsis have voiced the need for an old folk's home within the Zoroastrian community. These voices have been overridden primarily due to the strong family value system embedded within most Parsis. It was also felt that the establishment of an old folk's home would encourage the youth to evade their duty and responsibility towards the elderly members of their family. At present, the only form of an old folk's home in Karachi today is a floor in the Parsi General Hospital that provides care to 15 ailing and elderly Parsis.

Other than strong family values, Parsis are extremely hospitable and have a tremendous sense of responsibility towards their neighbors and friends. The elderly living in the Parsi colonies have a number of their needs met by their neighbors and friends alone. Also, Parsi associations like the Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal, work hard towards providing for the less fortunate and elderly members of the Parsi community. Funded by private donations and trusts founded within the association, Mandal, as it is popularly known, was founded in 1912. "Banu" in Gujrati means a woman and as suggested by its name, the members of the association are women who have created programs that help the elderly and the indigent men, women and children with their educational, medical, monetary and various other pressing needs.

The Parsi community also has a great hand in providing the inhabitants of the city with entertainment and recreational amenities. Jehangir Kothari's enduring legacy for the citizens of Karachi is the J. K Parade in Clifton for which Kothari gave up his beautiful bungalow and surrounding land to the Karachi Municipality. Another Parsi philanthropist, Khan Bahadur Kavasji Hormusji Katrak, built a band-stand near the Parade that, to this day, continues to entertain the people, especially children, who visit Clifton.

Parsis have also shown a flair for hoteliering. Darayus 'Happy' Minwalla's Hotel Metropole has long been a Karachi landmark. Even though the building is being torn down, it's name will take some time before it stops rolling easily of the tongues of Karachiites, used as they are to using it as a reference point.

And then their is Byram Avari's luxury hotel Avari Towers that is far newer and does not have all of Metropole's history like his other hotel Beach Luxury. However it remains an ambitiously tall building the roof top of which affords a spectacular view of the city of Karachi.

The Parsi contribution to commerce is as great as their history of community service. , but it is the latter that is exemplary. Due to all the philanthropic accomplishments of the Parsis, not only is the poverty level for Zoroastrians in Karachi almost nonexistent, but also all the residents of this coastal city have benefited in some way or another. Their generous contributions in the fields of health care, education and entertainment are valued tremendously and continue to serve Karachiites to this day.