PARSIS
The Zoroastrians of India
A  Photographic Journey
  

The result of a twenty-four year labor of love, Sooni Taraporevala's PARSIS is the first visual documentation of India's Parsi community. Followers of the world's first prophet, Zarathustra, their religion Zoroastrianism is the world's oldest surviving monotheistic faith.

A professional photographer, award-winning screenwriter, and now debuting director (her film Little Zizou closes the MIAAC festival) Taraporevala's book offers a rare insider's view of how the Parsis, a people whose ancestors sailed from Persia (Iran) to India in 936AD to escape persecution, survive today as a religious and ethnic minority of India.

Taraporevala was inspired and encouraged to make this book by renowned photographer Raghubir Singh. Her company Good Books first published the book in 2000 in India. It was met with acclaim and sold out within a few months. A second edition was published by New York City's Overlook Press in 2004.

A few years ago UNESCO celebrated 3,000 years of Zoroastrianism. Once the religion of Cyrus the Great's mighty Persian Empire it greatly influenced other major religions and civilizations, and its followers once numbered in the millions. Today Parsi Zoroastrians - like Zoroastrians worldwide - are said to be on the verge of extinction: of an Indian population of more than one billion, Parsis number a mere 76,000. Yet the community has produced many well-known leaders and artists, including maestro Zubin Mehta; the late rock legend Freddy Mercury; and the international award-winning author, Rohinton Mistry.

Taraporevala's photographs offer a vivid window into Parsi life in all its vibrancy and diversity. Historical documents and personal essays, as well as interviews, round out this volume. Her lens takes us from public celebrations to private rituals, from fire-temples to living rooms, from the streets of Bombay to the villages of Gujarat.

An intimate insider's view of how the Parsis live today, PARSIS is a stunning chronicle of their faces, voices, and culture-bringing to life a community of intense contradictions and endurance.

"Sooni Taraporevala's book on the Parsis of India is indeed the finest documentation of the life and achievement of our community in 20th century India." - Zubin Mehta

"Sooni's book is an intimate epic. A monumental book, magnificent in its sweep yet always retaining its love for the particular. This is a remarkable marriage of heart and mind-a book of photographs that tells many good stories alongside." - Mira Nair

"The visual feast Sooni Taraporevala provides is without doubt an invaluable record, ranging from the sacred to the profane, the everyday to the ceremonial. But it is more than that. The pictures tell a story. And, like all good stories, it reminds us once again about the unique contribution which all cultures and communities, large or small, make towards the richness and diversity of this world that is the human family." - Rohinton Mistry

"As a writer, I am grateful to Sooni Taraporevala for launching us on this photographic journey of contemporary Parsi life, and for providing a book I can wholeheartedly recommend to those who want to know more about my community. Her book has a place of pride in my home." - Bapsi Sidhwa
  
"Sooni Taraporevala's stunning achievement lies in providing Parsis with a vibrant visual identity that has often been overlooked in celebrations of contemporary Indian cultures and communities. Taraporevala has mastered the art of capturing, with an unerring eye, what is both personal and communitarian in the Parsi world. As a Parsi, these remarkable photographs bring to life the vivid pageant of living amongst my people."
- Homi K. Bhabha

Photographs from the book and reviews at
www.soonitaraporevala.com