In June 1947, as India stood on the brink of independence, sections of the Iranian press began publishing articles suggesting that Parsis would emigrate in large numbers from India to the land of their ancestors. The idea echoed global calls within the Jewish diaspora encouraging migration to Palestine.
GA Naqvi, an officer in the consular section dealing with Indian affairs at the British Embassy in Tehran, informed authorities in New Delhi that the idea of Parsi immigration was gaining traction in Iran.
“It appears that a good deal of propaganda is being carried out to persuade the Parsee community in India to migrate to Iran,” Naqvi wrote in a letter dated July 24, 1947, to HC Beaumont, deputy secretary in the External Affairs and Commonwealth Department of the government of India.
The immigration proposal was the brainchild of two Zoroastrians based in Iran: J Badhni, a Parsi who had lived in the country for several years, and Arbab Jamshid Soheil, an Iranian Zoroastrian.
Naqvi noted that Badhni, an electrical engineer and representative of the Iran League of India, had visited India the previous year in connection with the scheme. “I understand [he] was also deputed to visit other foreign countries to find out suitable places where the Parsis...
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