Sagely leader: Dadabhai Naoroji telegraphindia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraphindia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BBC News
Published
image captionKhurshedben Naoroji (centre) at a function in Athens in 1924
In most countries, the life of an elite, sophisticated woman renouncing her career as a classical soprano to preach nonviolence to bandits and kidnappers would merit significant study and attention. Yet in India, the woman in question, Khurshedben Naoroji, is largely unknown. Historian Dinyar Patel recounts her forgotten story.
The writer Ramachandra Guha once described the world of Indian biography as a bare cupboard . Curiously, most scholars of India eschew writing life stories. A new book, with contributions from many of Guha s students and colleagues, helps to populate these empty shelves with some remarkable characters.
Preserving India's archives - The Hindu thehindu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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6 SYNERGY: Not just the Poonawalla brothers, several other Parsis have participated in the development and distribution of the Covid vaccine. PTI
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
Former Administrator, Diplomat and Governor
Leaving politicians and cricketers aside, Adar Poonawalla is easily among the most prominent and popular names in India today.
Why, even perhaps in the world.
Given the pandemic, it is only natural that someone who has led an inter-continental initiative for getting a vaccine onto the world’s health map should become famous.
But not everyone who has now become familiar with the name will immediately connect it with the Parsi community. This minuscule Gujarati-speaking population of Persian descent which claims no more than about 61,000 souls in India (out of a world total of just 1.2 lakh) has led India in fields of national magnitude and moment atomic science, industry, law, education, banking, medicine, music, literature, sport, architecture and over-