Lost in Time: The connection between Ooty and Parsis

It has been more than twelve years since a local media for the Parsi community highlighted the population of Parsis in the Nilgirs dwindling. As per the report, the members of the Parsi community that were more than 150 in the 1940s had come down to 31 in 2012. And, along with the declining population there, it is very hard for any tourist or even a new local settler to find traces of the Parsi community in the scenic valley of Nilgiris. But the culture once existed, left behind the story of association between Parsis and the Nilgiris and especially, Ooty.

Ooty became the home of the Parsi community when in the 1800s Seth Pestonji Nasserwanji Battliwalla, who was a Parsi merchant from Mumbai, moved to Ooty. He ran a provision shop there. It was he who became the reason for the other members of the community to follow his steps that stopped only in ooty.  Along with Mumbai, even Parsis from Gujarat came to the Queen of Hills.

Batliwala also gifted a small land for the benefit of the Parsi Community on which the first Parsi Aramgarh (cemetery) in Ooty was built. The first Parsi from the city to be buried in this Aramgarh was Dinbai, wife of Pestonji Battliwalla, in 1878.

The knot with Sam Manekshaw 

The beautiful land of Ooty has also been associated with the well-known Parsi from here, the late Field Marshall, Sam Manekshaw, who is also known as Sam Bahadur. He was the commandant of the Defense Services Staff College at Wellington in the 1950s, which is only 18 km from Ooty. 

Reportedly, Sam Bahadur also bought land here and built a house in 1973. Navigating through the lanes and asking the locals about this association is a challenge, as such events remain unknown to many of them. However, it is reported that 130 years later, in 2008, this brave soldier, whose career spanned four decades and included witnessing five wars—such as World War II and the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971—was laid to rest here in the Parsi Aramgarh, next to his wife, Silloo Both.

The passage of time has certainly brought changes to the town, making it difficult to recognise it as a heritage town enriched with Parsi history. According to the same report by the Parsi local media, of the 31 Parsis in the Nilgiris, four were in Ooty, two in Kotagiri, and 25 in Coonoor.

Traditionally, these Parsis would run their own businesses but the next generations kept moving out of Nilgiris. One of the members cited the major reason as the lack of interest in carrying family businesses and the lack of employment in the valley for them - the common reasons for various community members to leave their native places. 

Be that as it may, the old connection of Parsis with Ooty and vice versa is nothing but a forgotten story that sees no revival unless the community members again want to head to this beauty.