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Good night Parsis?

In light of Pearsall’s demographic post I thought I’d link to this article about the decline of the Zoroastrian Parsis of India, Parsis ‘building’ population hope. It is about the housing incentives that the community is giving to Parsi-only couples willing to procreate. If the working class couple mentioned in the article are exemplars of those who are taking advantage of the pro-natalist incentives, it seems that this might result in the downshifting of the median Parsi income and socioeconomic status, as the wealthy and upper middle class segments of the community don’t need housing incentives. Instead, they are probably disproportionately represented in the 1/3 of the Parsis who outmarry.

Addendum: The first leaders of both India and Pakistan had Parsi connections, Muhammed Ali Jinnah married a woman of Parsi origins, and his daughter by that marriage married a part-Parsi Christian (their son lives in India and identifies as a Parsi ethnically and religiously). Indira Gandhi of course married a Parsi.

Posted by razib at 09:58 AM

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