Page:Parsees by Dosabhoy Framjee.djvu/158

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CHAPTER V.

COMMERCIAL PURSUITS.

  • Early occupations of the Parsees in India
  • British power exceedingly favourable to their interest and the development of their commercial and enterprising spirit
  • Extensive commercial intercourse at the present day
  • A remarkable instance of industry and a love for the extension of agriculture
  • Testimony to their general intelligence and enterprise
  • Their success as railway contractors
  • The various professions followed by them
  • Their charity and hospitalities
  • Sir Jamsetjee's benefactions
  • Notices of the generous spirit of well
  • known Parsees.

When it is remembered that the Parsees at Bombay, are the descendants of a small colony which emigrated from Persia in circumstances the most miserable, it is a matter of some surprise to strangers in India, that this people have simultaneously with the progress of British power in India risen into affluence and importance, while the other natives of the land, Mahomedans and Hindoos, have fallen into insignificance. The ancestors of the present race were remarkable for their warlike, enterprising, and industrious spirit.

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