Coming of age in an ageing community

Adherents of an ancient faith worry about its disappearance

TWO of India's biggest business clans--Tata and Godrej--are Parsees, descendants of Zoroastrians, who fled the Muslim invasion of Persia for India more than 1,000 years ago. But well though some of its members have done, the Parsee community is dwindling. At the time of the 2001 census India had fewer than 70,000 Parsees, a 40% drop since 1941. Since then, the decline has accelerated. A survey suggests that only 99 Parsees were born in the year to August 2007, compared with 223 in 2001.

The community's very success has played a part in its shrinkage. Young Parsees tend ...