For the honour of Parsis

1. CA Rajesh Rampal
57 Vaishali Pitampura
Delhi 110034
India
rampalrajesh@hotmail.com
0091-11-27318023 & 0091-09013975711
Mr Jehangir R. Patel
Editor
Parsiana
Mumbai
Dear Sir,
It was extremely heartening for me to read an article in the July 7,2013 issue of Parsiana
Page 41 titled Corporator and carer by Parinaz M. Gandhi. Though my name has been
erroneously mentioned as Ramesh but I have absolutely no issues with that.
Rather I am buoyed by the contents and am submitting an article to the Parsiana of how an
issue related to the honour of parsis was brought to the notice of Late Lt. General Adi
Sethna who was Member Minorities Commission by me to take up cudgels on behalf of the
Parsi Community. What transpired and How will be part of this article and the basic theme is
to promote the idea that the parsi Community commands respect of other communities in
India and they are also willing to fight for Justice on behalf of Parsi’s who have served the
nation so well.
The article appears below.
Best regards
Rajesh Rampal
Passing the Baton to the General
In early January, 2005 a former British army officer named Roy Trustram Eve O.B.E., D.L. met
me and remarked- Rajesh, I thought that the Parsis were a very upright and sophisticated lot
but I was amazed to read that they were near aboriginals and went around looting hapless
British fugitives including women and children during 1857 armed with bows and arrows!
The same expression was repeated by many British visitors to India who met me that year.
Roy was the last adjutant of the 1/60th Rifles which in 2005 was known as ‘The Royal
Greenjackets’ and now ‘The Rifles’ in the British army. He used to come to India every year
till he died of colon cancer in 2010. Totally committed to his Regiment he was forever
inquisitive about where the Regiment had been in 1857 in India. He was also the Publisher
for the Royal Greenjackets Museum.
Roy presented me with the book which was the basis of his belief- Penguin U.K. publication
2002 “Indian Mutiny 1857” by Saul David, ISBN 0670911372. Saul David has a PhD on the
origins of the Indian Mutiny from Glasgow University. I read the book and was so astounded
with the errors that I was compelled to write to the Publishers in U.K. a very detailed letter

2. in 2005 listing the mistakes which were 17 in number but the one concerning Parsis is
below.
CEO
Penguin Books Ltd.
80 Strand Street
London WC2R ORL
England
Dear Sir/Madam,
Subject : Feedback - THE INDIAN MUTINY BY SAUL DAVID ISBN 0-670-91137-2
I wish to give some feedback on your aforesaid publication. I had the opportunity to go
through some parts and found them lacking in terms of accuracy, content and analysis and
feel that the subject be handled in greater depth before being published. My observations
appear below with the relevant reference page number. The list is only indicative and not
comprehensive.
11. Page 177 reference to Parsis/Parsees. ANOTHER BLUNDER. The term should be
Passees, who are engaged as watchmen. Parsis or Parsees are extremely
respectable people and will never ever indulge in such activities, which have been
attributed to them. If the reference is from state papers you should have
mentioned a correction by way of a footnote-* The term refers actually to Passees
and not Parsees or Parsis. Shows edit cut copy paste attitude and total lack of
knowledge about India. Copy Editor? Parsis have an unblemished record ever since
they landed in India. It is all the more ironical since India’s only true Field Marshall
is a Parsi –S.H.F.J. Maneckshaw MC of 8GR and still living and since the authors
research in India is funded by a Trust run by ex Indian Army Generals.
The objectionable paragraph is in bold and blue and item No 11 above in letter to Penguin
U.K.. There were nearly 17 issues that were raised. Penguin did respond that the letter had
been sent to the Author for comments. The paragraph in question is reproduced below
‘We sat there a long time. Then some men came, not sepoys - parsees, with bows and
arrows. They used to be watchmen I think. They saw my dress, and were evidently pitying
the poor murdered people. We kept still and asked them to help us. They said they would
take us to a better place, which they did. . . Later on they came back and took us further
into the jungle.’ In the early hours of the morning, however, the Parsis announced they
would go no further. Mountstuart had already bartered his pistol for some food and
handed over his sword as a goodwill gesture. His boots he had given to his barefoot sister,
tying leaves around his feet with strips of handkerchief as a substitute, while she had
been tricked into handing overtheir last weapon, a rife. With nothing more to acquire, the
Parsis wanted to return home. When Mountstuart objected, the tallest Parsi stepped

3. forward and drew back his bow. Madeline intervened by placing her arms around her
brother who eventually conceded that they would have to continue alone.
(Jackson Narrative, National Army Museum 6409-67-I, 4-5 and 5-8 and
State Papers G.W. Forrest (ed.) Selections from the letters, Dispatches, and Other State
papers preserved in the Military Department of the Government of India 1857-58 4 Volumes
(Calcutta 1893-1912) II intro.31) )
Pausees or Passes were watchmen in the now Uttar Pradesh area who were watchmen and
often resorted to looting. The following paragraph from Major General Sir William Henry
Sleeman’s book –A Journey through the Kingdom of Oudhe explains their modus operandi in
detail –Chapter V Volume II –Depredations of the Paussees. Sleeman was the world’s
greatest ever policeman who eliminated thugs, a cult of Kali worshippers who killed roughly
40,000 people each year. Saul David has erroneously mentioned them as parsees or parsis
without any qualm.
The people of towns and villages, having no protection whatever from the Government,
are obliged to keep up, at their own cost, this police of pausee bowmen, who are bound
only to protect those who pay them. As their families increase beyond the means derived
from this, their only legitimate employment, their members thieve in the neighbouring or
distant villages, rob on the highroads, or join the gangs of those who are robbers by
profession, or take the trade in consequence of disputes and misunderstandings with
Government authorities or their neighbours. In Oude—and indeed in all other parts of
India, under a Government so weak and indifferent to the sufferings of its subjects—all
men who consider arms to be their proper profession think themselves justified in using
them to extort the means of subsistence from those who have property when they have
none, and can no longer find what they consider to be suitable employment.
During my childhood I had studied with Dr. Cyrus Shroff and during my professional life I had
dealt with many Parsis namely K.H. Captain, Dara Mehta, A.R. Wadia, J.B. Dadachanjee,
Ruby Daruwalla, Lt. General Adi Sethna, Pardiwalla, Rohinton Nariman and many others. All
of them had without exception been thorough professionals and absolutely upright in their
dealings.
Saul David never replied and I then sought an appointment with Lt. General Adi Sethna who
was member Minorities Commission. I explained to him the fact about the Parsis in Saul
David’s book and that I had found it quite disturbing. He felt the same on reading the
aforesaid paragraph and more so when he knew about the impression this was creating on
readers like Roy. He immediately drafted an email to his friends in London and that email
appears below:

4. Subject: Indian Mutiny 1857 by Saul David
From: "Adi Sethna" <sethnaadi@hotmail.com> Fri, 3 Jun '05 5:10p
To: parsian@vsnl.net and others
Dear Jehangir & Dear Rusi
At a time when you have both taken up the inaccuracies of a British Publication. “The world
Christian Encyclopedia” by Oxford University Press, I would like to bring to your notice
another British Publication by Penguin and their book “Indian Mutiny 1857” by Saul David,
ISBN 0670911372. The jacket says “it is written with energy, insight and authority, and casts
fresh light on this extraordinary event and challenges many assumptions”.
One of the assumptions is role of the Parsis (page 176-177), which I quote:
“….Parsees with bows and arrows. They used to be watchmen I think”. These Parsis are
shown as trickster and robbers. To support him the author quotes from the State Papers
G.W. Forrest (ed), selections from the Letters, Dispatches and Other State Papers Preserved
in the Military Department of the Government of India 1857-1858, 4 vols. (Calcutta, 1893-
1912), National Army, Museum, London.
This matter was brought to my notice by Mr. Rajesh Rampal, a Chartered Accountant but a
keen Military historian, especially interested in the Mutiny Period. He has also pointed out
more errors to the Publishers.
I bring this to your notice for whatever use you may care to make.
Warm Regards
Lt. Gen. (Retd.) A.M. Sethna
Having handed over the baton to the most appropriate person in the Parsi Community and a
former Indian Army General I relaxed. I am not aware of what happened later but my
conscience is clear that I played my part to the best of my abilities.
(Many persons mentioned in the aforesaid paragraphs are no more.)