Dear Readers,
Each year, an increasing number of young Parsis pack their bags, board flights and leave for shores offering a brighter future. They leave with degrees, dreams and one-way tickets. And while ambition must always be applauded, we need to ask: at what cost… to the community they leave behind?
The steady trickle of Parsi youth emigrating for education, jobs and a better quality of life has become a silent exodus. What begins as a temporary move often becomes permanent, leaving behind aging parents, empty and locked homes in baugs, and a community increasingly disconnected from its own pulse. Our fire temples see fewer young faces. Our festivals echo more with nostalgia than with laughter. While the diaspora grows, its ties to India – spiritual, cultural and institutional – fray with each passing generation.
This is not just brain drain. It’s heart drain. The departure of our best and brightest doesn’t just reduce our numbers – it hollows out our leadership pool, our entrepreneurial potential, and the very vitality needed to reverse our decline. This augurs terribly for the future. A shrinking, aging population with little youth engagement cannot sustain vibrant institutions, cultural relevance, or even basic community functioning.
But solutions exist – if we’re willing to choose boldness over complacency. We need to stop seeing our brightest minds as outbound talent and start seeing them as architects of our future, right here at home. We must create local ecosystems of opportunity: scholarships with return clauses, start-up incubation within the community, mentoring networks that link elders with youth, and real reform in community trusts to welcome new ideas and inclusive leadership. More importantly, we must build emotional equity – make our youth feel needed, heard and valued here.
Migration is not the enemy. Disconnect is. We need to bring back our young guns to secure the community’s future in India. If we allow apathy and outmigration to hollow us out, we won’t fade with dignity, we’ll vanish with a whimper. But history has proven that we are built for endurance. The fire that once lit empires still burns in our bones. Let us not cradle its ashes, but rise – as keepers of its flame – to ignite the future and forge what comes next.
Have a good weekend!
– Anahita
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- Legacy To Loss: The Hidden Cost of Parsi Migration - 3 May2025
