6 thoughts on “Bis-mullah!”

1. Recently, the radio program “The World” had an extensive report on this, and kept highlighting Freddie Mercury’s “Persian” ancestry. I was disappointed that it failed to mention he was technically a Parsee – that ever-shrinking Indian minority of practicing Zorastrians. While he was born in Zanzibar, he spent a good number of years living in India until the family moved to the UK when he was still a teenager. He still has family in India.

2. Freddie Mercury is like Obama, the post-locational rock star. Everybody can claim him: Iran, India, Tanzania, the UK, the US (probably nobody knows that he was a brit) …

3. I am a Parsee, But the fact is that in Persian, it runs within my blood and so is Freddy Mercury. Numerous times he has stated that his Persian but still a small number of people try to link us back to India which i think is a joke. Freddy Mercury would simply say ‘Im Persian’ fullstop. So please dont try to talk on our behalf, we are grateful that we live in Peace in India but we wil always be Persian.

4. Cyrus, I cant believe ur embarressed of your own country, your a disgrace to India.. and anyone who is even a slight fan of Freddy Mercury knows his Indian, and he didnt say “i;m persian.” so get ur facts right!

5. Hello guys, I am a different Cyrus but I am a proud Parsi and a proud Indian too. There is a misunderstanding as regards to conflict. The conflict often reflects whether he was Iranian or Indian. That he had Persian ancestry is a no-brainer as Parsis are descended from Persians. But does that make him Iranian? Thats the question we should be debating, as that is what is posted on alot of thes biographies. Parsis do not speak Iranian languages like Persian and have adopted Gujarati as their mother tongue. So linguistically they are not strictly an Iranian people. Culturally we may have preserved a few ancient Persian customs but we have adopted and developed our culture to the point that it is a unique segment within Indian culture so we are culturally for the most part Indian and not Iranian as we dont speak Farsi and are in a LOT of ways compeltely unlike the people who call themselves Iranians in this day and age. We have an Indian culture of Persian roots. And, religiously, we are still devout Zoroastrians but religion is not a factor for being Indian, time of residence and culture is, so we are an Indian Zoroastrian community as we are most often if not always acknowledged as. Also, as our ancestry is relatively unmixed, we could still racially be considered Persian looking, but India already as a number of people, both Hindu and Muslim who fall under this Iranian racial category due to invasions by Afghans, Scythians, Parthians, etc. We are, by definition, an Indian Zoroastrian community of Persian descent or roots. To call us and Freddie simply Persians undermines our history, how we came to India and how we live as a community with a culture of our own that no Persian or other Indian people have. Persians are so homogenous while Indians are heterogenous. Different groups, racial, linguistic and religious make up this country, and we Parsis are part of this tapestry. In ancient history, we idenitify with the Ancient Persians and the Persian empire (I do) but after that, we identify with the Hindu rulers who protected us, with the city of Bombay by which we came into prominence and the Indian Nationalist movement by which we prove our loyalty. We are Indians of Persian ancestry and we are no more “Persian” than Moplahs are Arab or Gypsies are Indian. Freddie Mercury is not Iranian, he is an Indian Parsi. Now of course there are some Iranians who say he considered himself Persian as opposed to Indian. But Persian and Iranian as a national country are not the same. Iranian is a broad term that includes Kurds, Bakhtiars, Lurs, etc. Persians also live in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and Persians from this area identify so much with these countries than with the nation of Iran. If Parsis spoke a Persian dialect, they would be considered the same Indian Persians, like Tajiki Persians and Afghan Persians and Iranian Persians. But they dont, so they are only of Persian descent. Their culture, other than Zoroastrianism is Indian, not Iranian. It also must be noticed that Mercury often considered himself British, not Iranian or Indian. Only sometimes he called himself Iranian. He was a British Asian Indian Parsi, since he later moved to Britian. It also must be noted that he did not make Persian pride claims until after his fame, and only after he was pressed about his exotic looks and name, etc. It is my belief, coupled with a knowledge of his STRONG lust for fame that he made these claims just to downplay his Indian heritage, not because he really identified with Iran. His mother, in the book by Sooni Taraporevala, said that they were Indian Parsis, not Iranians. And his birth certificate list him as racially a Parsi and nationally an Indian. Iranian is a national term, which he does not fall under. As a racial term Iranian is the same as Slav or Germanic. Iran was called Pars and Airyanaem Vaejo(i’m in a rush so it is not correct) only applied to the land north of Persia. “Iran” did not exist then as a real political unit so he cannot be of Iranian descent. A picture of him shows him with his mother who is wearing a Sari and they are on a rikshaw. This shows an example of how culturally apart of India we are. Also, an official Queen web bio shows him somewhat incorrectly as Indian Persian or Parsi. It first calls his parents Persian but then shows their Indian identity in the sentence “Zanzibar gained independence.. all British and Indian residents forced to leave”(Mercury and parents being identified in the latter category. Point is, he is not Iranian. He is a Parsi whose Indian parents bore him in Zanzibar but sent him back to India to grow up. He is a Parsi from India who migrated to Britain and became part of British culture, so a British Asian as well. It is just wrong to call him Iranian, a place he or his ancestors have not stepped foot in for 1400 years. It would be the same as calling Charlie Chaplin an Indian even though his Gypsy ancestors have been out of India for 1000 years, 200-400 years later than the Parsis and still speak a Sanskrit-derived language which would make them Indo-Aryan. Come on. -Cyrus Daruwalla

6. i AM AN IRANIAN PERSIAN PERSIANS ARE WHITE /BLACK HAIR / AND YOU ONLY CAN RECOGNIZE THAT IN PERSIAN TERRITOY IN IRAN WHICH INCLUD TEHRAN ISFAHAN AND PERSPOLIS . INDIANS AFGHANS AND… DO NOT CONSIDER AS PERSIANS . INDIANS ARE BROWN /AFGHANS MORE LOOK ASIAN. FREDDIE MERCURY IS WHITE AND A BLACK HAIR, AND ACCORDING TO HIS RELIGION HE DIFFENTLY BELONGS TO PERSPOLIS ( IRAN ).