Parsis

The Parsis are a Zoroastrian community descended from Persians who emigrated to the Indian subcontinent, primarily to Gujarat, beginning around the eighth to tenth centuries CE to escape religious persecution following the Muslim conquest of Persia, and who today are concentrated chiefly in and around Mumbai. Adherents of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest continuously practiced religions, founded by the prophet Zoroaster in ancient Persia, the Parsis maintain distinctive religious practices centered on fire temples and, traditionally, the Tower of Silence method of exposing the dead. Despite a very small and steadily declining population, Parsis have played an outsized role in modern Indian business, industry and philanthropy, including the Tata family that founded India's Tata Group.