> If you use successful people per capita as a metric, Parsis are likely on top of the list.
This is primarily due to their entrepreneurial spirit, and treating the British occupation of India as a ladder to success, rather than a insurrection towards their way of life (like most Indians at the time).
Additionally, I've never heard of Paris ever living on the street. They have predominantly been a part of the Indian middle class, even prior to rise of the Indian middle class. I can't speak for all Parsis but today they are mostly upper-middle class.
There is a strong culture of critical thinking, education[0], independence[2] and nepotism[3]. Every Parsi I know has at least graduated from highschool (that is a lie, my grandfather didn't but was successful regardless - he was an exception).
Additionally, most Parsis I know have the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree, and a large number have the equivalent of a Masters. Moreover, a double digit percentage of the Parsi youth today get a Bachelor's/Master's degree from London/Singapore/US/etc and then move home.
Of my ~20-30 male Parsi friends (i.e. my age group) in India, about 9-10 of them are pilots. And believe it or not, Indian pilots are paid in similar orders of magnitude to what AMZN/MSFT pay software engineers in India.
Others are CAs, or in advertising, there are a few who chose to work on oil rigs, some as divers. Of my 20 or so female Parsi friends, a few interior decorators, a few in advertising, a few air-hostesses, a couple CAs. All jobs which pay relatively well in India.
[0] Every single one of us speaks "British" English. We all study exclusively at English medium schools, even tho we are in India[1]. Only in intimate situations (i.e. only with each other, ~25% of the time) we speak Gujarathi/English with Gujarathi slang.
[1] FWIW, most Indians who studied in Indian English medium schools have better English comprehension and written skills than the average American/Canadian. Myself not included, I moved to Canada for highshcool/university forgive my poor grammar/spellings :P
[2] Kids understand they need to fend for themselves, even though they have generous safety nets and support structures, like living at home indefinitely. It is completely normal for women, even after marriage to work, and heavily encouraged before marriage.
[3] Nepotism which exists on this gradient: It is strongest for immediate family, continues strong for family, grows less and less important the more distant a family member you are, however, even a Parsi you've never met gets (if they are qualified) a job before an equally (or slightly more qualified) "other person".
I don't know the lineage or history of any specific family names. However, two facts I know:
- Many Parsis are named Metha and Patel
- Fleeing from Persia, the first Parsis landed their ships and took refuge in Gujarath.
Fun story (However, I don't know if it is factual):
Fleeing from Persia, their ships actually landed in many places but were not welcome. Finally, they landed in Gujarath, and the king of the land was kind and spoke with them, but rejected their plea for refuge.
The story goes: The king brought out a bowl filled to the brim with milk. A bowl so full it was impossible to fit another drop of milk. He said to the Persian refuges, "this is my kingdom, I'm sorry but as you can see, we will not be able to fit you". And the first Parsis understood, but asked the king, "can we have a spoon of sugar?". The king a bit confused, provided them a spoon of sugar. And they said, "We understand your kingdom is full. We do not want to take any of your room ..." They then very slowly (I imagine painstakingly) sprinkled the sugar into the bowl of milk. Emptying the spoon, and spilling no milk. "... We only want to help make your kingdom sweeter".
