So GM Reopened the Ohio Battery Plant. Don't Let That Distract You From What Happened to Indiana and Tennessee.

Shawn Henry
Sun, August 16, 2026 



Seven months after the lights went out, General Motors and LG Energy Solution are flipping them back on at their Ultium Cells battery plant in Warren, Ohio. About 1,400 workers will return Monday. Production of the NCMA pouch cells that power the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the Cadillac Lyriq, and most of GM's electric lineup will resume.

Fine. But here's the part nobody's writing about.

While the Warren plant sat idle for seven months, GM was quietly executing one of the most significant restructurings of its battery manufacturing strategy since it announced the whole thing. It sold its stake in a $3.5 billion Indiana battery factory to Samsung SDI — before the plant ever produced a single commercial cell. It invested $70 million to convert its Tennessee Ultium Cells facility from EV batteries to lithium iron phosphate cells for grid-scale energy storage — specifically including power infrastructure for AI data centers.

Ohio came back. Indiana was handed off. Tennessee found a new boss.

This is not a comeback story. It's a liquidation and reallocation.
The Plant That Reached a Milestone and Then Went Dark

The Warren facility is the original Ultium Cells plant — GM and LG Energy Solution's first large-scale US facility, the proving ground, the one they built from a steel skeleton starting in May 2020. At 2.8 million square feet — roughly 45 football fields — it's capable of producing 45 gigawatt hours of cells annually using advanced NCMA chemistry.

By December 2024, the plant had produced its 100 millionth battery cell. A milestone worth celebrating. Six weeks later, production stopped.

The official reason was "weaker EV demand." The actual trigger was more specific: the elimination of the $7,500 federal EV consumer tax credit on September 30, 2025. When Congress axed the credit, GM's EV sales forecasts changed overnight. The company had already built more battery manufacturing capacity than it needed for a slower market, and Warren — with roughly 850 temporary layoffs and 480 permanent cuts — bore the first consequences. Workers who had been told they'd return in June got another delay to August. Now it's actually August.
What they're returning to is a plant that supplies cells for GM's best-selling EVs — a lineup that has shown genuine recovery signs in the second quarter of 2026. Chevrolet and Cadillac EV sales were up meaningfully. The market isn't fixed, but it's not getting worse.

So Ohio makes sense. That's the easy part.
The Factory That Never Shipped a Cell

The Indiana story deserves more scrutiny.

In April 2023, GM and Samsung SDI announced a $3.5 billion joint venture to build a battery factory in New Carlisle, Indiana. The plant was designed to produce prismatic nickel-rich cells — a different format than the pouch cells made in Ohio — under Samsung's PRiMX brand. Mass production was scheduled to begin in 2027. The facility was expected to employ over 1,600 people and produce 27 gigawatt hours annually, with potential to scale to 36 GWh.

This week, Samsung SDI acquired GM's roughly 50 percent stake. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The Indiana plant has not shipped a single production battery cell. GM committed to a $3.5 billion factory, spent roughly three years reconsidering, and then walked away before the thing opened. Samsung SDI is keeping the plant — converting part of it to energy storage system batteries — and the two companies signed a separate agreement to jointly develop next-generation prismatic batteries. So GM still gets the technology. It just doesn't own the factory.

Think about what that means from a manufacturing strategy standpoint. GM essentially co-funded Samsung SDI's first wholly owned battery factory in North America, then handed it back and said, "We'll buy cells from you." That is a remarkable reversal for a company that spent years insisting domestic battery ownership was non-negotiable.
Tennessee Found a Different Customer

The Spring Hill, Tennessee Ultium Cells plant tells the most surprising chapter of the three.

In March 2026, GM and LG Energy Solution announced they were investing $70 million to convert part of the Tennessee facility to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells — not for EVs, but for stationary energy storage systems. Grid projects. Renewable energy installations. And specifically, power infrastructure for AI data centers. By July, the plant had started LFP cell production.

LFP chemistry is cheaper, longer-lasting in cycle terms, and more thermally stable than the NCMA chemistry used for EV applications. It's ideal for large stationary storage installations that utility companies and data center operators need. It gives up energy density — a problem for a car, a non-issue for a warehouse full of battery racks.

Here's the irony that should stop you cold: the technology that many argue is responsible for accelerating electricity demand and straining grids — AI computing — is now the paying customer keeping an American EV battery factory operating. The EV slowdown created idle factory capacity. AI's relentless appetite for electricity created demand for exactly the kind of batteries that idle factory could pivot to make. One problem fed the other's solution.

GM and LG didn't save Tennessee from the EV market. AI did.
The First Unionized Battery Contract in American History — Then Layoffs Six Months Later

There's one more detail in the Warren story worth acknowledging.

In June 2024, the UAW ratified its contract at the Ultium Cells plant in Warren. It was, by any measure, a historic moment: the first unionized battery manufacturing contract in American history. Workers at a facility that didn't exist four years earlier had secured union representation and a collectively bargained agreement.

Six months later, they were laid off.

That's not a criticism of the union, GM, or LG. It's a reflection of how quickly the economics of EV manufacturing can shift. The $7,500 federal tax credit wasn't just an incentive for consumers. It was the load-bearing wall of GM's near-term EV demand projections. When Congress removed it in September 2025, the wall came down and the production schedule collapsed with it.

Those workers are going back now. But the sequence — ratify the first union battery contract in the country, hit 100 million cells, get laid off within half a year — captures the volatility of building a career in a market that depends as much on congressional arithmetic as on consumer demand.

What This Is Actually About

The Warren restart will be reported as good news, and it is. Jobs are returning. EV cells are flowing again. GM's electric lineup — the Equinox EV, Silverado EV, Blazer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Vistiq, and the GMC electric vehicles — has enough consumer demand to justify running the plant built for exactly this purpose.

But step back from the individual plant and look at the portfolio. A year ago, GM owned three major Ultium Cells facilities in the United States. Now it owns two, and one of those two has been partially converted to serve AI data centers instead of car buyers.

That's not an EV strategy. That's a battery company strategy. GM is repositioning itself less as an automaker that happens to make batteries and more as an entity that manages battery manufacturing assets across multiple end markets: consumer EVs, commercial EVs, grid storage, AI infrastructure. Whether that's a smart adaptation to a turbulent market or a quiet signal that the original EV ambition has been permanently downgraded is the question nobody is asking Monday morning in Warren.

The Ohio restart isn't the answer. It's the last line of a three-chapter story most readers never followed.

The real test is whether Tennessee's AI batteries and Indiana's Samsung hand-off generate enough revenue and technology returns to hold the broader strategy together until EV demand catches back up to where GM originally projected it would be by now.

Nobody clocking back in at Warren Monday morning is thinking about that. They're thinking about getting back to work.

Which is, honestly, the most reasonable possible response.

Ferrari’s first electric car sells for £30m

Andrea Vogt
Sun, August 16, 2026 

THE TELEGRAPH


The Maranello carmaker had the last laugh over critics of the car


Ferrari's first all-electric car was met with derision, mockery and an 8 per cent fall in the company share price when it was unveiled in May. But that hasn't dampened its sale price.

The Luce was described as "an aesthetic and technological insult to anyone who loves Ferrari" by a former company executive, as it was compared to a Nissan Leaf.

But the Maranello carmaker had the last laugh over the weekend as the first Luce in the run sold for $40m (£30m), making it the most expensive new car ever sold at auction.

The sale astonished the crowd at the Monterey Car Week in California, which had expected the "tailor-made" version of the car to go for around £750,000.

"Tailor-made" cars are one-of-a-kind vehicles customised to a buyer's precise specifications. The model, with chassis number 0, was designed with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive, Apple's former design chief and a key figure behind the iPhone and iMac.

Rumours swirled that the purchaser of the car might have been a billionaire close to the project

The RM Sotheby's charity auction for the Luce, in mother-of-pearl white, saw bids start at $1m and race up, sometimes in increments as big as $5m.

It closed at $40m after a brief but intense bidding war in which a young man with a West Coast accent, chewing gum and wearing a black suit, yelled out "thirty," "thirty-five" and then "forty" between hushed conversation with someone on the other end of his iPhone.

"Going for the third and final time, here, only as can be done at RM Sotheby's, the car is sold," said Sholto Gilbertson, a British auctioneer, bringing the hammer down on the record-breaking sale.

No buyer's name has been disclosed, but rumours swirled on Sunday that the purchaser might have been a Silicon Valley billionaire close to the project, such as Apple's Tim Cook or entrepreneur Laurene Powell Jobs.

Proceeds will be donated to "elevating global education initiatives" via the Ferrari Foundation.

The backlash began almost immediately.

"Wow, 40 million for a washing machine with a Ferrari logo. Unbelievable," commented Fernando Sánchez, a Spanish investor, under the auction house's Instagram reel.

Regular versions of the Luce were on sale for £470,000. In May, at the unveiling, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, the company's former chairman, said the Luce "risks destroying the myth" of Ferrari, and even suggested it should be stripped of the company's prancing horse logo.

No buyer name has been disclosed for the buyer of the Ferrari Luce

Ferrari's marketing chief quit after the reaction to the company's first fully electric vehicle.

Enrico Galliera, a 16-year veteran of the supercar maker, has been replaced by Massimiliano Di Silvestre, BMW's former head of Italian operations, after the disastrous launch of the Luce.

But Benedetto Vigna, Ferrari's chief executive, has vigorously defended the Luce, saying the company is already receiving orders and deflected any comparison to cheaper electric cars, saying: "You have to see it and drive it to understand that it wasn't copied – not the interiors, not the exterior, not the performance."

The car is a four-door saloon with four electric motors and a 122kWh battery, which provide a top speed of 190mph. It can reach 62mph in just 2.5 seconds and has a range of 329 miles when fully charged.

Although a record sale for a new car, it is not the most expensive car ever sold.

In 2023, a vintage 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was bought for £42m, and in January, a "unicorn" one-of-one 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO Bianco Speciale sold for £32,855,797 to a mystery buyer.

The most expensive car ever sold at auction was a 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR Coupé modelled on the race car that Sir Stirling Moss broke the Mille Miglia record in. That was sold for €135m (£115m) in 2022.

 

Laker Grounded in Ontario Becomes Local Tourist Attraction

Algoma Equinox got stuck coming off the dock into the St. Clair River in Ontario (Mayor Mike Bradley)

Published Jul 22, 2026 6:13 PM by The Maritime Executive

While it can happen a few times a year along the busy shipping lanes of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, every time one of the big ships goes aground, it becomes a tourist attraction. The 740-foot laker Algoma Equinox was no exception, as it spent the night stuck in the river while the crew and teams from shore coordinated to free the big ship.

The vessel, which operates for Canada’s Algoma Central, entered service in 2013, with the company highlighting a new design for a region that often sees much older ships. At 39,400 dwt, the ship is a familiar sight on the waterways.

The vessel loaded grain at Cargill’s Sarnia Grain Terminal and was heading out around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21, from the north slip. It got a little way out when the ship went aground in a shallow area of the St. Clair River and became stuck.

The operator of Sarnia Harbor told the local newspaper, The Independent, he thought it was “the captain’s effort” for navigating too close to the shallow area. However, he also told Sarina News Today that they were looking at if weather and wind at the time were a contributing factor. He admitted there was a storm coming in around the time the vessel was departing.

 

Sightseers turned out, and it became all the buzz on social media (Mayor Mike Bradley)

Two tugs were dispatched, but they determined the stern was firmly stuck. Reports said the crew decided that they were going to have to lighten the stern by pumping ballast water into the forward tanks. 

While the efforts were underway and they were looking to possibly bring in additional tugs from Windsor or other points on the river, sightseers flocked to the river. Sarina Mayor Mike Bradley told the local newspaper the ship had become a tourist attraction. “There are more people down there; it’s all over social media,” Bradley told the local newspaper. “It’s a curiosity, so I understand.”

Bradley said there were two efforts earlier in the day on Wednesday, July 22, before the ship was finally freed around 2:30 p.m. local time. Two tugs aided the ship, which was also using its own power. 

The Canadian Coast Guard said a survey showed no pollution and apparently no damage to the hull. The vessel was getting back underway, bound for Baie-Comeau, Quebec, with its cargo.

‘Proudly Canadian:’ A US$18.5B merger to become second-largest gold producer

By

Anam Khan

Opens in new window

Updated: May 13, 2026 

Two Vancouver-based gold mining companies are merging, aiming to become the second-largest producer of Canadian gold.

On Wednesday, Equinox Gold Corp. announced it is buying Orla Mining Ltd. in a cash and stock deal valued at US$5.1 billion.

The joint company will have a total market value of US$18.5 billion, and is expected to produce more than one million ounces of gold annually through six operating mines spanning Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

Equinox chief executive Darren Hall says the team has an organic growth path to double that output to nearly two million gold ounces annually.

He says the company prioritizes maximizing shareholder value through stock price appreciation while leveraging its Canadian base as a core operational component.

“We’re proudly Canadian,” says Hall.

Equinox stated the new deal makes the company the second-largest producer of Canadian gold with its three gold operations, which include Equinox’s Greenstone mine, its Valentine mine in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Orla’s Musselwhite mine in Ontario.

Equinox Gold's Greenstone Mine is a major open-pit gold mining operation in Ontario. It is located near Geraldton, 275 km northeast of Thunder Bay. (Photo Credit: Equinox Gold Corp)

Collectively, they’re projected to yield 685,000 ounces of gold this year.

“Both sets of shareholders will benefit from the growth that Equinox brings, Orla brings,” says Hall.

“Together we accelerate into being a senior producer, much more quickly than what we would have done as a part.”

Transaction structure and shareholder split

Equinox will acquire all outstanding common shares of Orla Mining. The newly combined business will operate under the name Equinox Gold Corp.

Orla shareholders will receive exactly one Equinox common share plus a nominal cash payment of $0.0001 for each Orla share held.

Upon closing, existing Equinox shareholders will own roughly 67 per cent of the combined company, while former Orla shareholders will hold 33 per cent.

Shareholders of both companies are expected to vote on the transaction in July 2026, with the deal slated to close in the third quarter of 2026.

Orla Mining sees major growth ahead

Orla sees the deal as a greater value proposition than it would have been as a standalone company, says the company’s president and chief executive officer, Jason Simpson.

“What changes is that we have a larger platform,” says Simpson.

He says the growth in the years ahead will see an acceleration of the development of combined assets in Newfoundland, Nevada, and California.

“We know that we’ve got the support of our major shareholders in this transaction, and we are hopeful that the remaining shareholders will also see the value in what we’ve created as a combination,” says Simpson.

He stresses that the Equinox mines have very long lives in Canada, and the combined company holds 23 million ounces of mineral reserves in total.

“Everything is an improvement in the combined company, mine life, free cash flow, growth profile and an instantaneous production of over a million ounces,” says Simpson.

“We are clearly a North American-focused gold senior company now.”

Anam Khan

Opens in new window

Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca

Singapore-based company chosen as potential buyer for Yukon mine after collapse

By

The Canadian Press

Opens in new window

Published: April 28, 2026 

Victoria Gold's Eagle gold mine site north of Mayo, Yukon, is shown in this handout aerial photo taken Wednesday, July 3, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Yukon Government (Mandatory credit)

The Yukon government says a Singapore-based private company has been chosen as a potential buyer for the defunct Eagle Gold mine that was the site of a catastrophic storage failure in 2024.

A statement from the government says the court-appointed receiver has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Boroo Ltd. for the sale of the Eagle Gold mine and “certain related assets.”

No price tag has been disclosed, but the agreement signed on April 23 gives the potential new owner 90 days to complete additional due diligence and negotiate the terms of a potential sale.

The receiver’s website says that along with negotiating the sale, Boroo will start discussions with the Yukon government and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun about agreements that would need to be in place for mining operations to restart.

The mine, near Mayo, Yukon, suffered a catastrophic failure in June of 2024 at a site used as part of extracting the gold, spilling about two million tonnes of cyanide-soaked ore into the environment.

Its previous owner, Victoria Gold, was put into receivership by a court months later and PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. was appointed as receiver.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers website describes Boroo, as a private mining company that operates, develops, and acquires mining assets around the world, and is recognized as a specialist in operational turnarounds and responsible mine development.

The company’s website lists assets in Peru and Mongolia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2026

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

 

US gold firm taps mining veteran Warke for Venezuela project

Bloomberg News | May 14, 2026 | 

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez. (Image courtesy of El Salvador government |WikiCommons.)

A US-owned exploration firm has signed a deal with mining veteran Richard Warke’s company to advance a long-stalled gold project in Venezuela, the latest signal of renewed foreign interest in the country’s mineral riches.

Warke’s Augusta Capital Corp. will have the option to build a 50% ownership in Gold Reserve Ltd.’s stake in Siembra Minera by spending as much as $200 million to develop the asset, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. The earn-in agreement says Vancouver-based Augusta Capital must spend the funds over four years, with at least $25 million within the next year.

Gold Reserve and Augusta Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The deal is the latest example of mining companies plotting a return to Venezuela after years of political turmoil and sanctions drove much of the industry away. Gold Reserve, a tiny junior mining company based in Washington, has sought for years to revive the giant Siembra Minera Project in southeast Bolivar State. The company estimates it holds 52.2 million bullion ounces.

Venezuela seized the mining project from Gold Reserve in 2008 under former President Hugo Chávez, with the company retaining a 45% interest in the asset. But the country’s new mining law, enacted by acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s administration in April, removes mandatory state ownership requirements for mining projects, potentially allowing Gold Reserve to reclaim its majority stake.

Under the new agreement, Gold Reserve and Augusta Capital will jointly negotiate with Venezuelan officials as they seek to restart development at the property, according to the memo.

Warke, a Vancouver-based mining entrepreneur, has built a reputation in the industry for developing and selling mining companies at multibillion-dollar valuations. He is the co-founder of Equinox Gold Corp., which agreed to buy Orla Mining Ltd. in a $5.1 billion deal on Wednesday. Warke is also a part owner of a number of sports assets, including the PGA Tour, basketball’s Boston Celtics and Fenway Sports Group, which owns Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and English Premier League soccer team Liverpool FC.

Venezuela boasts vast mineral wealth, including conventional materials such as coal, gold and diamonds as well as critical minerals including bauxite, copper and coltan, a metallic ore that can be refined to extract tantalum and niobium.

Those reserves could support the Trump administration’s bid to reduce US dependence on China for minerals used in mobile phones, batteries, jet engines and other products.

The government has already taken steps — including buying stakes in mineral companies and exploring price floors to support production — to wean the US off supplies from Beijing after a trade spat last year halted the flow of some materials.

(By Jacob Lorinc)

The Persian-Parsi Identity – Analysis

Parsi wedding in India. Credit: The Parsees and the Towers of Silence at Bombay, India by William Thomas Fee, The National Geographic Magazine, Dec 1905, Wikipedia Commons

April 8, 2026
Gateway House
By Coomi Kapoor

With Iran in the news, the Parsi community in India is finding that their peripheral connection to the country evokes interest. Iran is the land of their very distant ancestry. Parsis are the followers of the prophet Zarathustra, who preached the ancient Persian faith, considered the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. It exercised a profound influence on later religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam on issues such as heaven, hell and the Day of Judgement.

Parsis see themselves as inheritors of the glorious traditions of two great Persian empires, the Achaemenid (550-330 BCE) and the Sassanid (224-651 CE). The ruins of Persepolis, standing majestically atop a hill, an architectural marvel of the ancient world, are a reminder of the legacy of the mighty Persian empire founded by Cyrus the Great was fortified by Darius the First. A replica of the `Cylinder of Cyrus’ from 539 BC is preserved in the United Nations building in New York and is acknowledged as the world’s first bill of human rights. The Old Testament refers to Cyrus, King of Persia, who conquered Babylon and set free the Jews who had lived in captivity for 70 years, allowing them to return to Jerusalem. The Book of Ezra refers to Cyrus as “Anointed of “The Lord”, a term normally reserved for Jewish prophets.

The Parsis fled Persia for India about a century after the Sassanid empire collapsed and Persia came under Arab control following the Battle of Nahavand in 642 CE. India and Persia were two ancient civilisations with a deep connection and similar roots. Their early dialects, Vedic Sanskrit and Avestan, are sister languages with many common words, sometimes with opposite meanings. Their religions have several common concepts, including the deification of fire. The commonalities between the two countries continue. The most obvious is an extensive vocabulary of familiar words: khush, jabardast, hafta, sal, pyar mohbat, muskeelian, meherbani, tehzeeb, etc.

Persian was the official language for the Indian courts, administration and literature under the Mughal emperors and even early British rule. The fabled mosques and palaces of Persia, with their brilliant colours and delicate workmanship, was the inspiration for India’s Mughal monuments. Great Persian poets like Firdosi, Omar Khayam, Hafez, Rumi and Sa’di had a huge impact on Indian literature. Despite their theocratic state, the Iranians have remained proud of their pre-Islamic heritage, whether it is Persepolis or the Tomb of Cyrus. The winged Farohar, symbol of the Zoroastrian deity Ahura Mazda, can be seen on some Islamic houses and across tourist shops in the country.

Anjuman Atash Bahram, Mumbai, with the winged Farohar symbol at the top. Image credits: Heritage India

Iranians constantly emphasised that they were Persian Aryans as opposed to being of Arabic origins like most of West Asia. Many Iranians steadfastly continue to celebrate the ancient spring festival of Navroze with flowers and fruit decorations despite the disapproval of hardline Muslim clerics.

The Persian civilisational journey is a contrast with that of Pakistan, which inherited the famous cradle of civilisation, Mohenjo Daro, in Sindh. Few Pakistanis visit this glorious site; the locals feel little ancestral connection to the site, preferring to trace their roots to West Asia and not to Mohenjo Daro, despite being of sub-continental ethnicity.

Persia and India’s impact on each other go back to antiquity. But the extent of the Persian influence on the Parsi identity is more difficult to quantify. Till the 19th century, and even today for formal occasions, the Parsis have elements of Persian style in their dress code, including covering their heads. Men still wear long, stiff, lacquered black pagris or black prayer caps to the fire temple. Parsi women took to the sari early, but Persian elegance with bold colours and refined design is seen in their Chinese-style embroidered gharas. Their success in cultivating fruit orchards, usually chikoos or mangoes. is often attributed to their Persian heritage.

Wedding photograph of a Parsi couple in traditional attire from the 1900’s. Image credits: Chitravali

Rock icon Freddie Mercury, though a Parsi who consciously tried to hide his identity, in an unguarded moment admitted that his flamboyant persona was because he was a “Persian Popinjay”.

Farrokh Bulsara, aka Freddie Mercury (centre), with his father, Bomi, and mother, Jer Bulsara, who were a part of the Parsi community from Bulsar (present-day Valsad), Gujarat. Image credits: Mid-Day

Persian influence is also glimpsed in Parsi food, where fruit and nuts are common embellishments in savoury dishes. The later Zoroastrian immigrants, the Iranis, who arrived in India in the 19th and 20th centuries looking for better opportunities, set up several bakeries and cafes in Mumbai in the style of those back in Iran. Most familiar Parsi names, such as Meher, Feroze, Hormaz, Darius, Jamshed, Dinshaw, Rustom, Sorab, Niloufer, Roxana et al., continue to be popular not just in Iran but all over West Asia. The names are from Avestan times and appear in Zoroastrian folklore and history.

Yazdani Bakery, 73 years old, is one of Mumbai’s iconic Iranian bakeries. Much loved by locals, it has been cherished through paintings and artworks, as seen on the left.

Despite this deep cultural connect, however, Parsis do not identify with Iran as the mother country. They left for India in the eighth century after more than a 100 years of religious persecution following the Arab invasion of Persia and assimilated completely with India, even while rigidly maintaining their own identity and religion. The local people named the new arrivals Parsis since they came from the Pars region in Iran. Zoroastrians who left Iran, however, retained ties with their co-religionists back home over the centuries through messages known as Rivayats. But while initially it was the Indian side which deferred to the spiritual advice from their fellow believers in Iran, gradually the tables turned as the Parsis became more prosperous and influential and the Iranian Zoroastrians more marginalised.

For instance, when the Iranian Zoroastrians pointed out the inaccuracies in the Parsi calendar, with spring falling in August, many Parsi scholars declined to own their mistake in calculation. While back in Iran and much of Central Asia, modern-day Navroze and spring are ushered in on the basis of the vernal equinox and not calendars. Orthodox Parsis stick dogmatically to their own calendar. They did eventually reach a compromise – but only to dub the new equinox festival as Jamshedji Navroz.

In the mid-nineteenth century, prominent Parsis, enlisting the help of the British government, sought to alleviate the lot of their Zoroastrian brethren in Iran by getting the jizya tax – levied for centuries by the Muslim rulers on all non-Muslim communities such as Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians was abolished by 1882, encouraging them to settle in India with their assistance.

The 20th century’s self-anointed Iranian monarchs, Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammed Reza Shah II, impressed with the achievements of the progressive Parsis in India, attempted to persuade them to return to Iran. Though Parsis often referred approvingly to II as “apro Shah” (Our Shah) since his family has assumed the title Pahlavi from pre-Islamic Persia and he celebrated the 2,500-year anniversary of Cyrus’s dynasty with jaw-dropping extravagance, he could not be enticed to leave India. The Shah, by playing up Persia’s ancient glory, only further alienated the Muslim theocracy and may have contributed to the Islamic revolution.[1]

In 19th-century British Raj India, Christian missionaries who converted a Parsi boy taunted the Parsis, suggesting that they recited their prayers by rote without understanding them. This motivated the Parsis to take renewed interest in learning the dead languages of Persia, in which their scriptures are written. The generations of Parsi boys were made to study the language of their liturgical texts in Avestan, the extinct Persian language dating back to 1500 BCE.

It has similarities to Vedic Sanskrit and Pahlavi spoken from the 3rd to the 7th century CE. Today, Zoroastrianism and the early Persian language are taught in a few educational institutions in India, such as the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute in Mumbai and the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, and some centres in the West, such as SOAS in London, are funded by Parsi trusts. But in present-day Iran, there seems to be little interest in learning this ancient language.

[1] Avesta.org. “The Persian Rivayats.” Edited by Ervad Bamanji Nusserwanji Dhabhar.
https://www.avesta.org/rivayats/rivayats.htm

About the author: 

Coomi Kapoor is the author of The Tatas, Freddie Mercury and Other Bawas: An Intimate History of the Parsis.

Source: This article was written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations.

Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations is a foreign policy think-tank established in 2009, to engage India’s leading corporations and individuals in debate and scholarship on India’s foreign policy and its role in global affairs. Gateway House’s studies programme will be at the heart of the institute’s scholarship, with original research by global and local scholars in Geo-economics, Geopolitics, Foreign Policy analysis, Bilateral relations, Democracy and nation-building, National security, ethnic conflict and terrorism, Science, technology and innovation, and Energy and Environment.