When India Began To Worry About Iranians Settling In Bombay
In July 1962, Rustom Sheriar Palang, an Iranian citizen living in Maharashtra, approached the Indian government with a request that was both personal and practical. He wanted to entrust his home and restaurant in Dahanu to his younger brother, Ardeshir. A member of the Irani Zoroastrian community, Palang had no son and his brother, who had come to India as a student a decade earlier, seemed the natural successor.
After considerable deliberation, the Home Ministry denied the request. The reasoning reflected a broader concern: the “presence of a large number of Iranians, particularly in Bombay”, the government felt, was “adversely affecting the interests of Indians”.
Around the same time, a similar request from one Pashotanzadeh to take over his elder brother’s business was approved by the Indian government. The difference lay in the details. The elder brother had agreed to return to Iran after handing over his business. “If we allow Mr. Pashotanzadeh to stay on in India, the number of permanent foreign residents here will not increase,” the Ministry of External Affairs noted in a memo.
Such cases were part of a bigger pattern. India was handling numerous applications from Iranian nationals seeking to remain in the country indefinitely, sometimes responding with a measure of...
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