Maneckji Limji Hataria

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Maneckji Limji Hataria
British India
Died15 February 1890(1890-02-15) (aged 77)
Tehran
NationalityIndian
OccupationCivil rights activist
Spouses
  • Hirabayi
  • Farangis Hormazdyār Ḵosrobandar
Children2

Maneckji Limji Hataria (1813–1890) was an Indian scholar and civil rights activist of

Zoroastrian descent, who took up the cause of the Zoroastrians of Iran
.

Early life

Maneckji was born at the village of Mora Sumali near

Zoroastrians of Iran, for whom he was to labor, with only one brief intermission from then until his death in 1890.[3]

Activities in Iran

In 1854 Hataria was appointed emissary by the "Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund", an organization founded in

Bombay by Dinshaw Maneckji Petit with the aim of improving the conditions for the less fortunate co-religionists in Iran, who were being persecuted by the Qajar
rulers.

In Yazd, Hataria established a Council of Zoroastrians, which succeeded in convincing a number of Iranian Zoroastrians to emigrate to India (where they are today known as Parsis). Hataria may also have been instrumental in obtaining a remission of the jizya poll tax for his co-religionists in 1882.[1]

Manekji preached the advantages of collective social work and communal unity. He urged the Zoroastrians of Yazd and

Yazd Atash Behram[4] (not the same as the present one, which dates to 1932). A bust of Manekji stands in the entrance gallery of the present-day Atash Behram at Yazd.[1]

He founded the first boys-only school for the small community in Tehran in 1860, and later in Yazd and Kerman with money from the Amelioration Society. By 1882 there were, twelve Zoroastrian schools providing secular, Western-style education. He also brought in Parsi teachers from India to teach the Zoroastrian boys and girls in Iran. This enabled them to enhance their lives, and laid the knowledge framework for the community’s future prosperity, as well as political participation, and re-entry into the broader Iranian society[1]

Association with thinkers and writers of Nasseri era

Maneckji Limji Hataria was the first envoy of Indian Parsis with the history of being interested in Iran and ancient relics of Iran as well as being affected by Neo Zoroastrian or Dasatiri text entered Iran. Despite his first mission was ameliorating the situation of Zoroastrian lives in Iran, but because of the reasons which were mentioned, a little later he was linked to the scholars and writers of Iran in Nasseri era.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "HATARIA, MANEKJI LIMJI". Encyclopedia Iranica.
  2. ^ K. E. Eduljee, "Parsi Influence Surat", Zoroastrian Heritage.
  3. ^ "Maneckji Limji Hataria in Iran", English Zoroastrian Library, reprinted from K. R. Cama Oriental Institute Golden Jubilee Volume, Bombay, 1969.
  4. ^ "Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit".
  5. ^ Hajianpour, H., & Aidi, A. (2017). Maneckji Limji Hataria and His Iranism Interactions with Elites of the Naaser-al-ddinshah Era (1847-1895). Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 6(4), 212-232.

Further reading

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