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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThe year 1847 marks a gathering of Parsis in Karachi for the foundation ceremony of the city’s first dakhma, or Tower of Silence—not a confirmed date for the community’s first arrival. In the decades that followed, Karachi’s Parsis established temples, schools, housing, medical charities and civic institutions. Their legacy remains visible in places across the city, even as the community has dwindled and historic buildings face wider preservation pressures.
What happened in Karachi in 1847?
On 22 April 1847, Parsis from across India gathered in Karachi for the tana, the foundation ceremony for a dakhma. Scroll’s account says Fareedunji Behramji Jamasp-Asana led a thanksgiving ceremony and was declared the community’s first dastur, or high priest. The gathering helped consolidate a growing settlement, but it does not establish when the first Parsi arrived in Karachi; the available accounts do not record that date. Scroll’s community history also identifies Hormusjee Dadabhoy Ghadially as the first Parsi to build a home in Karachi, in 1844, and says he later became a community leader.
The dates for the early religious landmarks describe different milestones. Scroll dates the dakhma’s foundation ceremony to 1847 and Karachi’s first agiary, or fire temple, to 1849. Encyclopaedia Iranica, by contrast, lists the first dakhma as opened in 1848. The foundation ceremony, opening and establishment are not interchangeable events, so the sources should not be collapsed into one definitive date.
How did the community shape the city?
Parsi institutions expanded quickly. Encyclopaedia Iranica records a second dakhma in 1875 and a second temple in 1869, alongside schools, housing, dispensaries, a dharmsala, a social and sports center, a maternity hospital and a Young Man’s Zoroastrian Association. The first agiary, HJ Behrana Dar-E-Mehr, was established in Saddar in 1849, according to Scroll and Encyclopaedia Iranica.
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| Institution or landmark | Dates recorded |
|---|---|
| Dakhmas | 1848 and 1875 (Encyclopaedia Iranica; the 1847 foundation ceremony is separately reported by Scroll) |
| Temples | 1849 and 1869 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Schools | 1859 and 1880 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Housing projects | 1854, 1889, 1903 and 1911 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Charitable dispensaries | 1882 and 1887 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Dharmsala | 1888 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Social and sports center | 1894 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Maternity hospital | 1909 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
| Young Man’s Zoroastrian Association | 1910 (Encyclopaedia Iranica) |
By 1911, Karachi had 2,411 Parsis, according to the population figure cited by Encyclopaedia Iranica. Their work extended beyond community institutions: the reference describes participation in commerce, the port, tramway development and the Chamber of Commerce, and notes Edulji Dinshaw’s medical philanthropy, including support for Lady Dufferin Hospital.
Many named places still anchor accounts of that history: the Saddar fire temple, Karachi Parsi Institute, Parsi colonies, Jehangir Kothari Parade, Mama Parsi Girls’ School and BVS. Reporting also credits Parsis with building hospitals, dispensaries, parks and administrative offices. Deutsche Welle describes Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta as Karachi’s first elected mayor in the 1930s, remembered for work on infrastructure, cleanliness, education and relief. It reports that Seth Jehangir Hormusji Kothari donated the land for Jehangir Kothari Parade to Karachi in 1919.
“The interesting thing was that they lived in the areas that they built for themselves — such as the Parsi Colony in Karachi — but all their philanthropic deeds would be for the other areas.”
— Town planner and architect Arif Hasan, quoted by Deutsche Welle
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How many Parsis live in Pakistan today?
Recent figures do not agree, and they differ in both date and source type. The numbers below concern Pakistan as a whole, not Karachi alone.
| Figure | Reference date and attribution | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 1,000 | Scroll, 2022 | An estimate for Parsis in Pakistan |
| Around 800; 60% over 65 | Estimate attributed to Dinshaw B. Avari by Deutsche Welle, 2023 | An estimate for Pakistan, with an age-profile claim attributed to Avari |
| 2,348 | 2023 national census figure reported by Arab News in 2025 | A reported census count for Pakistan |
The estimates and the census figure are not reconciled by these reports. They should not be treated as a single trend line or silently averaged. Reporting discusses migration, aging and lower birth rates, but those factors do not establish one uncontested explanation for the differences or for the community’s decline.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does “fading history” mean for Karachi?
It refers both to the shrinking visibility of a once-prominent community and to the vulnerability of the city’s built heritage. The Karachi Collective reported in April 2025 that approximately 1,400 heritage buildings across Karachi were at risk of demolition due to neglect, and that effective application of the Sindh Building Preservation Act of 1994 remained elusive. That is a citywide figure, not a count of Parsi-owned or Parsi-built properties. The article points to government inaction, limited public awareness and collective amnesia as preservation challenges.
For Karachi’s Parsi history, the distinction matters: a citywide heritage crisis can threaten the settings and landmarks through which the community’s story is remembered, but the available figure does not say how many Parsi sites are at risk. Preserving the record therefore means attending both to specific places and to their wider civic context—the schools, public works and philanthropy that connected Parsi history to Karachi beyond the community’s own neighborhoods.
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