Abstract: On 25 September 1889, Farāmjī Kāvasjī Mehtā, editor and proprietor of the Bombay-based newspaper Kaiser-i-Hind , brought a defamation charge against Kekhuśro Navrojī Kābrājī, the conservative editor of the Gujarati-language Rast Goftar . At the heart of this case was a seemingly trivial reference to Gurgīn, a minor trickster character from the Persian epic Shahnama , popularized by the commercial Parsi theatre. Through the lens of this seemingly petty libel case, which constituted the most sustained analysis of a dramatic character in South Asian cultural history, this article examines how mythological characters on the Parsi stage became touchstones for historically political decision-making, such as Parsi support for Indian independence.
Rashna Darius Nicholson (Sun,) studied this question.