Myth, masculinity and the metropolis: Representation of Parsi masculinity in postcolonial Bombay in the fiction of Rohinton Mistry and Thrity Umrigar

This article examines representations of masculine identity in select Parsi fiction within the spatial context of urban postcolonial Bombay, foregrounding the impact of decolonization on the identity politics of this ethnic minority. The Parsis, a Persian migrant community, prospered during the British Raj as a westernized comprador mercantile group in colonial Bombay. The study positions Bombay as simultaneously a lived environment and a symbolic construct, charting the emergence and consolidation of Parsi masculinist-supremacist discourse in the colonial metropolis and its eventual deflation in the postcolonial city. It analyses literary strategies and recurring tropes that depict the reversal of this discourse and explores the performative and experiential dimensions of ‘emasculated’ Parsi identity after decolonization. These dynamics are read across urban spaces – streets, neighbourhoods, homes and workplaces – through the lens of urban theoretical frameworks.