A FASCINATING JOURNEY INTO THE PAST

Do we have written accounts or histories of Ismaili settlements and jamatkhanas in little East African towns such as Manyoni, Eldoret, Jinja, or Lushoto? How about remoter areas in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent or for that matter even bigger cities such as Toronto (Canada), Christchurch (New Zealand), Denver (USA), Regina (Canada) and Stoke-on-Trent (UK)?

Please click on image(s) or on A Brief History of the Khoja Ismaili Community in Daman, India, from the Portuguese Period to the Present

A ‘Badge of Honour’ presented to the Ismaili Scout Band in Daman in the 1940s.

For the forthcoming 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the new Ismaili jamatkhana in Daman, a tiny Portuguese enclave for 400 years until it was absorbed into India on December 19, 1961, the town’s resident writer Toral Pradhan made a determined effort to find out more about the two-hundred year history of the Ismaili Jamat living there. Her piece, augmented with images and material from archives, will hopefully stimulate other writers as well as youth to research about the origins of the Ismaili community in small towns they live in or where their parents or forefathers once had their homes.

A Gujarati invitation card for the inauguration of the new Jamatkhana in Daman. Please click for article.

PLEASE CLICK: A Brief History of the Khoja Ismaili Community in Daman, India, from the Portuguese Period to the Present