India and Iran – the historical relationship between the two countries is a storied one. As early cradles of civilisation, India and Iran (erstwhile Persia) have had ties dating back thousands of years. For example, Zoroastrian people fleeing from religious persecution in 8th century Persia travelled east to find a safe haven in western India – India is still home to the world’s largest community of Parsis.

In 1932, the great Rabindranath Tagore was invited to the country by Reza Shah, then ruler of Iran. The visit left such an impression on Tagore that he wrote, “I have visited Sa’di’s tomb; I have sat beside the resting place of Hafiz and intimately felt his touch in the glimmering green of your woodlands, in blossoming roses. The past age of Persia lent the old world perfume of its own sunny hours of spring to the morning of that day and the silent voice of your ancient poet filled the silence in the heart of the poet of Modern India.”

The architect of modern India, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote in his Discovery of India, “Few people have been more closely related in origin and throughout history than the people of India and the people of Iran.” Indeed, in Semitic accounts, we have all heard of Noah, and the great floods. In both Iranian and Indian accounts, Noah is the son of the same person – Vivasvat or Vivanghat. According to the tradition of the Vendidad, the ancestors of the Iranians lived in 15 other countries turn by turn. One of these was Haptahindu, i.e. Saptasindhu, the cradle land of Indo-Aryan civilization (PL Bhargava). Our shared linguistic heritage is too profound to be explored here, but suffice to say we shared a linguistic ‘mind’ – manas in Sanskrit, and manah in Avestic.