Source: The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11337640%255E2703,00.html

On November 10, 2004 The Australian reported, "They have survived as exiles for 23 centuries, since Alexander the Great drove them from their Persian homeland all the way to the western shores of India, where they took refuge and flourished. They found favour with the British, taking high office during the Raj, and founded some of India's most prominent business houses. Now, more than 3000 years after their Zoroastrian religion was first born, the Parsees of India are facing their greatest challenge yet: the prospect of extinction. Falling birth rates, growing migration to the West and marriage outside the community have sent the Parsee population plummeting in the past few decades."