PARZOR perfect

President of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman Lt Gen (retd) "Adi Sethna asked me to release a commemorative coin for a very great Indian. I readily accepted... Some of the aura of that greatness may temporarily descend on us!” declared India’s finance minister Jaswant Singh.

Singh released what Sethna called "the first coin struck by the Bombay mint in many years,” presenting the gleaming five rupee coin bearing the visage of Dadabhai Naoroji to Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman and ex officio president of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, Minoo Shroff. "In this dry and colorless world we inhabit it is our duty, also a pleasure,” Singh noted graciously.

The event at Bombay’s Tata Theatre on October 2, 2003 marked the beginning of the three-day celebrations of the 3,000th anni­versary of Zoroastrian Culture, jointly sponsored by UNESCO PARZOR — the foundation for the preservation of vulnerable human heritage — and the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, a wing of the central ministry for human resource development (HRD).

The launching of the coin was presaged by the release of the book Dadabhai Naoroji: A model for Indian Youth Today by Mohammed Fazal, governor of Maharashtra. It is a revised edition of the book by the late homeopath Dr Sarosh Wadia which was first pub­lished in 1984.

Both Singh and Fazal were warmly complimentary to the com­munity for the role it had played in the development of India. Referring to the "epic story” of the advent of Zoroastrians to the shores of Gujarat, Singh proclaimed the "great admiration I have always had for Parsis... It is necessary that we in India recognize this great faith to which you belong.” He recalled his "late friend Piloo Mody (member of parliament known for his humor and rotund figure who was) never afflicted by (any) sense of being inferior in size or otherwise” as an embodiment of the community’s self-confidence and its achievements in all spheres of life. Naoroji’s achievements in and out of the British Parlia­ment, especially his work in popularizing education for women was "a remarkable tribute to Dadabhai’s confidence in himself and in India. What a great political party he established (though) I wouldn’t like to comment on it at present,” added Singh with a straight face.

From left: Singh, Vardarajan, Shroff, Cama, Singh and Sethna at the coin release

The keynote address was an erudite presentation on Zoroast­rian culture by Muthuswamy Varda-rajan, a former IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer and secretary of the National Minorities Commission. It was followed by the screening of In War and Peace: the life of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw MC.

An exhibition of the Parsi way of life, its religion and practices, its garments, its outstanding entrepreneurs — the Tatas as exemplified by the Indian Hotels Company, the Wadias of Bombay Dyeing, the Guzders of Airfreight, Karan Bilimoria’s Cobra Beer, the Khambattas of Rasna... Parsi fabrics and embroidery, calligraphy, history, kusti weaving... There was place for them all in the lobby of the theater, industriously planned by Dr Shernaz Cama, director of PARZOR and her many helpers from Delhi and all parts of India. Close to the entrance was a special section of black and white photographs documenting the freedom struggle and India’s first two decades of Independence by the country’s first woman photo journalist, the redoubtable Homai Vyarawal­la.

The exhibition had been mounted earlier at the request of the HRD ministry to coincide with the Dialog among Civilizations — a major UNESCO program hosted by India in Delhi. While the Dialog was inaugurated by Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee, the exhibition was inaugurated by the director general of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura.

The Bombay program extended to talks and symposia on cul­ture, health and environment and an analysis of the Reet-Rivaaj survey that had been undertaken by PARZOR at the start of their activities four years ago. It included the screening of Asha: the Law of Harmony, a documentary production from UNESCO-PARZOR, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal’s stand alone comedy act, a performance by Shiamak Davar’s dance troupe and the felicitation of Manekshaw who re­ceived a standing ovation. "I’ve got many awards... but what I appreciate most is the one given to me by my own community... that my community thinks of me as ‘aapro Sam!’” declared the field marshal.

The celebrations ended on a typically Bombay-Parsi note as the community vouchsafed its appreciation of free refreshments from Cobra and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel with a mini stampede.

(A detailed report on the three-day program will follow in a subsequent issue of Parsiana.)

Arnavaz S. Mama