Politics and Policy
A gesture for Guzder
Recognizing outgoing president Jamshed Guzder’s service to the community, the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India designates him president emeritus
"What can I say except that I am overwhelmed!” Jamshed Guzder, Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman and president of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, whose term as BPP trustee was drawing to a close, was responding to Poona trustee Dara Irani’s proposal that he be designated president emeritus of the Federation. The suggestion made at the Federation’s executive council meeting in Bombay, November 23 and 24, 2002, met with instant response as the all-India body’s joint honorary secretary Keki Gandhi recalled his initial skirmishes and later total compatibility with the businessman-philanthropist. "God gives to those who give to others,” Guzder shared the philosophy he had learnt from his mother, and practiced over a lifetime, with the assembled delegates.
The artwork sent by the BPP for the minting of five-rupee coins in honor of Dr Dadabhai Naoroji had been accepted by the Government of India Mint, Delhi Parsi Anjuman (DPA) president and the Federation’s vice president Lt Gen (retd) Adi Sethna informed the gathering. Sethna’s term as the Zoroastrian member on the National Minorities Commission (NMC) was due to end within six weeks of the meet. The Parsis’ minuscule number deprived them of political clout, he noted.
This was the second occasion when the Bombay-based Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman (IZA) had hosted a Federation meet. While the earlier one had been held at the Khareghat Hall, this time it was held in the newly air-conditioned hall in the Banaji Atash Behram compound. The venue proved convenient to delegates located all over the city. IZA vice president Sohrab Dahmubed expressed gratitude and praise for the Parsis of yore who had formed the Society for the Amelioration of Conditions of the Zoroastrians in Persia to aid their impoverished coreligionists in Iran. This evoked an equally stirring acknowledgement of Iranian steadfastness to the religion despite generations of privation from BPP chief executive officer Behram Dastur.
Five achievers were honored for excellence in their respective fields during the years 1987, 2000 and 2001 at the dinner following the first day’s deliberations. An audiovisual on the work of the World Zarathushti Cultural Foundation (WZCF) and a talk by its president Dr Homi Dhalla on the excavations at Sanjan and Bahrot made the delegates aware of projects currently underway.
A 48-minute CD on the life of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw has been made by the UNESCO-PARZOR project, announced Sethna. Priced at a concessional rate of Rs 250, Bombay, Poona and Surat booked 50 copies each. Sethna hoped the film will be shown on television nationally and internationally. PARZOR is also believed to be working on the filming of environment-based Zoroastrian rituals.
With senior BPP trustee and joint honorary secretary of the Federation Minoo Shroff in line to take on the chairmanship of the Punchayet and, ex officio, presidency of the Federation, Silloo Kavarana, as next in line, was appointed joint honorary secretary of the Federation. With Dr Sam Bhacca having resigned as president of the Surat Parsi Panchayat, the vice presidency of the Federation’s West Zone ‘B’ was open for election, declared Gandhi.
Pervez Mehta of Bardoli has undertaken the production of the Gujarati edition of the Fed Newsletter. After the death of Piloo Bulsara who had worked on it for years, the Gujarati edition had been in the doldrums. Marazban Wadia from Davier had helped translate one issue earlier.
With quotes, humor and anecdotes guest speaker Nadir Modi, eminent counsel and vice president of the Athornan Mandal, told the assembled delegates to eschew talk in favor of action.
The next meet of the Federation is scheduled in Bombay in June 2003.
Anjumans
The Jalejar Shapurji Gandhi Daremeher in Allahabad, served by a paramobed, has poor attendance as only 24 Parsis are left there, noted Capt Homi Dandiwalla. "Can a dar-e-meher be shut down or is it necessary to shift the atash padshah?” he enquired.
Whereas the community was once replete with professionals, today the figure is down to two homeopaths and two educationists. Senior lecturer Shehernaz Gandhi was recently awarded the Mahadevi Kiran Samman for outstanding service in the field of education from the governor of Uttar Pradesh. She was also selected for the Vocational Service Merit Award 2002-2003 by the Rotary Club of Allahabad, noted Dandiwalla. The Allahabad Anjuman president added happily that they had computerized their accounts.
Reporting 72 deaths in Poona from the beginning of 2002 (of which 18 were cremated) Dara Irani stated that their solar concentrator was working well, the bodies (about four at a time) being reduced to skeleton in four days. During the same period there were 19 births recorded by the Poona municipality and cantonment. With Rs 2.5 crore earlier and two crores in the current year from the Bai Maneckbai Jeejeebhoi Trust (BMJT) the Poona Parsi Panchayat has a community hall and 122 more flats under construction. The flats are only for people who really want to settle in Poona and the youths in the newly constructed buildings are organized and help clean choked drains, etc. They have also received nearly six lakh rupees from the Incorporated Trustees of the Zoroastrian Charity Funds of Hong Kong, Canton and Macau for education, medical relief and doles with the stipulation that the money be spent in the same year. Along with the Grant Medical Foundation, the PPP organized a camp for gynecological and ENT (ear, nose, throat) checkups which was attended by 150 people, Dara Irani informed the council members.
Sethna, who had recently visited Poona as a member of the NMC, attested to the PPP attracting young people to serve the community and said he had heard of families there opting for a third and fourth child.
The Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad (PZASH) recorded two births and three deaths in six months, noted Omim Debara. They were in the process of completing their directory and had planted more than 1,000 trees at the Tower of Silence with the help of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, he added.
The DPA’s Farohar Club (of children up to the age of 14 who attend religious classes at the Mengusi Dharamshala) has been emulated by other anjumans, noted DPA secretary Farrokh Rustomji. The six new rooms at the Dharamshala had become functional. Sethna added that the DPA is now on the internet and people were welcome to make reservations on the net. He urged Zoroastrians to ignore the touts at the railway station who seek to lure travelers away from the Dharamshala by saying it’s closed or full. "When we are full we try to accommodate two to a room rather than turn Zoroastrians away. One suite comprising two bedrooms with baths and a sitting room is available to Parsi companies on long-term basis like time-share accommodation,” he noted.
There had been two deaths, one birth and two marriages amid the 600-strong Delhi Parsis in the past six months, said Rustomji. The delegates learnt that three Zoroastrians in Delhi — noted counsel and Rajya Sabha member Fali Nariman, Prof Sabar Havewalla of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Mahrukh Singh, principal of Mother’s International School — had received international and national awards.
Anjuman president Rustom Cursetji reported 10 births, five navjotes, 11 weddings and three deaths among the 450-member floating population of Thana. A budget of two lakh rupees provides for the anjuman’s social service activities. Their major concern is the vacation of their anjuman cottage in Thana’s business district which is alleged to be illegally occupied by the Shiv Sena (SS). The current market value of the property is over three crore rupees. He said a "complete dossier” had been forwarded to the Federation to seek the intervention of SS counsel Fali Nariman. So far they had sought the help of Maharashtra MLA Dinaz Patrawala but they had not succeeded in getting through to the Thackerays. Cursetji acknowledged that the Federation and BPP support had helped the Thana Anjuman recover a plot that now houses 50 Parsi families.
Sethna informed the gathering that the Thana files had been given to Nariman eight months ago and the lawyer had agreed to provide feedback. Shroff suggested that Thana leverage the influence of entrepreneur Pervez Damania who is "very close to Thackeray.”
Cursetji, a senior executive with ACC, informed the community of two job opportunities with the company: a research type assignment in Secunderabad for a mechanical or chemical engineer and a walk-in interview for civil engineers with two years’ experience, in Bombay.
Homi Palsetia and Ervad Yezdi Panthaki spoke of Saronda’s 126- year-old agiary which was recently repaired with a five lakh rupee donation though some work remains to be done. On its salgreh in May nearly 300 people attend the gahambar. But the village’s former 150 households have dwindled to 17 — a community of long-lived geriatrics, according to Palsetia.
The IZA which functions as coordinator between Zoroastrian Iranians in Iran and in India was originally called the Society for the Amelioration of the Zoroastrians in Persia, the body that sent Maneckji Limji Hataria to Iran more than a century ago to investigate the miserable plight of Iranian Zarathushtis. Hataria’s perseverance led Naseeruddin Shah, the Persian ruler, to rescind the monstrous jazia — a poll tax on non Muslims — which deprived Zarathushtis there of a major portion of their meager earnings, acknowledged Dahmubed. He recalled how Zoroastrians fleeing Iran were fed and housed by the generous members of the Amelioration Society until they found a job.
Those destitute Iranians were in urgent need of doctors and some Parsi doctors were sent to attend to them. Iranian boys also came to India and qualified. Sir Ratan Tata established a clinic and maternity home in Tehran. "Pestonji Marker gave his money and his life to establish Markerabad in Yazd,” said Dahmubed. The 36 institutions and 14 Zoroastrians schools that were established in various parts of Iran "changed the mind of the Muslims of Iran and they began to respect Zoroastrians. We are ever indebted and ever obliged to Parsis,” noted Dahmubed. The body’s name was changed to IZA in 1918 by Khurshedji Irani.
The IZA’s big tract of land at Palghar now yields 18-20 lakh rupees annually. Interest on fixed deposits yield more. All this enables them to provide for relief of poverty, education and medical help. Iranian Zoroastrians continue to migrate from Yazd to Tehran to Bombay and from here to the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, said Dahmubed. A large portion of the aged remain in Bombay, he added, though he was unable to provide statistics.
Graciously acknowledging Dahmubed’s recognition of the work of the Amelioration Society, Dastur stressed the role of Iranian Zarathushtis in keeping the flag of Zoroastrianism flying high despite the suffering and indignities heaped on them in Iran. He recalled that apart from the poll tax, Zoroastrains were curtailed in their choice of shoes and clothing, were paid a pittance in wages, were referred to as nagis (dirty) and their beautiful daughters regularly kidnapped. Dastur urged and the Federation members responded with a standing tribute to Iranian Zoroastrian bravery and fortitude.
Homai Faramarzian of the IZA recalled how any article touched by a Zoroastrian "would be put aside as contaminated.” Noticing changes on a recent trip to Iran she said, "We feel as though Zoroastrianism is coming back to Iran. We were surprised at the respect we got from the Muslims. They keep asking why we don’t come back... Now we no longer feel persecuted.”
"Happy to carry on what our forefathers built in Indore,” Bomi Heerjee noted that the very old building used as a bungli near the dakhma was recently reconstructed thanks to a single donation. Repair of the wall of the dakhma is pending for want of funds. The small Indore community is invited to all local meetings and seminars, though there was no Zoroastrian representation on the State Minorities Commission. On behalf of Indore and other anjumans in Madhya Pradesh, Heerjee once again urged the creation of a Central Zone within the Federation.
Sethna responded that the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh had replied to his letter saying that the matter is under examination. "We have no votes — a fact of life which we need to remember,” said Sethna urging caution vis-à-vis political reality as issues relating to religious minorities are very sensitive.
Gandhi appealed to Heerjee "not to fragment the Federation further... What will we achieve as part of the Central Zone that is not being done as North or West or East Zone?... There are 13 anjumans in the North Zone. If six anjumans are taken away what will it serve?” He noted that he had written to other concerned anjumans asking for their views but had received "hardly any responses.”
Soonu Vesuna spoke of cracks in the gumbaz of the Vesu Adarian. With 25 to 30 Parsis in the village, some of whom are well placed, the anjuman is looking for financial aid to maintain its panthaky, she added.
Representing the Deolali-Nashik Anjuman was Hoshi Patel. As the Parsi member of the Nasik District Minority Committee formed under Indira Gandhi’s 15-point program for the welfare of minorities, Patel volunteered to use this Committee "to save land jeopardized anywhere in India.” However he was told by Gandhi that Parsis never apply for government aid. Sethna further noted that dakhma and aramgah land encroachments have to be taken up by local people with the government at the district level.
The Parsis of Ahmedabad are more inclined towards business than service and their punchayet disburses loans for higher education in Indian institutions instead of foreign ones, said Porus Karanjawalla of the Ahmedabad Parsi Punchayet (APP). Plans are afoot to install solar concentrators at their dakhma. A free medical checkup camp had been organized and the APP has joined a discount scheme for medical expenses introduced by a local club so that the whole community has been provided with identification cards bearing their respective G6PD status and blood group, Karanjawalla added. Pathology and X-ray facilities are also provided under the scheme.
On behalf of 12 members of the Agra Anjuman Hosang Debara thanked chairman Guzder for the BPP’s second annual donation of Rs 20,000 for the maintenance of their dharamshala.
The Jhansi Anjuman has installed a framed photograph of the late Baji Mirza who had given the donation enabling them to renovate the dharamshala hall, said its president Ronny Dick. The 15-member anjuman had invited a mobed from Navsari to perform the Farvardegan jashan.
The Davier Anjuman pays its mobed Rs 8,000 per month and provides free residential accommodation and a month’s salary as annual bonus, said Marazban Wadia. They had collected 15 lakh rupees towards the repair of their agiary and the mobed residence undertaken by architect Jehanbux Bilimoria. With seven new bungalows constructed, a few new Parsis have come to Davier, noted Wadia.
Though there are 223 Parsi families in Nagpur, the population ratio is one Parsi to 3,000 or 4,000 non-Parsis, according to Anjuman president Edul Bhagwagar. They are starting an economical housing scheme at Tata Baug where the agiary, dharamshala and anjuman housing coexist. The floodlit agiary grounds are available for navjotes and lagans. The Nagpur Anjuman is badly affected by the UTI debacle as they had a lot of money invested in the Unit Scheme 64.
The vice chancellor of Nagpur University wanted to change the name of its J. N. Tata Hall. When the community filed a public interest litigation the judge ruled that "Jamsetji was not just a Parsi but a son of India,” Bhagwagar told the assembled delegates. He acknowledged the help of Sethna, former IAS officer and former BPP trustee Jamsheed Kanga, Dr Jamshed Irani of Tata Sons and the BPP in their representation before the court. As the Nagpur Anjuman celebrated 300 years of its founding, an article on Nagpur and the Parsi community by Dilnavaz Bhagwagar had been prominently featured in the Press, he added.
There were some attempts to change the name of Pestonji Avenue in a satellite township 400 km away from Nagpur which were resisted by the local population, Percy Nazir told the council. Someone had pointed out a Parsi graveyard but no one knew who Pestonji was except that he was a Parsi who had lived 50 years ago, Nazir added.
Assistance to the community under various guises flowed from the BPP according to a report circulated and read by senior executive Sheroo Master. With seven charity funds participating under its leadership, 100 students received gift scholarships for engineering and technology related studies totalling Rs 7,74,500 apart from the Rs 9,10,500 disbursed among 290 students under various college courses including medicine, dentistry and homeopathy. Six other charity funds joined the Punchayet in aiding 57 students with Rs 16,10,000 gift scholarship and Rs 15,50,000 loan for study abroad.
An additional eight students received a total of Rs 2,60,000 as gift for postgraduate study in India. Assistance for coaching classes totalling Rs 1.4 lakh among five medical students and Rs 5.47 lakh between 21 engineering aspirants was also disbursed for the academic year 2002-03. A further Rs 1,79,564 went towards school fees and ancilliary expenses.
Help toward hospitalization and major surgery to 59 applicants totalled Rs 8.14 lakh; Rs 35,500 helped eight persons for marriage expenses while Rs 75,000 helped 23 parties defray their expenses for six months (May-October 2002) on daycare centers while both parents worked. An additional Rs 6,55,725 was distributed among dole recipients between May and October 2002. Additionally the Pestonji Davar (Cosmopolitan) Trust disbursed Rs 9,64,677 for educational and medical help to Parsis and Rs 10,49,751 to non-Parsis between June 2001 and October 2002.
Apart from its stellar Holiday Programme for Youth, the Punchayet conducted school counseling services for 26 students aged three-18 years, dealing with scholastic backwardness, learning disabilities, habit disorders, behavioral problems and family/marital conflicts between May and October 2002.
Seminars on dyslexia, the challenges of growing up, careers in event management were some other programs offered by the BPP.
At Panthaky Baug 104 two-rooms plus kitchen flats and 56 one room plus kitchen flats have been constructed. At Dhunbai Villa in Vile Parle the construction of 40 two-room plus kitchen flats has been stalled at the plinth level by the Municipal Corporation withholding the commencement certificate until the D.P. Road issue is sorted out, notes the BPP press release.
Master voiced concern at the dipping interest rates that will seriously affect the BPP’s ability to sustain its programs. Dastur however noted that the trustees have decided that there will be no cut in grants for education. Worried about the high divorce rate, BPP trustees had constituted a committee of three doctors and social worker Perviz Dotivala to advise couples on their marital problems. Commenting on the increasing intolerance of dissenting views, Dastur urged the community to guard against "pseudo scholars who interpret the scriptures by convenience.” He was also critical of the community’s "ostrich like attitude” toward the demographical consequence of the rising rate of intercommunity marriages. Dastur further noted that a young Parsi consultant on emigration had informed him that an average four Parsi families migrate each month in search of greener pastures.
The Mhow Anjuman now has two priests to attend to its adarian and a Parsi family from Chhatarpur has settled in Mhow, its president Dr Behram Masani informed the gathering. They have begun water harvesting in the agiary complex as well as in individual properties, have been able to get their dakhma cleaned with the help of Cyrus Siganporia and his team from Bombay and undertaken large scale planting at their doongerwadi. The son of a trustee who expired recently had donated one lakh rupees and a Bajaj vehicle for use as an ambulance and hearse.
As a dwindling anjuman Mhow was the first to induct a Federation representative to its board and Masani tried to acquaint other anjumans with the fact that "by making the Federation custodian you do not lose your independence.”
Reporting on developments Masani noted that "some Mhow Parsis... propose to buy over anjuman properties in which they live.” Apart from outright buyover and payment in monthly installments, their third proposal is that the anjuman gift the properties to the tenants along with some corpus to maintain it. The agitated president noted that such a procedure was not permissible, neither under the Public Trust Act nor the Income Tax Act, but even some sitting trustees were in favor of the proposal.
Terming it an "unhealthy precedent,” that would adversely affect the BPP baugs, Gandhi felt that the Federation had the right to object to such transfer of property. However, the Mhow constitution permits 75 percent of the members of the anjuman to override the Federation’s veto. Legal means and personal persuasion were suggested to change the attitude of the recalcitrant trustees. "Every single Parsi can object to anjuman property being sold,” stated counsel Nadir Modi who assured the gathering that even if the wrong people are in the majority, "courts are more receptive to a trustee who is complaining of breach of trust.”
"The smaller a community gets, the more problems it creates,” according to Sarosh Ginwalla of Bharuch where the erection of a fence to protect the grounds and prevent trespassing had landed the trustees of the Motlibai Wadia School in a court of law. Also, having undertaken internal renovation of the 230-year-old Hamawalla Agiary costing over two lakh rupees, the Bharuch Parsi Punchayet is "now stuck because of the Income Tax Act proscribing donations from one institution to another.” However, other delegates had other views on this issue.
With "plenty of people and no properties,” the Borivli and Suburban Zoroastrian Association (BASZA) had an innovative and successful brainstorming session on "what is the religiously correct thing to do in a list of case studies,” noted Khurshed Pastakia. With seven programs in six months including a three-day bus trip to Lonavala, a night with mathematical prodigy Minoo Jokhi, religious lectures and charity disbursements, the community had ample opportunities to interact.
Central Asian Zoroastrians
Dastur raised the issue of those who claim to be Zoroastrians among the peoples of the former Soviet Union. "There are said to be nearly a million Zoroastrians among the Turkish and Iraqi Kurds who are not allowed to openly practice their faith.” Whereas Pastakia wondered if these people are "really Zoroastrians or merely angling for political benefits,” Dastur quoted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as saying they are Zoroastrians who are treated as kafirs (infidels). "If that is so we can’t turn a blind eye; we need to develop consciousness,” be maintained.
Rustomji said that a group of eight professionals from Tajikistan who had visited Delhi had returned to their homeland with nine trunk loads of religious books. They had recounted the loss of religion under the USSR and the burgeoning Islamic growth after independence.
"We have espoused the poor and the needy in our catholic charities. Can we say to those who, in fear of their lives, seek Zoroastrian shelter, ‘Get yourself killed?’” asked Gandhi.
Udvada
The discussion on Udvada embraced three aspects — the violent ingress of the sea with saline seepage feared in the Iranshah’s foundation, the impact of Udvada being denoted a Pavitra Yatra Dham and the sale of Paradise Hotel, allegedly to a Muslim — as the delegates sought to make sense of conflicting reports.
Noting that the central ministry of tourism had made a grant of Rs 1 crore 21 lakhs to which the government of Gujarat was expected to add its own contribution, Sethna believed that the most useful deployment of the largesse would be the reconstruction of the road from the railway station to the village. He suggested that the technical members of the Save Udvada Committee (SUC) investigate reports of saline seepage in the town. Dastur countered that it was the government of Gujarat’s responsibility to protect the seaface of Udvada with local people taking greater initiative.
Referring to the tremendously destructive waves rising to and demolishing the first floor of structures on the sea front, Dara Irani wondered if the SUC was intending to lengthen the barricade it had constructed. He also raised the issue of eight housebreaks in the area in a single month.
Recalling SUC member Homai Modi’s contention that the battle against the sea was a continuing one, Gandhi noted that the sea wall had been largely funded by the Gujarat government while the community’s contribution was "still in arrears.” He termed the housebreaks and burglary "a national phenomenon” and informed the gathering that Sorab Katpitia of Surat, who had come to attend the executive council meet, had to rush back on learning that his mother-in-law and sister had been murdered. "Elderly Zoroastrians are not willing to go into old age homes. They want to live alone,” he rued.
Urging the SUC to see the environmental problems at the macro level, Rustomji observed that the problem of "soil erosion can’t be solved by a one kilometer wall.”
The SUC consists of delegates from Bombay, observed Palsetia and suggested that the MLA from the area, the local sarpanch and other people from Udvada should be inducted on it.
Looking at the problem from a different angle, Dastur suggested the formulation of a contingency plan: "Can we shift the Iranshah to a safer place to secure the sacred fire from the fury of nature?” Heerjee felt that the suggestion was potentially "quite explosive.” He said "It would give the impression of Parsis being uneasy and unhappy in the country.” But Dastur stressed that the suggested move was to secure "the geographical safety of Iranshah and not out of any political consideration.” Gandhi’s concerns — who will offer to host it? And the necessary communication and transport for votaries and priests — were laid to rest by Dara Irani noting, "We have ample land... eight to 10 acres... in Poona and the second largest Parsi population in the country. The Iranshah would be well patronized.”
The idea of a Pavitra Yatra Dham had its flip side. "The Muslims are banking on Udvada being declared as a tourist center,” noted IZA’s Behram Irani. Its geriatric Parsi population is hardly interested, noted Sethna adding "If (others) see it as a commercial proposition we’re going to be left behind.” With the likely development of a port at Umbergaon, the whole area was expected to develop but "If you don’t have people what can you do?” Sethna underscored the community’s demographic plight.
Rustomji’s latent excitement at the prospect of the village being developed into a world heritage site was not shared by Dastur who predicted a lot of interference in the maintenance of the Parsi sanctum. "Keep international agencies out,” he advised the community representatives. He also anticipated a rise in crime with an increase in tourist traffic as had happened in Goa.
The projected sale of Paradise Hotel evoked more emotion. Internet rumors of it being acquired by a Muslim agency for Rs 1 crore 20 lakhs to be used as a madressa kept the adrenaline flowing. A Parsi was willing to offer Rs 1 crore 10 lakhs, noted Guzder. "Even if Parsi trusts give 10 percent of their corpus it would enable us to buy out Udvada for the community,” claimed then BPP trustee Rustom Tirandaz, raising his familiar war cry: "Protect the ethos. Otherwise there’s nothing left to live for!” BPP trustee Dinshaw Mehta spoke of approaching Hindutva champion Narendra Modi to stop the sale of Paradise Hotel to Muslims.
Seeking the Gujarat government’s help "to stop a Muslim takeover of Paradise Hotel could create a rift between the Parsis and Muslims. Let us not go against any other community,” Gandhi cautioned Mehta. As for the suggestion to buy out Udvada, Gandhi asked, "Even if Parsi trusts had an income of Rs 600 crore (as against the present estimated corpus of like amount), how many houses can we buy?”
The charting of mohalla wise properties has in the meanwhile been accepted as a practical suggestion.
Mediclaim
The evolving of a group medical insurance policy for the community has been "eluding us” said Dastur. The BPP CEO and his deputy Mehli Colah were currently in the process of vetting a scheme from Tata AIG. Negotiations with New India Assurance broke down over administrative processes as the BPP "does not have the manpower or financial resources to follow up on claims, etc,” he noted.
Gandhi suggested that the welfare associations of the various baugs be requested to ask their residents if they would be interested in subscribing Rs 1,500 annually for a Rs one lakh cover. The BPP need not be involved,” he added. Citing the example of the Kothari Chawl (in Nagpur) Gandhi said others living on its periphery also availed of the scheme.
Zarsis Udhnawala said their efforts in Thana elicited no response from the community. People who opted for family policies saw them as more beneficial than a group policy because of cumulative bonus, etc.
BASZA president Noshir Paghdiwalla sought an insurance company that directly settles hospital bills. Gandhi noted that certain foreign companies pay directly to hospitals nominated by them. The nationalized companies do not have such a system.
Accepting the proposition that in a group insurance policy some will benefit more than others, Shroff recommended a balanced give and take, adding hopefully, "If a model develops in Bombay, others can emulate it.”
Youth
With a youth seminar in Delhi, January 24-26, 2003 and the Third World Zoroastrian Youth Congress scheduled in December 2003, Sarosh Palkhiwala president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Youth Associations (FOZYA) and the Poona Youth Club, had his hands full. They had held a personality development and career guidance seminar over two days in mid July, a talk and demonstration on the jashan ceremony by Ervad Aspy Dadachanji and a counseling session. These preoccupations had delayed the distribution of their new revised directory.
The Parsi Youth League of Ahmedabad had hosted a sports event in December-January, an annual awards distribution function and athletics in April-May, informed its representative Xerxes Rao. Their matrimonial meet was a disappointment to the 70 boys who attended as only seven girls participated there.
Baroda United Zoroastrian Youth (BUZY) vice president Bomy Talati spoke of its sports, social service activities and organizing of religious lectures. The youth body had contributed Rs 13 lakh to the Baroda Punchayet as an educational fund. The gathering was informed that professionals, Baroda Parsi Punchayet trustees and the youths had combined to seek and promote talent in the area.
Surat’s Nozer Kasad admitted that the Zoroastrian youths of his town were not very active being somewhat bogged down by the dissent in the community. Nonetheless they continued to distribute sudreh-kustis at the Nariman Home.
"Huge floods” in the River Jamuna had inundated the Parsi aramgah in Agra, stated Hosang Debara. With a death in their small community three days ago and no priest forthcoming from Delhi, Kanpur or Lucknow, two youths conducted the funeral service, he noted. Debara said they had contacted BPP trustee Dinshaw Tamboly for an audio cassette of the relevant prayers but were yet to receive it. (Tamboly said the cassette had been posted a week ago.) Debara noted that over a span of 60 years, until 1980, when Agra had a resident priest, he always answered calls for help from the neighboring anjumans.
"(Ervad) Cawas Bagli is always available. We had no information!” countered Sethna. Rustomji and DPA youth trustee Adil Nargolwala were similarly taken aback. "Your recourse should be to the DPA trustees. Otherwise you will receive a wrong response,” counseled Gandhi.
The youths’ academic preoccupations and commuting hassels left little time for other activities though the BASZA youths did cooperate with their trustees to organize events like religious speeches, distribute life’s necessities at the widows’ homes interspersed with a few games and competitions, said Jennifer Paghdiwalla. They also collect and sell old newspapers, etc to generate funds and partake in singing competitions on alternate Sundays.
Nagpur youth participated in the week-long celebrations of their agiary’s salgreh with "fantastic dances.” This time around it was their turn to host the J. J. Irani cricket trophy. Cleaning the agiary, collecting and distributing old clothes, taking children on picnics were some of their other activities, noted Parizad Daver.
Nargolwala provided a brief resumé of the youth conference that Delhi was to host — a melange of serious discussion and musti mujhaa including a trip to Agra and a view of the spectacular Republic Day parade as it winds past the DPA’s dharamshala complex. In light of the underutilization of the Agra dharamshala, Nargolwala said he wanted to take the youths for an overnight stay to see the Taj by moonlight "but Porus (Debara) declined to discuss the idea because the Agra dharamshala does not have the infrastructure for 150 people.”
Guzder spontaneously proferred Rs 10,000 to the youths’ kitty for the event. Nargolwala also referred to their annual sports and a big fete they planned in December.
The youths of Thana are working on a directory of blood donors, noted Cursetji. He also referred to their drive to create a corpus to invest in real estate "to ensure enough capital for future generations to draw on.”
Rather than build for posterity "when we know we are dwindling in numbers,” Gandhi upheld the example of the WZO India’s "three zero corpus trusts which generate several lakhs (of donations) each year because the donors see that their money is yielding benefits.”
Venture Capital
The BPP’s Venture Capital (VC) Project, with its commercial arm the Zoroastrian Investment Corporation (ZIC) and its secretariat, is in place, Shroff informed the gathering. Though cautioned against investing in the ZIC directly, the BPP and other trusts were free to use the conduit of the non profit, tax exempt Centre for Promotion of Entrepreneurship to provide donations with the caveat that the funds were for Parsi entrepreneurs only. On his part the entrepreneur availing of ZIC assistance would have to enter into an agreement that the management of his company would remain in Parsi hands until the ZIC loan is repaid.
Though smaller banks have acquired the scheduled bank status because of greater political pull, the Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank’s application has not yet been authorized by the Reserve Bank of India, noted Paghdiwalla. (It has since been authorised.) However, a branch in Thana and an extension counter at Dahisar have begun to function and the Bank has been licensed to buy and sell traveler’s cheques, announced Padhdi-walla. (For subsequent developments see "We need to run faster,” page 42).
Guest speaker Modi
Drawing on literature, philosophy and the Yasna as he addressed the topic "Survival of Zoroastrians and Zoroastrianism under national and international competition,” guest speaker Nadir Modi hammered home the well-known adage: "Survival of the fittest.” The competition the community faced was essentially an economic one as the Indian constitution safeguards our rights as a religious and racial group, the well-known lawyer and vice president of the Athornan Mandal noted. "In any field, persons of above average quality are almost always in demand,” he added.
Quoting Shakespeare "To thine own self be true,” as well as the Ashem Vohu, Modi amplified, "Only if we are true to ourselves and live up to our best potential, are our lives righteous — in the sense that they are lived rightly.” To achieve this goal he focused on the four attributes — intelligence, industry, integrity and intrepidity — summarized under the banner of "ethics.”
Noting how frustration results from inaction, Modi commented on the community’s drawback: "We act too little; we talk too much.” He also cautioned against egoistic, eccentric, extremist and emotionally charged thinking ("We never know what is right. Only God knows what is right”) and urged the leaders of the community to cultivate mature thinking based on experience, meaningful thinking which can be carried into action and manly or courageous thinking which accepts that there can be no progress without change but that change for the sake of change is unnecessary.
Modi suggested that the community identify and prioritize problems with the help of professionals and specialists, create an all-India association of Parsis so that each individual feels connected, formulate time-bound schemes to address the various group interests like matrimonial meets for youths, entrepreneurship, matrimonial counseling, geriatric support, etc which could be implemented by good, well-paid administrators. Citing the example of Field Marshal Montgomery who went from camp to camp to personally apprise his soldiers of his campaign plans during World War II, Modi advised the "marketing of ideas,” because "like justice, good work must be seen to be done. The absence of projection (leads to) misunderstanding, heartbreak and disillusionment.”
Reflecting the optimism of the Gathas Modi concluded, "Our religion will safeguard us splendidly if we safeguard it faithfully.”
In the discussion that followed Dastur observed how the US lost in Vietnam because "the American soldier was not convinced of the righteousness of the US stand.” He urged a communal arbitration setup for our litigating community.
Sethna faulted Modi on the issue of the declining population: "you touched on it but like Jesting Pilate, you did not wait for the answer!” In Sethna’s experience matrimonial meets for youths is a "rearguard action: 38 percent of Parsis had mixed marriages in Delhi in 1973!” Nonetheless the DPA has managed to keep the community together by allowing non-Parsi spouses to become associate members without voting rights and "we’re proud of it,” asserted Sethna.
Noshir Paghdiwalla wondered if Parsi youths "lack the 4 ‘i’s (of ethics)” that makes them uncompetitive. Countered Modi, "The youths are not lacking. Our generation has let them down... We have not enthused them enough, not given them requisite knowledge. They don’t know what they have to be proud of.”
Faced with the navjote of children of outmarried women, Karanjawalla suggested the institution of certificates for legalized navjotes. He also wanted the renegade mobeds to be debarred from mobedi. Responding with a "personal opinion, not that of the Athornan Mandal,” Modi cited the 1908 judgement of the division bench of the Bombay High Court which held that Zoroastrianism not only permits conversion but enjoins it.
"(It is) said to be only (an) obiter... But an obiter of the High Court enjoins every subordinate court in India. We are law abiding, in the British sense, that we are proud to obey the law. As a law-abiding community is it right to say it’s not religion and I won’t abide by it?... Where legal opinion and religious opinion clash, it’s a personal choice... Nothing can compel me to do the navjote if I don’t like it. Also, if I don’t approve, no one can force me to associate with such priests.” Modi also noted, "The judgment says at great length that since coming to India the Parsis have not been converting and that custom itself becomes a source of law.”
"Does marriage give the right to convert? Are there any formalities for it?” asked Pervez Irani of Dahanu and the IZA.
Citing the opinion of Jamshedji Kanga and Noshirwan Engineer, Modi noted that when a person of one caste marries into another caste, the lady acquires the connotation of the caste in which she marries. "Does that make her Zoroastrian? It’s an open question.” He also added that the High Court judgment of 1908 sets out the ceremonies required for conversion.
Those attending the Federation meeting were: Dolat Debara and Hosang Debara from Agra; Porus Karanjawalla, Jimmy Muglai and Xerxes Rao from Ahmedabad; Shirin and Capt Homi Dandiwalla from Allahabad; Bomy Talati from Baroda; Noshir and Jennifer Paghdiwalla, Khurshed Pastakia, Marazban Mehta, Mehernosh Mehta and Minoo Khan from Borivli; Sarosh and Pilloo Ginwalla from Bharuch; Jamshed Guzder, Minoo Shroff, Dinshaw Mehta, Rustom Tirandaz, Dinshaw Tamboly, Behram Dastur, Sheroo Master, Mehli Colah, Gool Kias, Godrej Dotivala, Homi Mullan, P. B. Aibara, Hoshaang Gotla and Pearl Mistry from Bombay; Darius Marshall from Calicut; Pervez Irani from Dahanu; Marazban Wadia from Davier; Lt Gen Adi Sethna, Dadi Mistry, Keki Gandhi, Farrokh Rustomji and Adil Nargolwala from Delhi; Hoshi Patel from Deolali-Nashik; Sarosh Palkhiwala, Shovir Irani, Nauzer Kasad, Shahpoor Irani and Kainaz Unwalla from FOZYA; Bomi Heerjee from Indore; Aflatoon Shokri, Sohrab Dahmubed, Behram Irani, Homai Faramarzian, S. N. Elavia, Darayush Irani, Kayzad Eghlim, Jimmy Vasaigara, Gaiv Irani, Paricher Bastani, Sheriar Khosravi and Nariman Avan from Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman; Ronny and Zerin Dick from Jhansi; Nariman Mogrelia from Madras; Behram and Dolly Masani from Mhow; Edul and Dilnavaz Bhagwagar, Dinshaw Mistry, Parizad Daver and Percy Nazir from Nagpur; Hoshi Patel from Nashik; Dara Irani from Poona; Homi Palsetia, Sarosh Poonawala and Yezdi Panthaki from Saronda; Omim Debara and Aspi Debara from Secunderabad and Hyderabad; Dr Sam Bhacca and Nozer Kasad from Surat; Rustom Cursetji, Zarsis Udhnawala, Simone Patel, Dilaara Mehta and Kersi Daruwalla from Thana; Shahnaz Mehta and Soonnoo Vesuna from Vesu; Sarosh and Ketayun Bana from WZO; Nadir Modi and Aspi Acharia from YCZA. The press was represented by Parsiana.
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From the archive