“The men in white”

It is with great regret and disappointment that I read "The men in white” (Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, January 2004). I can quite clearly glean that your viewpoint is similar to that of the Jam-e-Jamshed. Let me take issue with some of your so-called viewpoints.

You write, "Many of the views expressed by the Parsi clergy are based on their genuine apprehensions.” These, dear sir, are not apprehensions, they are genuine objections based on genuine religious facts.

You write, "But the priests have to offer guidance and comfort to the entire community. They should not be alarmists. They must have a deeper understanding of modern day realities and examine and explain events in the larger perspective.”

For your information the priests/high priests do offer guidance to the entire community, but when they pass/reiterate a religious tenet, the media turns it into a controversy, and intolerably fans the issue to death, as it so happened when the High Priests recently happened to reiterate a resolution that had been passed some years ago. You then have the gaul to say they should not be "alarmists,” which is a bit rich, when in the same article you state that 30 percent are marrying outside of the faith in Bombay. Isn’t that reason enough to be "alarmists?” Isn’t that enough for people to sit up and take stock of where our "glorious religion” is going? You want the priests to have a "deeper understanding of modern day realities.” This sounds as if you have taken a leaf out of [Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee] Dinshaw Tamboly’s book, because he too harps on and on about being "pragmatic.” Don’t you dare even suggest changing anything to accommodate your so-called modern day realities. You must follow religion in its entirety.

Let us now come to the aviary and the vultures. Your assertion that vultures are dying of Diclofenac poisoning is nothing short of total humbug. It is a known fact that vultures not just in India but Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, etc are dying because of a virus. This fact is known to Dr Homi Dhalla, Tamboly and Khojeste Mistree. Breeding vultures in captivity is a viable and feasible project. The only thing that it requires is a big cash injection, which, if there was a political will in the BPP and outside, could be done tomorrow. If the community perceives the "solar concentrators as a back door entry to cremation,” then who are you to question it?

Now to intermarriages. The 30 percent of intermarriages that take place in Bombay is a sad indictment on the Akabars of our community. What have the BPP trustees done to arrest this trend? Has it made housing for couples any easier? Has it made education for our children any easier? When was the last time they introduced a new workable incentive to encourage marrying within the fold ? How much have you, as the Editor of a responsible journal, done to propagate our religion and all that it stands for? What positive slant have you ever put on orthodoxy? No sir, you have not done that at all. You are quick to jump upon the bandwagon of liberalization. It’s easy and fashionable and the flavor of the month, I suppose.

You write, "The priesthood should pave the way for acceptance; reunite families torn apart because a son or daughter has married a non-Parsi. It is the priests who should welcome the progeny of such unions and urge them to worship at the fire-temples, undergo the navjote ceremony and be good Zoroastrians.”

I am totally disgusted with the above statement, and you ought to be thoroughly ashamed. This is the height of irresponsible journalism. No wonder you love to publish the statistics for intermarriage nationally in your journal. So you want the priests to pave the way for acceptance, the same priests whose proud ancestors and forebears in face of insurmountable adversity stuck to their glorious religion, the same priests who gave their lives in ancient Persia, the same priests who to this day have been piously looking after lit fires in Iran for a couple of thousand years. Let’s examine this mind boggling statement of yours. A Parsi boy or girl goes against centuries’ laid down religious tenets, goes against his/her parents’ wishes and marries outside of the community. Then you in your finite wisdom want the priests and the orthodoxy to pick up the pieces. If there is some crazy logic somewhere here, I am so sorry but it totally evades me.

Why should the problem of someone marrying outside be "dumped” at the feet of the priests or the community. Did the person ask for a priestly opinion? No they did not. Then you say the priests "must explain events.” The priests recently have been screaming about the folly of what all this intermarriage is doing, but it is you who are totally responsible for not airing correctly and fairly their views. No sir, what you are preaching, quite openly, is a flagrant disregard for our religion. Just come out and say it. If all this is in the name of modernization, then you can keep it. Then you bring the question of a family being torn apart, this with respect, is a self-inflicted wound. Why then don’t you listen to our Mistree? You go to your own church, and leave us in peace with ours. Build your own crematoriums, your own agiaries, your own colonies for intermarrieds, do what the hell you want, just leave us alone with what we want to believe in.

The sway of the orthodox through Vada Dastur Firoze Kotwal and Vada Dastur Kaikhusroo JamaspAsa, has already gone way beyond Maharashtra and Gujarat. Orthodox Zarathostis flock to hear them speak when they come to the West. They are respected the world over. Orthodoxy is alive and well and in the majority, at least in the United Kingdom. Don’t blow pockets of liberals here and there out of all proportion. "One swallow does not make a summer.” You just talk about India and let me talk about the UK where I have lived for over 36 years. Mistree is absolutely correct in his summation of North American Zoroastrian leaders as "mandarins.” Unfortunately it is not just the leaders but some unenlightened priests, especially the one in Houston, who recently performed the navjote ceremony of one Magdalena Rustomji (a woman of Latin American origin) and a couple of other renegade priests in Canada. I genuinely do not know how and where you get your information about the UK from, when you say "the winds of change are blowing.” You must get your facts absolutely right when I throw open a challenge to you. I invite you to come to the UK to see for yourself. I shall pay for your upkeep, your expenses and your air fares. Havé bijoo soo kari apoo (What more can I do)?

You want the rules, rituals and traditions to be viewed objectively and explained logically. Please list everything that you want explained logically, preferably in your journal, and I shall ensure that you have the answers to everything that you want to know, which you must also publish in your journal. It would appear to me, that despite the rituals and scriptures not being explained to you logically, you still write the first thing that comes into your head. A totally irresponsible and unjustified attitude to take, isnt it? How can your readers take you seriously when you publish such pathetic and uncorroborated "viewpoints?”

Sir, before you even think of asking the priests and their followers to reform, inspect your own conscience, and awaken from your deep religious slumber. There are many Zoroastrian scholars who can put you straight, because I do not think any Indian scholar can teach you anything. I think yours is a gone case. Let me quote you a well known adage: "For those who believe in religion no explanation is necessary; for those who do not, no explanation is possible.”

Finally, Sir, you exercised your prerogative by publishing your thoughts. I hope you too will be magnanimous and peruse mine.

I hope you may still ‘see the light’ soon and may Dadar Ahura Mazda bless you.

FILLY K. MARAVALA

Essex, UK