Readers' Forum
“New community anthem”
Recent correspondence about Freddy Mercury (i.e. Farok Bulsara) has prompted my own response. We Parsis are essentially a traditional and conservative lot. Our Zoroastrian heroes have always been "establishment” figures. Hence we respect big industrialists, successful businessmen, top professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc), army generals, symphony orchestra conductors, Members of Parliament (preferably the British Parliament) and perhaps even international sportsmen. But not rock musicians, even if the artiste in question is regarded universally as one of the all-time greats, and particularly if this musician is perhaps seen as a controversial and outrageous figure. Quite simply, he is not a member of the establishment.
Because of the mass appeal of pop music, it is possible that Freddy Mercury is perhaps the most widely known Zoroastrian of all time! Ask the man in the street if he has heard of Dadabhai Naoroji or Freddy Mercury, and chances are that he would have heard of the latter and not the former. This is no way detracts from the former; only that the latter has mass appeal!
JAL H. IRANI
London, UK
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