Editorial Viewpoint
Bridging the fourth dimension
Tumultuous events trigger change. The controversy over the formation of a world body, the hosting of a world congress and the approach-ing Bombay Parsi Punchayet Anjuman Committee elections coming to head in the next few months pose a journalistic challenge.
Do we write about the event long after major developments are over? Or do we bridge the fourth dimension, time, as best we can?
After much thought and discussion on the dilemma, we decided that by increasing Parsiana’s periodicity from 12 to 24 issues in a year, we would be better equipped to keep pace with fast changing occurrences. While this increase in frequency will result in more pressure on our limited personnel and financial resources, we believe the challenge is surmountable.
Some issues will be thinner than our current monthly ones but over all the editorial content will increase. Thus readers will receive more news and information, quicker. We cannot compete with the instant news delivery ability of the internet, television, radio or daily newspapers, but by doubling the periodicity we will narrow the gap.
Always wary of burdening our subscribers with hefty charges, we are nominally increasing our rate for renewals and new subscriptions from Rs 450 to Rs 500. We are aware that many readers are retired individuals whose incomes are fixed or even declining, allowing for the lower interest rates offered on savings. Existing subscribers will receive all the issues for the period originally subscribed for. Thus a subscriber who has paid for say a three-year subscription will receive 72 issues instead of 36, without any additional charge.
It is our hope that advertisers, donors and sponsors will help bridge the financial deficit that will occur.
One of the great disadvantages the Parsi Press confronts is a dwindling marketplace. As our numbers decline and as Parsi businesses close down or change hands, subscription and advertisement support diminishes.
But it is a tribute to the entrepreneurial skills and large-heartedness of Zoroastrians in India and across the world that our revenues have kept pace with inflation.
More Parsi businesses than ever before are advertising. The belief that Parsis are losing their commercial acumen and migrating into white collar jobs is not borne out by the firms advertised in our March and August New Year issues. Of course we have also marketed the magazine more aggressively but there is no doubt the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking.
The relative ease with which the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce was formed with chapters all over the world is an indication of our strong mercantile moorings. Unfortunately in the political sphere there is no such unanimity. Forty-five years after the formation of a world body was first mooted in Tehran, Iran, the global institution continues to elude us. The split between the conservatives and the liberal elements widens not only emotionally but also geographically.
A new world order is emerging with North America, Iran and possibly Australia on one side and India and the UK on the other. A third presence is the newly converted Zoroastrians of South America and Eurasia. Their numbers are probably too small at present and too distant to have any significant impact on the mainstream religion, aside from raising orthodox hackles and creating an aura of fear.
And it is this fear that is being propogated now to divide the community in India. The battlelines in The Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India have been drawn. The hapless Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman is the proverbial foil. Led by a president who lacks the gumption to talk to the Press and gives preference to non-Belgaumites to represent her Anjuman, the leadership has forsaken its moral authority.
With the Punchayets of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Allahabad, Thana and others on one side and Poona, Hyderabad-Secunde
Do we write about the event long after major developments are over? Or do we bridge the fourth dimension, time, as best we can?
After much thought and discussion on the dilemma, we decided that by increasing Parsiana’s periodicity from 12 to 24 issues in a year, we would be better equipped to keep pace with fast changing occurrences. While this increase in frequency will result in more pressure on our limited personnel and financial resources, we believe the challenge is surmountable.
Some issues will be thinner than our current monthly ones but over all the editorial content will increase. Thus readers will receive more news and information, quicker. We cannot compete with the instant news delivery ability of the internet, television, radio or daily newspapers, but by doubling the periodicity we will narrow the gap.
Always wary of burdening our subscribers with hefty charges, we are nominally increasing our rate for renewals and new subscriptions from Rs 450 to Rs 500. We are aware that many readers are retired individuals whose incomes are fixed or even declining, allowing for the lower interest rates offered on savings. Existing subscribers will receive all the issues for the period originally subscribed for. Thus a subscriber who has paid for say a three-year subscription will receive 72 issues instead of 36, without any additional charge.
It is our hope that advertisers, donors and sponsors will help bridge the financial deficit that will occur.
One of the great disadvantages the Parsi Press confronts is a dwindling marketplace. As our numbers decline and as Parsi businesses close down or change hands, subscription and advertisement support diminishes.
But it is a tribute to the entrepreneurial skills and large-heartedness of Zoroastrians in India and across the world that our revenues have kept pace with inflation.
More Parsi businesses than ever before are advertising. The belief that Parsis are losing their commercial acumen and migrating into white collar jobs is not borne out by the firms advertised in our March and August New Year issues. Of course we have also marketed the magazine more aggressively but there is no doubt the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking.
The relative ease with which the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce was formed with chapters all over the world is an indication of our strong mercantile moorings. Unfortunately in the political sphere there is no such unanimity. Forty-five years after the formation of a world body was first mooted in Tehran, Iran, the global institution continues to elude us. The split between the conservatives and the liberal elements widens not only emotionally but also geographically.
A new world order is emerging with North America, Iran and possibly Australia on one side and India and the UK on the other. A third presence is the newly converted Zoroastrians of South America and Eurasia. Their numbers are probably too small at present and too distant to have any significant impact on the mainstream religion, aside from raising orthodox hackles and creating an aura of fear.
And it is this fear that is being propogated now to divide the community in India. The battlelines in The Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India have been drawn. The hapless Belgaum Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman is the proverbial foil. Led by a president who lacks the gumption to talk to the Press and gives preference to non-Belgaumites to represent her Anjuman, the leadership has forsaken its moral authority.
With the Punchayets of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Allahabad, Thana and others on one side and Poona, Hyderabad-Secunde
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From the archive