Religion in danger

One of the two most obvious reasons for the imminent downfall of a vast and powerful Persian empire was:

Rampant mixed marriages practiced by the Persian monarchs for political leverage and to gain a foothold against their Christian political rivals who were getting stronger and stronger by the day. Such a shortsighted policy turned out to be disastrous later, as is well known to us.

Not paying any heed and turning a deaf ear to the sagacious advice offered by the Magi clergy.

They say that history repeats itself. Humanity in general has the knack of repeating the same mistakes again and again. Today the Parsi/Irani Zarathushti community living in India is rudderless without its true representatives in the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). Today the Parsi community cannot go out and vote for its own representatives simply because we are practicing an outdated mode of election that should have been amended a long time back. Contrary to the above handicap experienced by the orthodox, the reformist lobby of the Federation of Zoroastrian Asso­cia­tions of North America (FEZANA), the World Zoroastrian Organisation of Federations (WZOF) and the World Zoroastrian Organisation of Individuals (WZOI) that have materialistic views and propagate and encourage inter-marriage and other short-sighted and ill-conceived reforms, can vote for their own choice. This injustice is the true cause of our traditional orthodox voice being muffled to the extent that even the advice, opinion and warnings of our high priests is ignored. It is not the quantity but the quality that is important. It does not matter that we are few in number as even the lioness gives birth to one litter, but that one is a lion. Once we officially join hands with converts on the world body, we will open the floodgates to all those neo converts, and that will spell doom to our institutions. Our fears are not unfounded and uncalled for, as there have already been several cases of trespassing in our religious institutions.

We need to remain cautious, read between the lines and recognize the converts’ ploy of claiming to practice the teachings of Asho Zarathushtra, yet practicing their own distorted version of our religion. Surely they have their eye on the largesse available with the BPP’s many trusts, and will only misuse the magnanimity and philanthropic spirit of our community.

Besides, the formation of the world body will be an excuse in the hands of the reformist lobby of expediting the process of assimilation of mixed marriage offspring into the mainstream Parsi community. It will only embolden and give them the stamp of legality for what is considered as a religious wrong. Going ahead with this plan will be in total violation to the decree passed by the clergy to refrain from spiritual hara-kiri. The very idea of forming a world body of Zoroastrians is absurd as except in India, Pakistan and in small pockets of the UK and US (those Parsis having migrated for greener pastures), nowhere in the world (not even in Iran) are there any practicing Zarathushtis, practicing the religion as is practiced in India, in its original pristine form. The world body will not unite and make us; it will break our backbone, just as the division between Protestants and Catholics, between Shias and Sunnis, between Ahmadis and Sunnis or as two versions/ways of looking at the same religion, has done for others. Our small numbers will not withstand this onslaught.

Firdosh K. Sukhia