Fear of the unknown

A friend in Bombay has kindly given me a year’s subscription to Parsiana, which I read with interest, but I’m saddened to see such bitter hand-to-hand fighting among our community!

I had myself married outside our community, to a most marvelous lady, and we were married for 40 years until her life was tragically cut short by cancer two years ago. She came from a small community like ours, the Kodavas (Coorgs) of Karnataka who are nominally Hindu. We met and wed in Britain; had we been in India I dare say we would have met with opposition from both our parents, who once they’d met us had no objection to either of us. I would say that such objections are based on fear of the unknown, and that it is the quality of the persons involved which is important.

To those of us who object to accepting converts to our religion and community I would say that they miss the basic point, which is that without conversions to his teachings and message Zara-thushtra would not have got anywhere, so we are all converts, like it or not. Whether the converts are washed or un-washed is unimportant, it is the person’s heart and mind which should concern us.

All systems have to change to survive, and religions are no exception. Christianity in Europe tacked itself onto the ‘pagan’ regeneration festival of the goddess Oestra and called it Easter, and said that Christ had been born in mid-to-late December, at roughly the time of the festivities of the winter solstice in order to make an impact. If the early Christian missionaries had not, it would have been near impossible to effect conversions.

The Jews, well known to be highly intelligent and independent-minded, when freed from slavery in Babylon by Kurush (Cyrus), themselves accepted changes to their religious beliefs from the Persians, who repatriated them to Jerusalem and helped to re-build their temple.

The letter from Ervad Darius N. Sethna in your February issue ("The real danger”) shows a way forward, one adopted by the Jewish community in Britain, of creating an orthodox wing and a reformist wing. All that is needed is some clear-headed thinking from the leaders of our community, and a generosity of mind as shown by King Kurush to resolve the problem. A sensible dialog is a first step.

DHUN R. SETHNA

Leicestershire, UK