Editorial Viewpoint
To have and have not
“Give us Doongerwadi on a leave and license basis for twelve months” and see how we manage it, quipped one demonstrator to Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee Dinshaw Mehta as he left the meeting convened by the BPP president Minoo Shroff at the Banaji Atash Behram hall on October 12, 2006 to discuss the contentious issue of dakhmenashini.
The two-and-a-half hour, in-camera meeting attended by around 50 community activists witnessed a band of protestors carrying placards stating: “Our just right, dignified last rite,” “This meeting we waited downstairs, not next time” (the hall is located up a flight of stairs adjacent to the fire temple) and “Religious leanings must always be constructive not destructive.”
The spunky crusader who propelled the issue of disposal of the dead into the national limelight, Dhun Baria, was amongst the protestors. Commenting on how one of the priests at the evening meeting had criticized the alleged lack of management and supervision at Doongerwadi, Baria recalled (in her impeccable and colorful Gujarati) how a vessel of stagnant water with dust settled on its surface was used to clean her mother’s corpse and the remaining water splashed over the body.
While one could empathize with the BPP trustees for not inviting this pert firebrand to the gathering, one still felt an injustice was being done. Like all revolutions, once the struggle is initiated or won, the professionals, bureaucrats, administrators and politicians take over. The person agitating for change is not always equipped to usher it in. Implementation requires negotiations, compromises, diplomatic salvos, persuasion and strong organizational backing. And yet without the support of the ground swell that votaries like Baria inspire, little can be accomplished.
Of course her prime well-wishers, The Bombay Samachar columnist and noted lawyer Berjis Desai and Alert Zoroastrians’ Association leader Kersi Randeria, are as committed to the cause as she.
For once the liberal section appears determined not to be cowed down by those who want to maintain the status quo. Until now the fear of upsetting the established order or changing a religious custom deterred many from going all out.
Reformers like Dara Cama and Dhunjishaw Joshi were ridiculed as deen-doobaaraas (destroyers of the religion), lampooned and mercilessly attacked. This was before the vultures vanished and high-rise buildings sprouted up in the vicinity.
In 1973 BPP trustee and noted solicitor Shiavax R. Vakil stated in a Parsiana interview (November 1973) “there are months when there are hardly any vultures and there are months when there is no paucity… For instance from now (October) upto May 15 there will be enough… but from May again will come a time (around four to five months) when there will be hardly any… My feeling is that with the lapse of time and more buildings coming up, the vultures will gradually disappear.”
Vakil also empathized with the professional corpse bearers. “We treat them as harijans, untouchables. They do not go to functions. They cannot go to fire temples without going through nahan… I think they deserve humane treatment but at the same time, day in and day out dealing with corpses their hearts become hearts of stone and once the doors (of the dakhmas) are closed they sometimes empty the body straight [into the bhandar-(well)] with the clothes on.”
Perhaps the greatest ill emanating from the dakhmenashini system in Bombay is the creation of the pallbearer ‘caste.’ Their existence is a blot on the fair name of the community. Amongst Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others, family members and friends carry the corpse to the site of disposal. Any reform contemplated for Doongerwadi must move towards the removal of this antiquated profession. Once lay people enter the towers and see for themselves the state of affairs, they will be better able to make an informed decision on wha
The two-and-a-half hour, in-camera meeting attended by around 50 community activists witnessed a band of protestors carrying placards stating: “Our just right, dignified last rite,” “This meeting we waited downstairs, not next time” (the hall is located up a flight of stairs adjacent to the fire temple) and “Religious leanings must always be constructive not destructive.”
The spunky crusader who propelled the issue of disposal of the dead into the national limelight, Dhun Baria, was amongst the protestors. Commenting on how one of the priests at the evening meeting had criticized the alleged lack of management and supervision at Doongerwadi, Baria recalled (in her impeccable and colorful Gujarati) how a vessel of stagnant water with dust settled on its surface was used to clean her mother’s corpse and the remaining water splashed over the body.
While one could empathize with the BPP trustees for not inviting this pert firebrand to the gathering, one still felt an injustice was being done. Like all revolutions, once the struggle is initiated or won, the professionals, bureaucrats, administrators and politicians take over. The person agitating for change is not always equipped to usher it in. Implementation requires negotiations, compromises, diplomatic salvos, persuasion and strong organizational backing. And yet without the support of the ground swell that votaries like Baria inspire, little can be accomplished.
Of course her prime well-wishers, The Bombay Samachar columnist and noted lawyer Berjis Desai and Alert Zoroastrians’ Association leader Kersi Randeria, are as committed to the cause as she.
For once the liberal section appears determined not to be cowed down by those who want to maintain the status quo. Until now the fear of upsetting the established order or changing a religious custom deterred many from going all out.
Reformers like Dara Cama and Dhunjishaw Joshi were ridiculed as deen-doobaaraas (destroyers of the religion), lampooned and mercilessly attacked. This was before the vultures vanished and high-rise buildings sprouted up in the vicinity.
In 1973 BPP trustee and noted solicitor Shiavax R. Vakil stated in a Parsiana interview (November 1973) “there are months when there are hardly any vultures and there are months when there is no paucity… For instance from now (October) upto May 15 there will be enough… but from May again will come a time (around four to five months) when there will be hardly any… My feeling is that with the lapse of time and more buildings coming up, the vultures will gradually disappear.”
Vakil also empathized with the professional corpse bearers. “We treat them as harijans, untouchables. They do not go to functions. They cannot go to fire temples without going through nahan… I think they deserve humane treatment but at the same time, day in and day out dealing with corpses their hearts become hearts of stone and once the doors (of the dakhmas) are closed they sometimes empty the body straight [into the bhandar-(well)] with the clothes on.”
Perhaps the greatest ill emanating from the dakhmenashini system in Bombay is the creation of the pallbearer ‘caste.’ Their existence is a blot on the fair name of the community. Amongst Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others, family members and friends carry the corpse to the site of disposal. Any reform contemplated for Doongerwadi must move towards the removal of this antiquated profession. Once lay people enter the towers and see for themselves the state of affairs, they will be better able to make an informed decision on wha
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