Editorial Viewpoint
The orthodox wedge
The startling statistic that 12 out of 13 marriages in Calcutta over the last two years have been out of the community underlies the fast changing composition of the community.
Boycotting or sidestepping non-Parsi spouses and treating the children of such unions as unwelcome additions to the community is self-defeating, especially as the number of intermarrieds soar.
At the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India meeting where the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund representative Bahadur Postwalla made the disclosure, orthodox spokesperson Khojeste Mistree alleged that lax parenting, liberal minded community leaders and the media are largely to blame for out marriages being condoned.
“The elders give religious sanction to it… (they say) conversion is not a problem… that (interfaith marriages are alright) if one is marrying a good human being.”
Are his assumptions correct? Do Parsis really have a choice? Could every Parsi marry another Parsi if he or she chose to? The answer is no.
The birth statistics compiled from the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) records and conveyed to Parsiana by the BPP’s senior executive, welfare, Cawas Panthaki shows that from 1989 to 2005, 2,914 males were born as versus 2,493 females. This means 421 more men than women were born.
Two questions arise: Firstly if all these men decide to marry can they find Parsi brides? Secondly and more importantly: where did the female babies go? Were the fetuses aborted?
Noted economist and Tata Sons director Dr Fredie Mehta in his article ‘We need an agenda for survival’ printed in The Parsis in Western India: 1812 to 1920 edited by Nawaz Mody stated: “If a society genuinely treats its women on a footing of equality, not merely for the purpose of poetry or rhetoric or religious incantations, but in actual practice, then women will almost invariably outnumber men. Perhaps there is no religious community in the whole world in which females outnumber men as they do in the Parsi community (1,082 females to 1,000 males). It proclaims that women are as much prized in our community as men, and for this credit must go as much to our great religion as to our great 19th century reformers.”
Mehta took pride in the community’s demographic profile but what he was not aware of was that in the younger age group, men predominate, while in the older age group it is the women.
Noted demographer Dr. Ashish Bose in his study of the religious data of the 2001 census on behalf of the National Commission for Minorities first brought the glaring gender discrepancy to the notice of the community at a seminar on December 5, 2004 in Bombay (which saw participation from the Delhi based Parzor Foundation, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.)
Compounding the issue of 421 excess Parsi males is the fact that every year around 40 to 50 Parsi women marry non-Parsis, further aggravating the imbalance. Hence the 421 figure would easily soar over a 1,000. Further add the number of women who never marry and the figure climbs astronomically.
Is this a new development? If you allow that prior to 1865 a Parsi male could have more than one wife, then many men would have to marry non-Parsis or remain single (in those days nearly everyone married). Polygyny was common among the financially better off Parsis. Whether all their wives were Parsis or not is questionable. Either way, Parsi men perforce had to seek non-Parsi wives.
So much for laxity and parental indulgence!
Marriage within the community and indeed within the family was once the norm for many groups. Families did not want their wealth, especially their landed properties divided. As people started to invest in other areas like shares, bonds, ownership flats, jewellery, etc the partition of wealth became easier. Also as people sought employment in offic
Boycotting or sidestepping non-Parsi spouses and treating the children of such unions as unwelcome additions to the community is self-defeating, especially as the number of intermarrieds soar.
At the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India meeting where the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund representative Bahadur Postwalla made the disclosure, orthodox spokesperson Khojeste Mistree alleged that lax parenting, liberal minded community leaders and the media are largely to blame for out marriages being condoned.
“The elders give religious sanction to it… (they say) conversion is not a problem… that (interfaith marriages are alright) if one is marrying a good human being.”
Are his assumptions correct? Do Parsis really have a choice? Could every Parsi marry another Parsi if he or she chose to? The answer is no.
The birth statistics compiled from the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) records and conveyed to Parsiana by the BPP’s senior executive, welfare, Cawas Panthaki shows that from 1989 to 2005, 2,914 males were born as versus 2,493 females. This means 421 more men than women were born.
Two questions arise: Firstly if all these men decide to marry can they find Parsi brides? Secondly and more importantly: where did the female babies go? Were the fetuses aborted?
Noted economist and Tata Sons director Dr Fredie Mehta in his article ‘We need an agenda for survival’ printed in The Parsis in Western India: 1812 to 1920 edited by Nawaz Mody stated: “If a society genuinely treats its women on a footing of equality, not merely for the purpose of poetry or rhetoric or religious incantations, but in actual practice, then women will almost invariably outnumber men. Perhaps there is no religious community in the whole world in which females outnumber men as they do in the Parsi community (1,082 females to 1,000 males). It proclaims that women are as much prized in our community as men, and for this credit must go as much to our great religion as to our great 19th century reformers.”
Mehta took pride in the community’s demographic profile but what he was not aware of was that in the younger age group, men predominate, while in the older age group it is the women.
Noted demographer Dr. Ashish Bose in his study of the religious data of the 2001 census on behalf of the National Commission for Minorities first brought the glaring gender discrepancy to the notice of the community at a seminar on December 5, 2004 in Bombay (which saw participation from the Delhi based Parzor Foundation, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.)
Compounding the issue of 421 excess Parsi males is the fact that every year around 40 to 50 Parsi women marry non-Parsis, further aggravating the imbalance. Hence the 421 figure would easily soar over a 1,000. Further add the number of women who never marry and the figure climbs astronomically.
Is this a new development? If you allow that prior to 1865 a Parsi male could have more than one wife, then many men would have to marry non-Parsis or remain single (in those days nearly everyone married). Polygyny was common among the financially better off Parsis. Whether all their wives were Parsis or not is questionable. Either way, Parsi men perforce had to seek non-Parsi wives.
So much for laxity and parental indulgence!
Marriage within the community and indeed within the family was once the norm for many groups. Families did not want their wealth, especially their landed properties divided. As people started to invest in other areas like shares, bonds, ownership flats, jewellery, etc the partition of wealth became easier. Also as people sought employment in offic
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