A wake-up call

As far as I can make out, there are only three issues which plague the Parsis: mixed marriages, conversion and the Tower of Silence.

Mixed marriages are a must if we want to improve our stock. There has been too much of inbreeding for nearly 1,500 years and this will have an adverse effect sooner or later. The community’s progeny will deteriorate and fertility will (or has) go(ne) down. Opinions of high priests on the subject are of no value. We need to consult good doctors and go by the statistics provided by the Government of India. What the Arabs could not do 1,500 years ago, we will ourselves do in the next couple of hundred years. This is a wake-up call.

No one is calling for mass conversions. Only children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers may be taken into the Zoroastrian faith as Parsis. Already a court ruling exists regarding the children of Parsi fathers and non-Parsi mothers. This needs to be suitably amended, especially in this age of gender equality. I am sure the court will revise its earlier ruling.

The Towers of Silence should be blasted out of existence. They are insanitary and horrible. Other communities in India and abroad (I have been to Lahore, Hong Kong, Kathmandu and Colombo) ridicule our ancient system which may have been eco-friendly 3,000 years ago but which is disgraceful in the present age. Electric cremation is quick and clean. We give better treatment even to fallen enemy soldiers as enjoined by the Geneva Convention’s Code of Honor.

Col (Retd) M. D. COMMISSARIAT

Imphal, Manipur