Marriage and divorce

We are all aware that under a Central dispensation going back to 1935 there is a Parsi Matrimonial Court functioning under the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court.

For a 100 percent literate community where our women are fully emancipated, one would expect a very high rate of divorce. However, the number of divorce cases registered under the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court in 2005, 2006 and 2007 was 34, 36 and 39 respectively. Divorce, as a percentage of Parsi marriages registered in Greater Bombay, was 12.41, 13.24 and 14.13 percent respectively. I am informed by a lawyer specializing in divorce cases that this is not alarming, considering the percentage recorded for other well educated communities.

While divorces need not be encouraged, they are a democratic route with much lesser evil consequences than when divorces are denied or feelings bottled up.

Regarding marriages, the following figures speak for themselves. Interfaith marriages in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were 79, 82 and 84 respectively. In percentage terms this amounts to 29, 30 and 30.5 percent (rounded off) respectively. One does not need to be a statistician or demographer to appreciate this trend.

In major metropolises one has only to receive invitations to weddings to discover that many Parsis marry out, and there is nothing that can be done to prevent this as it is very difficult to legislate on affairs of the heart. In Calcutta the situation is quite acute where 11 out of 12 persons marry out (both boys and girls).

Not lack of housing, but better comfort levels prompt Parsi girls to marry non-Parsi spouses. I do not subscribe to the theory that housing is a major handicap. The theory of "no house, no spouse” is bogus in the extreme.

The Mèr tribe of shepherds in Gujarat freely intermarried with Parsi males, and the Parsi farmers of Gujarat openly kept dubri mistresses. History is replete with accounts of Persian noblemen marrying non-Persian/non-Aryan princesses. Persian soldiers are believed to have married freely with Assyrian, Scythian and Greek women.

The theory of a pure race is bogus and Hitler-like in conception. The only pure races are the two tribes of the Andamans, numbering 15 and 50. Even the Pygmies of the Congo are no longer a pure race.

It is high time we acknowledge some racial truths, accept the children of mixed marriages as Parsis and stop treating them as bastards. If we choose to be both dogmatic and blind, we do so at our own peril. Religion has been twisted to suit the myopia of some cussed priests and equally cussed members of the laity.

B. T. DASTUR