“What distinguishes us”

Discerning readers will find Kersi Kabraji’s letters to Parsiana always logical and fearless, being the convictions of a man endowed with reason.

How many of us were aware of what he has quoted from a paper read out by Dadabhai Naoroji before the Philomathic Society in Liverpool in 1861 ("What distinguishes us,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, January 7, 2008)? Kabraji quotes Naoroji as saying: "As a body the priests are not only ignorant of the duties and objects of their own profession, but are entirely uneducated except that they are able to read and write, and that also, often very imperfectly.”

On that score let me refer to regular reader Roda D. Hakim’s letter "Politics and policy” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, December 21, 2007). We need more writers like her who candidly express views so that people are stirred into thinking. Once she has taken a stand, she need not worry about "ruffling any feathers,” least of all those of the clergy.

All right-thinking Parsis should give credit to B. T. Dastur for his forthright attack on a time-worn hypocrisy presented foolishly by fossilized brains as "our racial purity.” In an amazingly hard-hitting letter, "Marriage and divorce” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, December 21, 2007), Dastur has written about this sensitive issue regardless of the theories and convictions of cranks known for their loyalty to a "lunatic fringe.” Rustom Tirandaz trumpets the myth of "our pure tokhm (seed)” zealously. Does he realize that the purity of our blood did not prevent the successful conquest of Iran by the Arabs? Centuries earlier, we were humbled by the Greeks as well, led by Alexander the Great whom Khojeste Mistree chooses to denigrate by dubbing him "Alexander the Accursed.”

Even children know what Alexander did when he invaded Persia and how the invasion brought destruction to all our holy books and records, ruining of the grandeur of Persepolis and the accompanying unsavory consequences after the looting, ransacking and burning of that city. But why did he do it? Has our scholar never questioned the deeds of Xerxes and Darius? Who initiated the first attack on whom? Can anyone deny that the Persians made the first attack and waged war on the Greeks? To get to the truth, no reader is required to open exhaustive tomes to be informed about the true facts. What We Owe the Greeks is a simple text brought out by Blackie and Sons a few decades ago. The Persian kings not only destroyed Greek cities but even their temples. It was only in the age of Pericles that destroyed Greek cities like Sparta were rebuilt. So Alexander’s was an act of revenge, a kind of wild justice. Such retaliation needs to be understood in an objective manner rather than by spouting contempt at a conqueror with self-righteous arrogance.

My late father, a Persian scholar who was born in Iran, repeatedly reminded me of how the Persian Empire ended, as recorded by Firdausi in his Shahnameh. The Persian defeat made a mockery of "our pure tokhm” which succumbed to conquerors from the desert who proved superior warriors despite the handicap of doubtful nutrition — the milk of the camel and the flesh of the lizard being their source of sustenance!

Parsiana has published several writers who have boldly confronted contentious issues. This helps to thwart the mischief of "erroneous egos” including a maverick messiah disgraced ever so often in recent times. One must congratulate Noshir Dadrawala for liberating himself from the unpalatable nonsense of a pretentious modern-day hoax.

Roughly 10 years ago Mistree had, in an issue of your magazine used religion as an instrument of fear — as is done by the clergy universally — when he held that as per our Rivayets, for a Zoroastrian to be cremated is so very sinful that he is surely doomed to hell. What a farce from a religious scholar of our community who believes that the Almighty discriminates in deciding the evil of cremation of the Zoroastrian dead, but forgives the millions of deceased belonging to diverse communities all over the world. The Zoroastrian dead also seem to be special, like "our pure tokhm!”

RASHID G. KHOSRAVI