The last bawaji

Apart from housing and religion, one of the major problems facing the Zoroastrian community today is our dwindling population. A thorough census of the Zoroastrian population has not been carried out, but we are a meager 60,000 to 70,000.

However, around the Caspian and the Aral Seas there are countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Khirgizia, Tadjikistan where a good number of people are fire worshippers and even wear the sudreh and kusti. So the question that should crop up in our mind is: are these people Zoroastrians? And if they are, have we ever tried to enumerate them, or to bring them into our main Zoroastrian fold, or study their socio-economic status?

The newly elected trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet are an excellent amalgam of experience and youth and I am sure some thought and action will be put to this, otherwise the time is not far when the "last bawaji” will be treading on this earth.

DINYAR N. SHROFF

Vasai, Thana District