Religious revivalism

The world’s first and wonderful religion has taken a backseat amongst the Parsis. Our prayers state emphatically "how fortunate we are to be born as Mazdayasnis.” But in our "modernity” most women and many men have stopped wearing the sudreh and kusti. We think nothing about trampling over fire (after discarding a cigarette). Many of us do not pray, so how will our children care to pray?

I am appalled to see many Parsi Zoroastrians, particularly abroad, whose only claim to Parsipanu is a Parsi name. To be called a Zoroastrian, we have to go deeper than that. Let us uphold our Zoroastrian ethics (there is nothing like Parsi ethics), wear our sudreh and kusti, pray once or twice a day, read our scriptures (even if it is for just 15 minutes a day), draw inspiration from those and not from pseudo scholars and cussed behdins and priests.

Our economic prosperity and standing were built by Parsi pioneers who were traders and manufacturers, and not by the Indian Civil Service officers and other civil servants. If we have to be heard we have to be numerically strong (which we can never be) and economically powerful (which we can be). We have to get back into business. The economic strength of both Japan and Germany lies as much in its small and medium enterprises as among its giants.

Parsi Bazar Street in Bombay’s Fort area vanished because the Parsi traders faded and it has been renamed Syed Abdullah Brelvi Road.

B. T. DASTUR