Editorial Viewpoint
A lost opportunity?
The economic setback to Dubai is bound to cast a shadow over the Ninth World Zoroastrian Congress. While the financial meltdown may not directly affect the four-day deliberations, the downswing will remind the 700 or so Zoroastrians from all over the world of the global trauma that was set in motion over a year ago with the collapse of the banking sector in the USA. While India was spared the harsh realities of the downturn, many compatriots settled abroad suffered both financially and emotionally.
Even from Dubai one hears stories of jobless Parsis, of Zoroastrian businesses retrenching staff, of payments being delayed or remaining unpaid. The lure of quick riches that once beckoned community members has diminished. The delegates from India who gather in the emirate from December 28 to 31will not be in awe of the Middle East and the West. They will instead consider themselves lucky to reside in a poor but relatively economically stable country.
At the Third World Zoroastrian Congress held in Bombay in 1978, the Iranian delegation was the cynosure of all eyes. The North American Zoroastrians were still a nascent force both organizationally and in numbers. Iran was thriving under the Shah and many a Parsi/Irani aspired to migrate to that Promised Land. But by 1979 the country was in turmoil, the Shah fleeing and the tyrannical reign of the Ayatollahs dawning.
Many Zoroastrians fled their homes and left behind their belongings. For those expatriates who remained, the lucrative jobs were gone and danger lurked at every corner. The obverse of dictatorship is political uncertainty. One must make as much as one can, as fast as possible and be prepared to leave at the drop of a hat.
Fortunately Dubai is a more liberal society. The fact that a Zoroastrian Congress can be held in an Arabic state is itself proof that while the government may be financially profligate, in matters of religion and culture it is, so far, still judicious. Visitors to Dubai may well have wondered why its ambitious ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum was so keen to build a modern metropolis manned by innumerable expatriates. Why could the emirate have not maintained a slower, steadier pace, kept its Bedouin culture, its more idyllic, nomadic lifestyle? Why could change have not crept in in a more leisurely gait?
The argument could be made that the US which developed more methodically owes trillions (one followed by 12 zeroes) of dollars to China due to the trade imbalance. So how is it better off than Dubai which (hopefully) will be bailed out by its neighbor Abu Dhabi? Or that Dubai with all its faults is better off than India with its grinding poverty, where almost a third of its people go to bed hungry?
Perhaps these topics will be discussed outside the periphery of the Congress proceedings. Or perhaps the delegates will be too involved with community issues or sight-seeing or even shopping to care. Each country’s participants will come with a particular mind-set and one can expect muscle flexing and power plays. Will the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), buoyed by their electoral victories and apparently favorable court decisions, dominate the proceedings? We are told the more liberal UK headquartered World Zoroastrian Organisation has been denied an opportunity to make a presentation at the Congress. That may be because the Middle East Zoroastrians are orthodox or may be more wary of offending their host country. Better to be sedate than sorry.
How will the North American Zoroastrians react? Will they be at loggerheads with their more conservative counterparts? What stand will Iran take? Will the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe based in London try to bridge the divide between India and North America? Or will they toe the BPP line?
And what will become of the world body? Will anyone spare a thought for that 50-year-old, orphaned, unwanted child, conceived at the First World Zoroastrian Congress held in 1960 in Tehran? There were high hopes a world body would see birth at the last 2005 Eighth World Congress. But it was not to be. The opposition from the orthodox lobby in Bombay, several of whom now occupy the trusteeship chairs at the BPP, aborted the idea.
After constantly bragging of upholding orthodoxy it is unlikely the BPP, bolstered by their majority in the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, will now march to a different drummer. They had earlier termed the world body “cosmopolitan,” one that would open the floodgates for millions of converts to converge in Bombay and usurp all community properties. Or alternatively the trustees may argue why form a world body when the BPP serves the purpose?
The Congress organizers have been toiling for months to put on an impressive show and the program indicates a slew of reputed speakers. But people who will be able to offer a global Zoroastrian perspective appear to be lacking. This may not be due to lack of effort by the organizers but the reality that there are few people who study the community globally. Scholarship is not highly valued in a community dominated by mercantile interests.
Thus which issues are foremost in the minds of the international community will not be known. While Bombay may be preoccupied with providing affordable housing and preserving the system of dakhmenashini, Zoroastrians residing in Delhi, Lahore, New York, Hong Kong or Sydney will have other concerns.
What about global demographics? How many are we? Is the Zoroastrian population in Iran 30,000, 60,000 or 90,000? No one knows. How many Zoroastrian births, navjotes, marriages and deaths are there all over the world? In which country is the population declining? Increasing? How many converts or practicing Zoroastrians are there in the East European states, in Latin America? Are new priests entering the profession? Should women be ordained as priests? Should behdins be allowed to practice mobedi? Is there an environmentally friendly alternative to burning wood in our fire temples? How many Zoroastrians worldwide opt for cremation over burial?
Should the global community agree on a particular calendar out of the three currently in use? Should children of Parsi/Irani women married to non-Parsis be considered Parsis?
One may not have the answers to these questions nor agree on a common line of action. But why ignore such topics? The discussion may generate more heat than light, but acceptable solutions may emerge.
Congresses often are missed opportunities to bring the community together, to formulate long-term plans and goals, to create a mechanism that will sustain the objectives agreed upon.
The Dubai Congress is unlikely to be an exception to the rule. Still one ventures forth not with high hopes but an inclination to meet others and perhaps arrive at a better understanding of what makes each of us tick.
Even from Dubai one hears stories of jobless Parsis, of Zoroastrian businesses retrenching staff, of payments being delayed or remaining unpaid. The lure of quick riches that once beckoned community members has diminished. The delegates from India who gather in the emirate from December 28 to 31will not be in awe of the Middle East and the West. They will instead consider themselves lucky to reside in a poor but relatively economically stable country.
At the Third World Zoroastrian Congress held in Bombay in 1978, the Iranian delegation was the cynosure of all eyes. The North American Zoroastrians were still a nascent force both organizationally and in numbers. Iran was thriving under the Shah and many a Parsi/Irani aspired to migrate to that Promised Land. But by 1979 the country was in turmoil, the Shah fleeing and the tyrannical reign of the Ayatollahs dawning.
Many Zoroastrians fled their homes and left behind their belongings. For those expatriates who remained, the lucrative jobs were gone and danger lurked at every corner. The obverse of dictatorship is political uncertainty. One must make as much as one can, as fast as possible and be prepared to leave at the drop of a hat.
Fortunately Dubai is a more liberal society. The fact that a Zoroastrian Congress can be held in an Arabic state is itself proof that while the government may be financially profligate, in matters of religion and culture it is, so far, still judicious. Visitors to Dubai may well have wondered why its ambitious ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum was so keen to build a modern metropolis manned by innumerable expatriates. Why could the emirate have not maintained a slower, steadier pace, kept its Bedouin culture, its more idyllic, nomadic lifestyle? Why could change have not crept in in a more leisurely gait?
The argument could be made that the US which developed more methodically owes trillions (one followed by 12 zeroes) of dollars to China due to the trade imbalance. So how is it better off than Dubai which (hopefully) will be bailed out by its neighbor Abu Dhabi? Or that Dubai with all its faults is better off than India with its grinding poverty, where almost a third of its people go to bed hungry?
Perhaps these topics will be discussed outside the periphery of the Congress proceedings. Or perhaps the delegates will be too involved with community issues or sight-seeing or even shopping to care. Each country’s participants will come with a particular mind-set and one can expect muscle flexing and power plays. Will the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), buoyed by their electoral victories and apparently favorable court decisions, dominate the proceedings? We are told the more liberal UK headquartered World Zoroastrian Organisation has been denied an opportunity to make a presentation at the Congress. That may be because the Middle East Zoroastrians are orthodox or may be more wary of offending their host country. Better to be sedate than sorry.
How will the North American Zoroastrians react? Will they be at loggerheads with their more conservative counterparts? What stand will Iran take? Will the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe based in London try to bridge the divide between India and North America? Or will they toe the BPP line?
And what will become of the world body? Will anyone spare a thought for that 50-year-old, orphaned, unwanted child, conceived at the First World Zoroastrian Congress held in 1960 in Tehran? There were high hopes a world body would see birth at the last 2005 Eighth World Congress. But it was not to be. The opposition from the orthodox lobby in Bombay, several of whom now occupy the trusteeship chairs at the BPP, aborted the idea.
After constantly bragging of upholding orthodoxy it is unlikely the BPP, bolstered by their majority in the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, will now march to a different drummer. They had earlier termed the world body “cosmopolitan,” one that would open the floodgates for millions of converts to converge in Bombay and usurp all community properties. Or alternatively the trustees may argue why form a world body when the BPP serves the purpose?
The Congress organizers have been toiling for months to put on an impressive show and the program indicates a slew of reputed speakers. But people who will be able to offer a global Zoroastrian perspective appear to be lacking. This may not be due to lack of effort by the organizers but the reality that there are few people who study the community globally. Scholarship is not highly valued in a community dominated by mercantile interests.
Thus which issues are foremost in the minds of the international community will not be known. While Bombay may be preoccupied with providing affordable housing and preserving the system of dakhmenashini, Zoroastrians residing in Delhi, Lahore, New York, Hong Kong or Sydney will have other concerns.
What about global demographics? How many are we? Is the Zoroastrian population in Iran 30,000, 60,000 or 90,000? No one knows. How many Zoroastrian births, navjotes, marriages and deaths are there all over the world? In which country is the population declining? Increasing? How many converts or practicing Zoroastrians are there in the East European states, in Latin America? Are new priests entering the profession? Should women be ordained as priests? Should behdins be allowed to practice mobedi? Is there an environmentally friendly alternative to burning wood in our fire temples? How many Zoroastrians worldwide opt for cremation over burial?
Should the global community agree on a particular calendar out of the three currently in use? Should children of Parsi/Irani women married to non-Parsis be considered Parsis?
One may not have the answers to these questions nor agree on a common line of action. But why ignore such topics? The discussion may generate more heat than light, but acceptable solutions may emerge.
Congresses often are missed opportunities to bring the community together, to formulate long-term plans and goals, to create a mechanism that will sustain the objectives agreed upon.
The Dubai Congress is unlikely to be an exception to the rule. Still one ventures forth not with high hopes but an inclination to meet others and perhaps arrive at a better understanding of what makes each of us tick.
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