“Gupta’s gumption”

Those gleaming eyes, a sign of resoluteness. Those high cheekbones, a sign of willingness to surmount all odds and face challenges. The little dimple in the chin, a sign of the ability to take the smooth with the rough. That smile, a sign of determination.

That’s Neha (Goolrukh) Gupta, the Parsi avtar of Rosa Parks, the frail black American who said "Enough is enough, I shall not vacate my seat for a white man” in December 1955. She was hauled over the coals, but a spark was lit which turned into a flame and then an inferno marking her as a civil rights icon. The transport system in New York came to a standstill, and the whites had to climb down. Parks passed away a year or so ago and was awarded a state funeral which President Barack Obama attended.

Gupta has taken up the cudgels, and it is hoped other women will follow suit, that right thinking Parsis will extend their wholehearted support. It is hoped that the Gujarat High Court will not shy away like their counterparts in Bombay for this is a question of fundamental rights of an individual who is entitled to choose her life partner and her religion too.

The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) or anyone can pass any resolution. It is what the trust deed says that is important. Most trust deeds spell out "for the use of Parsi Zoroastrians,” even for residential buildings.

In "Accept the consequences” the khota dasturs have come out with their convoluted argument and logic that interfaith marriages may be considered legal by the secular state, but recognition of such marriages cannot be forced upon the Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian community. All laws of civil marriages apply to the civil or legal aspects and not to the religious aspect. When the country’s law recognizes a couple as man and wife what is the locus standi of the khota dasturs to decide otherwise?

The khap (caste) panchayats also thought that they are above the law of the land when they indulged in honor killings. Six of them are now facing the death rap. It is the legal right of an individual to practice, profess, spread and adhere to the religion of his/her choice. If Neville Wadia could revert to the Zoroastrian religion with the cooperation of the khota dasturs and the BPP trustees, then any man or woman can do likewise.

The priests argue there is no provision that a woman marrying under the Special Marriage Act shall continue to enjoy the same religious rights and benefits after such a marriage. The Act does not confer any special rights in the matter of religion. Are people specifically debarred from practicing a religion of their choice under the Act? Certainly not.

The orthodox, desperate to keep a stranglehold on the community, are now clutching at straws. Their bankrupt mentality and frustration forces them to resort to pettifogging and come up with meaningless arguments such as if you change your name you are not a Parsi Zoroastrian. Gupta should move the Women’s Rights Commission, as well as the Human Rights Commission to enforce her right to practice her religion.

Ervad Rooyintan P. Peer has his own take which defies logic. He once came up with the notion that Behram Aga and Behram Dastur are one and the same and wrote accordingly ("The road ahead,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, March 7, 2009). As a result he got such a jolt that he now sticks to the Jam-e-Jamshed. Peer says, "We have a slue of short names e.g. Rusi for Rustom, Soli for Sohrab, Pesi for Peshotan, Keti for Ketayun and so on.” But Peer is a Muslim name! Leaving that aside, will the learned ervad please enlighten me and the orthodox about the following Parsi names for males: Vladislav, Mark, Keanu, Hushaan, Hafeez, Jason, etc; and Mickie, Karishma, Nezhat, Bini, Sharon, Rhea, Tina, Nina, etc for females? Are these short forms or long forms? Or are these persons non-Parsis because of their names? Will they all be debarred as per the fresh, stupid, arbitrary, and malafide resolution?

What about surnames? Mistry, Shastri, Choksi, Joshi, Kapadia, Rao, Prabhu, Patel, Desai, Modi... are all Gujarati names. A lady named Gitanjali is, according to the Jamé of June 13, 2010, a passionate Parsi and loves her religion. Please clarify whether hers is a Parsi name? The bottom line is that a Parsi by any name is a palav daar Parsi!

A new dawn is in the offing which will bring relief and security from the clutches of fraudsters. That dawn will belong to the Guptas, D’Souzas and others of their tribe. As a morale booster for them, I would like to quote Theodore Roosevelt’s speech "Citizenship in a Republic,” made at the Sorbonne, Paris on April 23, 1910, and received by me from my son Shahvir in Australia:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

BEHRAM AGA

behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in