For our survival

There seem to be three schools of thought regarding what course of action would be best to ensure the survival of the community. Unfortunately Parsis of different inclinations choose to call each other names, quarrel, go to court and even indulge in fisticuffs. They have no respect for each other, much less for priests and the knowledge imparted by them.

The three streams of thinking are: open the doors to everyone. Zarathushtra would have approved. He said "My religion is for all mankind;” open the doors but be selective to keep out undesirables; keep the doors closed, a Parsi Zoroastrian has to be born one.

While we are busy discussing what to do, water from our tank is leaking out from several holes. People are freely marrying outside the community. Not enough water is being replenished to make up for what has leaked out. There are not enough marriages within the kom, not enough children from such marriages.

All Zoroastrians other than those who came to India to escape Muslim persecution are largely untraceable due to open doors, allowing mixed wedlock, dilution in religious practices, abandoning of traditions. So that wasn’t very clever.

The best thing to do is to first ensure at least zero growth. This can be done if our boys and girls opt for early marriages and have at least two children. All other fights can be kept for later.

CYRUS S. MEHERJI

cymeher@rediffmail.com