“The wadi at Udvada”

In "The wadi at Udvada” (Parsiana, June 7, 2011) you have dealt with the tussle over the development of about 800 acres of land presently owned by Altaf, Naeem, Salim and Adil Kherani. It is unfortunate that we let this land slip out of our hands in the beginning. Now that the matter is being negotiated by Vada Dastur Khurshed K. Dastoor of Udvada, I wish him success.

However, I find fault with our community which has forgotten how badly our ancestors were treated in Iran. After the defeat by the Arabs they were subjected to much tyranny. Our people were not allowed to wear sandals, topis or the symbolic sudreh and kusti. Even if they sat in the shadow of a tree and a Muslim passing by saw them, they would be beaten with a big stick. All these atrocities were not known to us till the Manchester Guardian published the article "They are refugees in their own land” in 1905. The Zoroastrians in India immediately took steps to end such discrimination and sent Manekji Limji Hataria to Iran to negotiate with the then rulers to give Zoroastrians a place of honor.

We do not have much written in our history about the difficulties we experienced excepting a few incidents, like the Nawab of Surat derived pleasure by ordering Parsis to carry baskets full of refuse on their heads and to dig graves.

In "So they say” (Parsiana, July 7, 2011) you have published the former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee quoting the Dalai Lama’s comments on Nowrojee. In the mid 1970s I read a front page editorial in the Los Angeles Times about Nowrojee, in which it was stated that he had a large distillery in Dharamshala, his heirs were not interested in running it and he was getting old. In 1959, when the Dalai Lama mi­gra­ted to India to save his religion after the communist invasion of Tibet, the Buddhist refugees were looking for a place to settle in. Nowrojee approached the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and offered his 10 acres of land free of charge for the purpose. I wish somebody could research the correctness of my statement and establish Nowrojee’s generosity as being on par with that of Jadi Rana who gave the Parsis Oont Wada, now Udvada.

After independence there were two ministers, one in the Central Government and the other in the Provincial Government, who were after the Parsis. First they closed Pestonji Polson’s dairy in Anand. Then they brought in Prohibition and the land to the tiller policy. Law abiding Parsis surrendered their businesses and farms without receiving any compensation. The Government then introduced a backbreaking ordinance that since there were many college graduates in the country, those who were not graduates should be removed from their jobs. In those times many Parsis were matriculates and held jobs in the railways, banks, insurance companies or were employed by industrialists like the Tatas, Wadias and Godrejs. Many Parsis were laid off, resulting in poverty from loss of jobs as well as farm income.

The Parsis approached Mahatma Gandhi for justice, as he was championing the removal of injustice to minority communities. But he gave Parsis the cold shoulder. If any other community had been subjected to such injustice, he would have gone on a fast unto death. In other words, since we are law abiding and small in number, nobody cared.

Since we have lost so much in Gujarat, should we not ask the Government to intervene and get us something in return for the sacrifices we made after independence? Is there anyone willing to take up our case and fight for this rather than fighting among ourselves and weakening our community?

ADI B. GANDHI

Los Angeles, USA

adibg@aol.com