Are we enlightened?

Eminent artist-cartoonist Mario Miranda had expressed a desire that his body be cremated and not buried, as is customary among Christians. When he died recently in his native Goa, his coffin was moved from his residence to a church in the village where the mass was celebrated by a priest. His final rites were then performed at a crematorium in Margao, five kilometers away.
If Christians can permit non-traditional means of disposal and perform all the usual rites without any fuss, why do Zoroastrians — otherwise considered an enlightened community — have to forgo the customary last rites when they opt for cremation instead of consignment to the towers of silence? What right does a coterie of bigots have to enforce their will on those of us who wish to disbelieve that letting their bodies rot in the open in the name of salvation is either scientifically or rationally justified?
PHIROZE B. JAVERI
phiroze.javeri@gmail.com