“Orthodox victory”

Goolrookh Gupta lost her battle in the Gujarat High Court, but there is still hope as she can go to the Supreme Court for appeal ("Orthodox victory,” Parsi­ana, April 7, 2012). It’s sad that this should have happened. Generally, judges refrain from taking a strong stance in religious matters as they wish to play safe. In the bargain the reformists suffer while the orthodox gloat!

Retrospectively the case has been a waste of time and money, as it was more or less a forgone conclusion that the judges would not interfere in religious reforms and leave it to the community to sort out its problems. However, there are innumerable Goolrookhs in our community who, without beating dhol nagaras (drums), regularly visit agiaries and participate in rituals. Some fire temples are overly strict, while others choose to turn a blind eye to this.

Since we do not carry any identification tag to prove that we are Parsis it is easy to enter our places of worship. This happens in Udvada as well. I myself know of many such intermarried persons who go on frequent pilgrimages to Iranshah. Everyone is aware of it, so why single out one Parsi lady who wishes to pay obeisance at the holy fire? The Delhi, Calcutta, Jamshedpur and many other anjumans have no objection to such persons visiting and participating in religious rituals. It is only elsewhere in India that there are restrictions. This attitude of the orthodox is not acceptable.

Such religious pollution (as they call it!) has taken place in almost all agiaries and atash behrams but we haven’t heard of any kriya kam (rituals, ceremonies) being carried out to restore the sanctity of the holy fire. Is the cost factor a deterrent, or is it a case of hiding one’s head in the sand? It’s ludicrous that in a small community like ours there should be no uniformity in religious matters, which adds to the confusion, especially when the orthodox stick to their unbending stand and fail to arrive at a solution. How long can this go on? We constantly hear, rightly or wrongly, about encroachment on our lands, or defunct anjumans not being able to maintain their properties. Within the next 20 years what will be the outcome? Does the Bombay Parsi Punchayet have any answers or are they only interested in sticking to their chairs?

RODA D. HAKIM

Baroda

vadhakim@yahoo.com