Editorial Viewpoint
Preparing for the Congress
After hosting 16 congresses, member associations of the 25-year-old Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) have mastered the art of arranging multinational meets. And they have done so without any staff, only volunteers. Different associations bid to hold the biennial gathering and the successful bidder sets about organizing the venue, the subjects, speakers, sight-seeing tours, delegate fees, accommodation, food, mementoes, awards and a host of other minutiae.
The XVI North American Zarathushti Congress (NAZC) held in New York under the joint auspices of the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York and the Iranian Zoroastrian Association in early August demonstrated the use of technology to gauge audience reaction and make the three-and-a-half day meet more interactive. Speakers coordinated their presentations with others on the same panel to ensure minimum overlapping or repetition. The intellectual content of the USA-Canada meet was of a high order. No subject was deemed too controversial for discussion. Unlike at the 9th World Zoroastrian Congress (WZC) in Dubai where under the guise of not offending the host nation a tight lid was kept on religious subjects, here there was no such restriction.
One would have thought the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) would have sent several representatives to observe how the NAZC was organized and run so they could select the best practices for the 10th WZC to be hosted in Bombay end 2013. Sadly, not a single trustee or BPP executive was present. BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta was slated to attend, but the presence of scholar Ali Jafarey at the Congress as a panelist/speaker reportedly caused him to cancel the trip. Jafarey has performed the navjote ceremonies of non-Parsis, earning him the undying enmity of the more traditionally minded, racially conscious Parsis.
The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe also reportedly shunned the FEZANA meet for the same reason. A Global Working Group meet scheduled to coincide with the Congress fell by the wayside. The last such so-called meet was held when the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip visited the Zoroastrian Centre in Harrow, London in October 2011. Even that get-together was an afterthought and no representative from Iran was present.
One can understand the reluctance to form a truly representative world body. Many Parsis in India and elsewhere want a racially defined, Parsi and Irani Zoroastrian global institution. They are fearful that countless converts to Zoroastrianism will converge on their new organization. One local body even envisioned followers of Al Qaeda converting to Zoroastrianism en masse and under the guise of that benign religion, unleashing acts of terror!
Reasoning with paranoid Parsis is an exercise in futility They are obsessed with an irrational fear, similar to the time in the early 20th century when Parsis refused to be inoculated believing the entry of foreign antigens in their system was irreligious. Only a massive education drive convinced many to be vaccinated, but not before several lives were lost.
At least for the next Congress, the BPP trustees to their everlasting credit, have dropped the notion of renaming the gathering a “Parsi” Zoroastrian Congress, sticking instead to the traditional “Zoroastrian” nomenclature. But aside from fixing the venue and the delegate fee (though not publicly announced) and calling for logo designs, precious little has been done. From the grapevine — and that is the only source for news on the Congress — one hears of a budget of a few crores of rupees being envisaged. To what purpose the money will be utilized is unknown. FEZANA members hold their meets at a fraction of the cost.
But whatever the extravagant trappings, with less than 16 months to go for the international event, even the subjects, let alone the speakers, have still to be decided. How much time will those selected have to decide on a topic, complete their research and write the paper? Will the speakers be reduced to mouthing platitudes of racial purity or extolling the benefits accruing from reciting prayers with particular pronunciations or the greatness of the Zoroastrian religion versus all others?
The past Congresses in Bombay mercifully did not stoop to that abysmal low, so there is hope for this one. Also today with the internet, e-mails and low cost telecommunication, it is possible to gather information rapidly. But time is of the essence.
Unlike their counterparts in the West, the BPP trustees are bogged down with managing large swathes of real estate, several institutions, staff, ongoing and new projects and, of course, endless litigation, much of it of their own making. On the plus side they have a fully equipped office with paid, full-time staff. But their personnel are already stretched, coping with the day-to-day management of the trust. Procrastinating on the Congress means those harried employees will have to do twice the amount of work in half the time.
On the anvil is an ambitious vulture conservation program that will require all the energies and persuasive skills of the BPP trustees to convince skeptical Parsis that the huge costs involved and the considerable risks are in the community’s best interests. The trustees and the votaries of the program will have to go from baug to baug and neighborhood to neighborhood, explaining the intricacies and benefits of the project. But even amongst the trustees there are those who question the efficacy of the undertaking (no pun intended).
Simultaneously the BPP trustees will have to cope with the ongoing, endless mediation talks over the so-called “renegade” priests dispute. The Parsi Lying-In Hospital imbroglio is likely to end up in court, with the BPP attempting to stymie the proposal mooted by the Hospital’s managing committee. In such a fractious environment how much time and energy can the trustees devote to the organization of the Congress? Tiny Singapore with its minuscule Zoroastrian community had over two-and-a-half years ago prepared a dossier on how they were going to host the Congress. The honor was ultimately denied them in favor of Bombay who strong-armed the nominating committee to assign them the meet.
Might is often right. But having used their brute strength to grab the Congress from the most deserving party, surely the BPP trustees are obligated to give the global community their best? The most powerful, affluent Parsi institution with the largest concentration of pure bred Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians in the world has to put up a Congress commensurate with its standing. The BPP have to outdo Dubai which was managed by a small group of dedicated volunteers with no infrastructure or staff. They have to demonstrate they can match the Singapore Parsis in their efficiency. And they have to at least be on par with the foresight and organizational skills of the North American Zoroastrians. Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
The XVI North American Zarathushti Congress (NAZC) held in New York under the joint auspices of the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York and the Iranian Zoroastrian Association in early August demonstrated the use of technology to gauge audience reaction and make the three-and-a-half day meet more interactive. Speakers coordinated their presentations with others on the same panel to ensure minimum overlapping or repetition. The intellectual content of the USA-Canada meet was of a high order. No subject was deemed too controversial for discussion. Unlike at the 9th World Zoroastrian Congress (WZC) in Dubai where under the guise of not offending the host nation a tight lid was kept on religious subjects, here there was no such restriction.
One would have thought the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) would have sent several representatives to observe how the NAZC was organized and run so they could select the best practices for the 10th WZC to be hosted in Bombay end 2013. Sadly, not a single trustee or BPP executive was present. BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta was slated to attend, but the presence of scholar Ali Jafarey at the Congress as a panelist/speaker reportedly caused him to cancel the trip. Jafarey has performed the navjote ceremonies of non-Parsis, earning him the undying enmity of the more traditionally minded, racially conscious Parsis.
The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe also reportedly shunned the FEZANA meet for the same reason. A Global Working Group meet scheduled to coincide with the Congress fell by the wayside. The last such so-called meet was held when the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip visited the Zoroastrian Centre in Harrow, London in October 2011. Even that get-together was an afterthought and no representative from Iran was present.
One can understand the reluctance to form a truly representative world body. Many Parsis in India and elsewhere want a racially defined, Parsi and Irani Zoroastrian global institution. They are fearful that countless converts to Zoroastrianism will converge on their new organization. One local body even envisioned followers of Al Qaeda converting to Zoroastrianism en masse and under the guise of that benign religion, unleashing acts of terror!
Reasoning with paranoid Parsis is an exercise in futility They are obsessed with an irrational fear, similar to the time in the early 20th century when Parsis refused to be inoculated believing the entry of foreign antigens in their system was irreligious. Only a massive education drive convinced many to be vaccinated, but not before several lives were lost.
At least for the next Congress, the BPP trustees to their everlasting credit, have dropped the notion of renaming the gathering a “Parsi” Zoroastrian Congress, sticking instead to the traditional “Zoroastrian” nomenclature. But aside from fixing the venue and the delegate fee (though not publicly announced) and calling for logo designs, precious little has been done. From the grapevine — and that is the only source for news on the Congress — one hears of a budget of a few crores of rupees being envisaged. To what purpose the money will be utilized is unknown. FEZANA members hold their meets at a fraction of the cost.
But whatever the extravagant trappings, with less than 16 months to go for the international event, even the subjects, let alone the speakers, have still to be decided. How much time will those selected have to decide on a topic, complete their research and write the paper? Will the speakers be reduced to mouthing platitudes of racial purity or extolling the benefits accruing from reciting prayers with particular pronunciations or the greatness of the Zoroastrian religion versus all others?
The past Congresses in Bombay mercifully did not stoop to that abysmal low, so there is hope for this one. Also today with the internet, e-mails and low cost telecommunication, it is possible to gather information rapidly. But time is of the essence.
Unlike their counterparts in the West, the BPP trustees are bogged down with managing large swathes of real estate, several institutions, staff, ongoing and new projects and, of course, endless litigation, much of it of their own making. On the plus side they have a fully equipped office with paid, full-time staff. But their personnel are already stretched, coping with the day-to-day management of the trust. Procrastinating on the Congress means those harried employees will have to do twice the amount of work in half the time.
On the anvil is an ambitious vulture conservation program that will require all the energies and persuasive skills of the BPP trustees to convince skeptical Parsis that the huge costs involved and the considerable risks are in the community’s best interests. The trustees and the votaries of the program will have to go from baug to baug and neighborhood to neighborhood, explaining the intricacies and benefits of the project. But even amongst the trustees there are those who question the efficacy of the undertaking (no pun intended).
Simultaneously the BPP trustees will have to cope with the ongoing, endless mediation talks over the so-called “renegade” priests dispute. The Parsi Lying-In Hospital imbroglio is likely to end up in court, with the BPP attempting to stymie the proposal mooted by the Hospital’s managing committee. In such a fractious environment how much time and energy can the trustees devote to the organization of the Congress? Tiny Singapore with its minuscule Zoroastrian community had over two-and-a-half years ago prepared a dossier on how they were going to host the Congress. The honor was ultimately denied them in favor of Bombay who strong-armed the nominating committee to assign them the meet.
Might is often right. But having used their brute strength to grab the Congress from the most deserving party, surely the BPP trustees are obligated to give the global community their best? The most powerful, affluent Parsi institution with the largest concentration of pure bred Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians in the world has to put up a Congress commensurate with its standing. The BPP have to outdo Dubai which was managed by a small group of dedicated volunteers with no infrastructure or staff. They have to demonstrate they can match the Singapore Parsis in their efficiency. And they have to at least be on par with the foresight and organizational skills of the North American Zoroastrians. Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
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