“Where do we go from here?”

On the landmark achievement of publishing Parsiana for 50 years I salute you for keeping the community informed and involved to the best of your ability. You have presented social, religious, political, demographic issues, with the hope that the community would reflect on them and look for solutions both within and without. But this is not happening. In 1964 when Parsiana was first published there were 100,772 Zarathushtis in India, today there are 62,000. Where have all the Parsis gone? Surely 38,777 of them have not all immigrated out of India? This reduction of the Parsi population does not only have implications for the preservation of the religion (the often asked rhetorical question) but has far reaching ripple effects on the social, cultural and political fabric of the community.
With a reduction in the birth rate and with an increase in life span, there are more of us living with less of us available to look after our elderly, our biologically challenged and our sick. With less Parsis in the work force, lower is the income generated, reducing the cumulative wealth of the community. Fewer numbers also mean the preservation and transmission of culture becomes difficult and our political clout as an electorate at the ballot box is diminished. So much so that the government of India has implemented a scheme "Jiyo Parsi” for fertility treatment to help reverse this decline. We are really considered "an endangered species, worthy of protection like the Bengal tiger or the condors!”

Where do we go from here? First, we as a community need to accept some irrefutable givens, over which we have little or no control. The replacement ratio (birth to death) is very low, the pull of the "global village” phenomenon of merging identities is very strong, opportunities in cosmopolitan cities (and in the diaspora) to meet partners within our community are limited. Hence we need to think outside the box to combat these forces.
The Zarathushti religion, whether we like it or not is being followed and practised in different pockets around the world. The Parsi culture (the Parsipanu), on the other hand is not and cannot be followed by these people. Hence we need to decide: is it the Zarathushti religion we want to preserve and propagate, or is it the Parsi culture? If it is the former then the religion will be preserved, maybe not in the form as we know it today, not through conversion but by natural evolution as people see the simplicity, beauty and wisdom of this ancient religion. If it is the Parsipanu we want to preserve then we need to make an extra effort to procreate and increase our numbers, because religion and culture do not operate in a vacuum but in groups and our group is small! Some groups have been able to preserve their culture as they live in very isolated communities, cut off from outside influences (even though cell phones have invaded remote communities). They have no choice but to procreate within their isolated group and transmit their culture within the group. Is the 21st century Parsi youth prepared to live in such isolation? Time will tell.
And what of North America, where I live? We are very conscious of our fragile and precarious situation being engulfed by a sea of people of different nationalities, religions, culture, value systems and political ideologies. The children of the next generation, either of mixed parentage or Zarathushti parentage, are less and less inclined to practice the religion, any religion. The reasons are complex but to my mind the single most important reason is that both, the parents and then also naturally the children, do not see the necessity of following or practising a religion whose value they do not appreciate. And it is our duty to unfold before them the wisdom, beauty and simplicity of the religion, as well as the value system.
And how do we do that? Is this happening? The seeds are being planted in religious classes for children. But is that enough? Here too, we have to be creative in our teaching methods. The traditional method of classroom teaching does not work with the technologically savvy new generation. New techniques need to be developed for their ipads and tablets! We no longer live in "baugs” from where we had absorbed by osmosis, the culture, the Parsipanu, including some peppered colorful language! So in North America we need to substitute the "baug” for another environment for the young adults. We now have the biennial youth congresses, the annual sports meets, seminars for young professionals, religious tele-seminars promoted by Ervad Soli Dastur whose audience is growing exponentially. It is only through the concerted efforts by all age groups that we in North America are helping build and preserving the community, which in turn will help preserve the religion. It is the chicken and egg phenomenon. Do we cultivate the community first and let the religion flourish in it or do we teach the religion first, hoping the community will blossom from contact with other co-religionists? I prefer the first scenario, as it gives us a base on which to anchor the religion. By creating an open, accepting community, where people feel comfortable to come, and mingle, the religion will be more absorbed through example. But it requires effort, constant genuine effort by all. So to answer the questions. Will the religion survive? Yes, the core beliefs will survive but its application as we know it, probably not. Will the Parsi culture survive? No, probably not. In its place we will have an amalgam of Parsi Irani North American Zarathushti culture, which will take a few decades to take shape.
I would not like to end on a pessimistic note about the future of the community on this joyous 50th anniversary celebration, hence I need to acknowledge and applaud the selfless work of your publication and other publications and institutions like Hamazor and Parzor that are making heroic efforts to preserve the heritage and traditions of yesteryears by keeping them relevant to the present times.
I wish you 50 more successful years of keeping the community connected either in print or cyberspace.