At last, priestly initiatives

One unusual and very welcome development of the Iranshah Udvada Utsav (IUU) and the Navsari Atash Behram’s 250^th anniversary celebrations was that for the first time in recent history the initiative and management of both functions were undertaken by the priesthood. Until now the clergy have always taken a backseat leaving the trustees to undertake any non-religious/non-ritualistic endeavors. Aside from salgirahs (anniversaries) of the institutions the priests seldom take the lead in popularizing the fire temples or holding programs. Even the classes held or the mobed training programs are largely at the behest of non-practising athornans or lay people. In many religious trusts there is conflict between the clergy and the trustees, with the lay trustees traditionally having the upper hand. It is only now when there is a shortage of mobeds that the clergy have gained an advantage.

In North America a Mobeds Council has been formed and the priests in the new world are taking the initiative to set norms for the calling. In India a council of high priests was formed but aborted soon after as differences in approach caused indifference, if not dissension.

One always wondered what ailed the Parsi priesthood. In other communities, especially the Christians, the priests are in the forefront of setting up places of worship, schools, colleges, orphanages, seminaries and so on. The Parsi priest expects the laity to create institutions for them.

Thus both the Navsari celebrations held in October 2015 and the IUU two months later indicated a welcome shift in balance. In Navsari priests are the trustees of the Atash Behram, barring one or two. In Udvada, some of the trustees of the fire temple may be from athornan families but are not practising priests. Also, unusually the consecrated Iranshah fire belongs to the nine priestly families while the structure belongs to the Motlibai Wadia Trust. The Udvada fire was housed in Navsari before a dispute within the clergy resulted in the shift to Bulsar and then Udvada. A new fire was then consecrated in Navsari. As Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal noted in the souvenir brought out on the 250^th anniversary, "There is no other place in the world, where two great fires have been installed in the same place."

In Navsari the celebrations appear to have been a team effort — at the jashan four high priests were present. At Udvada the prime mover was Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, one of the town’s two high priests. The other dastur, Dr Peshotan Mirza absented himself claiming prior commitments to perform navjote/wedding ceremonies in both Bombay and Udvada. On the day prior to the commencement of the Utsav, Dastoor and his wife Havovi were inspecting the site of the meet, giving instructions, sorting out matters. They had fortuitously managed to get billionaire philanthropist Dr Cyrus Poonawalla to bankroll the Utsav and the country’s leading event management company Wizcraft to offer their services complimentary. And to top it all the organizers managed to convince both Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and finance minister Arun Jaitley to grace the occasion. The cynosure of all eyes, Tata received a hero’s welcome.

While most priests shy away from controversy, the Utsav organizers had invited the former advocate general of Maharashtra, Darius Khambata to speak on the occasion. Khambata’s liberal views on the community and religion had been expressed at the 10^th World Zoroastrian Congress (WZC) in Bombay in 2013 and drew both praise and criticism. In Udvada he was cheered and booed, but when traditionalist Gordafrid Aresh stood up from the VIP section and lambasted him, Dastoor was on his feet to defend the speaker. It’s that kind of gutsiness that defines Dastoor. He started out as a traditionalist but slowly moved to the middle path and the liberal side. This has put him at odds with the other high priests.

While Kotwal still has the regard of the rank and file clergy, Dastoor is the voice the general Parsi populace is increasingly listening to. His thoughts are more in sync with the contemporary community, both in India and abroad. He has also taken a more practical stand on issues such as the priests ban case. He has clout with the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and the anjumans of Gujarat. At one time there were reports he was toying with the idea of standing for BPP trusteeship (he emphatically denies this) but wisely refrained from doing so. Mixing politics and religion is not advisable and anyway Dastoor carries more clout being on the outside. The BPP trustees are always kowtowing to the clergy claiming they turn to the high priests for guidance on religious issues. The last time they did that the community was poorer by three crore rupees (US $ 4,53,223), thanks to the legal fees incurred in the ill-conceived priests ban case.

Dastoor’s proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and thereby the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) similarly has people concerned. Dastoor had managed to persuade the state government to sanction Rs 20 crores for the development of Udvada which is no minor feat. (He remarked partly in jest at the Utsav that his critics will allege he will now make another trip to America and this time with his wife!) But when the BJP reign ends, what will be his relationship with the new party in power? Will the community be victimized or will the new government also seek to curry favor? These unchartered territories one ventures into at one’s own risk.

But whatever the pros and cons, there is little doubt that IUU was by all accounts a grand success. Udvada does not have the personnel to manage such an affair. Dastoor’s supporters such as the Foundation for Development of Udvada managing trustee Dinshaw Tamboly, Industrial Boilers chairwoman Homai Engineer, event manager Hoshaang Gotla, architect Jamshed Bhiwandiwalla, caterer Manek Tadiwalla who flew down from his new home in Australia to assist, Meher Bhesania, chair of the 9^th WZC, who came from Dubai, the Parsi Times team and countless others made the meet more than live up to expectations. There was some cynicism prior to the event but except for some program overruns, long queues at the non-vegetarian food venue and horrendous traffic jams on the Bombay-Udvada highway (with a four day weekend drawing to close a four hour trip took seven to eight hours) everything else went smoothly.

The local populace and those with holiday homes in the seaside town were most hospitable, the environment was pollution free, the weather was pleasant, and even chilly at night. The entertainment program kept people in their seats till late and was professional and immensely enjoyable. Boman Irani, Shahriyar Atai, the Big Red Bus Band ("We were originally called the Red Bus Band but since we put on weight, we added ‘Big’"), the Shiamak Davar and Hormuzd Khambatta dance troupes put up polished performances. The Yazdi Karanjia group performed skits in Parsi Gujarati.

Though people criticize Dastoor for being authoritarian, he delivered on performance. Another Utsav is scheduled for Christmas time 2017. Even if it is not on such a lavish scale, the faithful will attend. And perhaps the objectives of holding such meets will be more clearly defined.