The Udvada utterances

A high priest presides over a most high profile community event, in the bastion of orthodoxy, where an eminent lawyer calls for the fire temple doors to be thrown open to navjoted non-Parsis, irrespective of parentage. You cannot save ethnicity at the cost of our religion, he submits. The World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) leader and the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman watches quietly. An Irani lady tries to protest in vain. The chief sponsor and other lead organizers are prominent liberals. The other high priests are notable by their absence. Contrast this with events just seven years ago. The community rejects a dream panel in the BPP trusteeship elections and votes a motley bunch into power. Ruffians rough up a Russian Zoroastrian aspiring to be a priest in Sanjan. WAPIZ controlled BPP bans liberal priests from praying at Doongerwadi. How does one explain this dramatic turnaround?

Dastur Khurshed Dastoor of Udvada and Darius Khambata

A silent liberal coup is in progress. Like the ‘Vansda Navjotes’ or the ‘CER (Committee for Electoral Rights) takeover of BPP,’ the Udvada utterances mark a watershed moment. The orthodox are surely but certainly losing ground and the reins of community institutions are passing in the hands of liberals. Barring the mellowed-by-circumstances chairman, there is no traditionalist trustee on the newly elected BPP board. Not a leaf moves in the Punchayet now, without the approval of Kersi Randeria, its undisputed leader and a liberal. The orthodox poster boy of yesteryears, Khojeste "Messiah” Mistree, who mesmerized the youth as well as ladies of leisure with his seemingly knowledgeable sermons delivered in that clipped accent, has faded. The pillar of orthodoxy, Adi Doctor, like his publication, The Parsee Voice, is no more. Like old and toothless lions, the other high priests are not able to counter the growing dominance of the liberal minded Dastur Khurshed Dastoor. Online groups like The Traditional Zarathushtris Mailing List have lost their relevance. The liberals are rich, powerful, connected and networked. However, till recently, they were disinterested and sporadic. On the other hand, the orthodox were committed and consistent. No longer. After their unexpected defeat in the 2008 BPP trusteeship elections, the liberals, have reinvented themselves. And the community is backing them to the hilt.
This visible change in community consciousness is due to accelerating interfaith marriages, cosmopolitan beliefs due to greater assimilation in educational institutions and places of work, growing extra religious worship, and demographics becoming more dismal. Like candles lit together, the orthodox are fast being extinguished. Once a vocal and strident minority, the traditionalists are increasingly irrelevant. They still control agiaries and community associations but it is a matter of time before they cease to do so. This ought to have warmed the cockles of our heretic scum heart. However, this sudden and complete obliteration of the orthodox voice is worrisome. Before we are accused of a volte face, let us explain.
Parsi demographics are so dismal, that barring outright conversion, nothing can stem inevitable extinction. Permitting children of interfaith married mothers is adding a drop of water to a fast emptying jug. No sensible liberal will, however, advocate outright conversion. Most of those born of neither Parsi parent will want to convert only to avail of, or control the charities which own properties worth billions. It is neither practical nor possible to permit that while converts may be allowed to enter fire temples they will not be regarded as beneficiaries of our charities.
And nor is this a choice between ethnicity and religion. According to unauthenticated reports there are nearly three million non-Parsi Zoroastrians in Iran and other countries surrounding the Caspian Sea who practice the faith. The future of Zoroastrianism as a religion is not so bleak; what is hopeless is the chance of Parsis surviving as a distinct ethnic group. Hence, it is not a swap between ethnicity and religion. Outright conversion will destroy even that minimal chance of survival. An anthropological rarity like the Parsis cannot afford to be swamped by hordes. In a bizarre way, though for entirely different reasons, we have to agree with the fundamentalists that outright conversion will be a disaster. In the present environment even to suggest it is a recipe for trouble.
Regardless of this, the fact remains that the Udvada utterances have stirred a great debate. None would have imagined such a frontal and bold assault on fundamentalist sensibilities, and that too, in such a conservative backdrop. The high priest and the speaker may have tactically retreated but the watershed moment has passed. The orthodox are whimpering like injured kittens in a corner. Few give countenance to their talk of genetic purity and other such neofascist claptrap. Strangely though, the orthodox stance has indeed protected our unique distinctiveness as a community. Over the next hundred years or so, as deaths greatly outnumber births year after year, the Parsi identity will painfully melt, like birds of ice. Our religion though will continue to be followed by non-Parsis. In the meanwhile, the silent liberal coup will continue to decimate the enfeebled orthodox. Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.