Poona paves a path
For those who view the developments in Bombay with despair, there is good news from elsewhere. We are informed that one of the three agiary complexes in Poona is performing the three-four day funerary prayers after the paidust for those opting for cremation. This is a major breakthrough. Poona has traditionally been an orthodox bastion and for that city, around 150 kilometers from Bombay, to take this revolutionary step is highly laudable.
Another first for Poona is the opening of Asha Vahishta: The Zoroastrian Centre on Christmas last year. The Centre is open to people of all faiths and an intermarried couple performed their children’s navjote there on January 4 this year. An agiary in Karachi also permits the funerary ceremonies to be performed for those opting for cremation. Fire temples in other cities or towns in India may also be allowing such prayers but Parsiana is not aware of them doing so. In Calcutta, four-day death ceremonies following the geh sarna are performed in the ravan gah, a separate structure in the heart of the city away from the agiary and doongerwadi.
A survey conducted for Parsiana in 2013 by the reputed Hansa Research Group showed that 80% of Bombay Parsis were in agreement on the Doongerwadi bunglis being used for funerary ceremonies for those opting for alternative means of disposal. The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees and those of the 50 odd fire temples in Bombay still oppose the move, either because they are dogmatic or unwilling to tamper with the status quo. This makes the Poona and Karachi trustees’ and priests daring all the more commendable. They demonstrated true leadership.
The so-called defenders of the faith may oppose the liberalization. But there is little they can do except criticize the move, ostracize the responsible trustees and priests, prepare letters of protest and persuade or coerce obliging high priests to sign the missives.
No trust deed opposes prayers for the dead being recited. As it is nearly all fire temples perform the ceremonies for those opting for alternative forms of disposal after the fourth day.
The other piece of good news is the restoration of the Bai Dhunmai and Cawasji Dadabhai Derehemeher and the Lady Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall in Bangalore. The South Indian city dropped off the community’s radar when in the late 1970s they walked out of The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India claiming the body was too liberal. (It’s now the bastion and rubber stamp of the traditionalist World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis.) But currently under a combination of old and new leadership, positive developments are taking place in Bangalore. Whether Bangalore will rejoin the Federation is to be seen. At present the all-India body is dictatorially run and meets intermittently.
The former traditionalist high priest Dastur Nadirshah Unvalla privately opposed Bangalore rejoining the body and an orthodox board of trustees went along with him. The conservative Cawasji family has a right to nominate two trustees on the seven-member board. Without their concurrence, any attempt to rejoin the all-India body may divide the trustees along ideological lines. Risking unity can be disastrous as can be seen in the fractious BPP board.
In Houston, Texas, the construction of a new Atash Kadeh is under way next to the existing Zarathushti Heritage and Cultural Center. The ground breaking ceremony took place last August 17 and the facility is expected to be ready by this year end. The main funders, Feroze and Shernaz Bhandara told the gathering they hoped it would become a must-visit destination and place of worship for Zoroastrians and their non-Zoroastrian spouses (see "A gesture of gratitude," Parsiana, September 21, 2017).
The first Zoroastrian member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, Yaz Mubarakai promised a community center for Perth, Australia. "We have got property, 20 km southwest of the freeway (in Perth)… I am going to get this (center) done," he told the gathering at the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress (11WZC) in June 2018.
One has only to contrast all this with the non-functioning BPP board. The minutes of the Wadia Committee meetings have reportedly not been passed for the past two years, probably because minutes have not been given to BPP trustees Armaity Tirandaz and Viraf Mehta. The minutes of the BPP board are also reportedly passed after several meetings.
Just when one thought a contentious BPP trusteeship election was over and done with, two losing candidates have alleged electoral malpractices, namely the buying of votes. The seven-member board of trustees will initially examine the validity of the complaints and decide the issue. If either is unhappy with the trustees’ decision, they can take the matter to court. One way or the other the trustees’ energies will be diverted to nonproductive pursuits, rather than the welfare of the community.
Perhaps one could have applauded the move by lay people in Bombay to form the Parsi Zoroastrian Guards of the Holy Fire, despite its racial nomenclature. But here also two potential trustees of the yet to be registered body are publicly squabbling over the proposed diversion of the Metro tunnel from two Bombay atash behrams. Petitioner Jamshed Sukhadwalla stated he was "sick" of Hyderabad-Secunderabad resident Jehangir Bisney’s "cowardly" comments and in return Bisney referred to Sukhadwalla’s "ego and arrogance." Bisney wants the Metro tunnel moved further away and Sukhadwalla feels Bisney is a do-nothing, armchair critic.
The 11WZC spoke of "inclusiveness and progress." The sole BPP trustee attending the global meet, Mehta honestly noted, "The Parsis in India are disconnected from Parsis in the rest of the world." Even from the Parsis in Bombay, it appears. Perhaps the Bombay trustees could take a tip from the Zoroastrian Charity Funds of Hong Kong, Canton and Macao president Neville Shroff who told the 11WZC gathering, "When there are differences, we respect each other’s opinion and resolve issues with tolerance."
Webster’s defines tolerance as "a sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own." We can only wish that when, Yazdegirdi 1388 dawns with the Shahenshahi New Year this August 17, that ability will be manifested by the recalcitrant BPP board.