“Preserve or perish”

In "Preserve or perish” (Editorial Viewpoint, Parsiana, August 21-September 6, 2019) your comments on the dadgahs outside India are cogent. You write, "Zoroastrian associations in the West have managed with much effort and ingenuity to create centers of worship as close as possible to their abodes. They do not have or need full-time priests. Volunteers fill in as required… Aside from prayers, the community centers abroad are used for get-togethers, religious classes, social events, navjotes, weddings and funerary prayers. All are welcome although in the room where the afargan is placed, entry may be restricted to Zoroastrians.” The Zoroastrian Association of Pennsylvania and New Jersey (ZAPANJ) that I know firsthand does precisely what you have stated and yet consciously retains its Parsipanu.
We Parsis in India have turned ourselves into a closed shop, to our detriment. Things are changing perceptibly in Bombay. Four out of every 10 Parsis marries outside the community. This counteracts inbreeding and hence widens the gene pool. Zoroastrian Persian princes married women from the provinces they had conquered.
The ugly controversies which took place before the consecration of the Pundole fire temple in Udvada, and the recent one over the shifting of the Doongaji Agiary fire from Bharuch to New Bombay are a blot on our progressive community created by some malcontents who have all the time in the world and nothing better to do. The only ones who will flourish from such situations are the courts and the lawyers. What a pity!
Another reprehensible episode is the deterioration of the property of the Parsi Lying-In Hospital for over 25 years. Parsis need to talk to Parsis instead of resorting to the courts.
If we don’t move with the times we will perish. What is wrong with the Bharuch fire moving to New Bombay where Parsis are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a consecrated fire? Let our microscopic community practice amity and eschew bigotry forever! Senseless bigotry is diminishing our numbers, withholding progress and destroying our assets. BEHRAM T. DASTUR
dasturbehram@gmail.com