A very interesting article from the Indian Law Blog “Law and Other Things”

Dwindling number of Parsis
The National Minorities Commission ’s Report on the dwindling number of Parsis in India provides very useful statistical evidence to show that there is a problem. What is disturbing is its prescription for remedying the problem.

The Report clearly shows that there is a consistent fall in birth rate over the last seven years amongst the Parsis. An instinctive reaction is one of concern, but I wonder what is the root cause of our concern?

The question becomes important because one of the reasons identified by the Report for the falling birth rates is ‘out-marriages’ - mapping the liberal-conservative debate within the Parsi community over whether to recognise children born out of ‘mixed’ marriages. And hence the question’s importance - should our concern be preservation of Parsi cultural heritage (which is not necessarily threatened by recognising children of mixed marriages as Parsis) or preservation of the purity of blood and gene pool of an ethnic group. The conservative ‘argue that they have a religious duty to preserve what onepriest called their “genetic distinctness”. “If the trend (i.e. outmarriages) continues, you won’t be able to recognize a Parsi.”’

The Report recognises this as the root of the debate, but more importantly, appears to take a stand in favour of the conservative position:

‘What the liberals don’t understand is that even if we take in children with Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers, it does not solve their concern about declining Parsi numbers. We may increase the religion but not the community and until now both the ethnic and religious
identity has been seen as part of an indistinguished whole identity.’

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This is a youtube video about the Parsis of Bombay and the issues that face the community today.

If the video does not show, please click here

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - The clock is ticking for one of India’s most prosperous communities, the Parsis. Always small, the Parsi population is diminishing at an alarming rate, prompting fears that the community may not survive the century.

According to the 2001 census, India has less than 70,000 Parsis, a 40% drop from 1941, when their population peaked at nearly 114,900. Since 1941, the Parsi population has decreased by about 10% per decade, compared to 21% growth for India’s population as a whole.

More worrying figures have emerged since the 2001 census. A survey indicates that only 99 Parsis were born in the year to August 2007, compared with 223 in 2001, 206 in 2002, and 174 in 2006. If the present trend continues there may be no more than 23,000 Parsis by the year 2020.
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Mumbai: After the Hakims married, they looked forward to a quiet life, interrupted often by the laughter of children.

Five years later, none had arrived. Troubled by the void, they began visiting doctors. But nothing worked—until they stumbled upon the fertility plan of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, the apex organization in the city that offers financial support to Parsi couples who want children.
“They said they would pay for fertility tests and treatment if we went to their doctors,” says the woman, who declined to give her first name, citing sensitivities in the community.
“You know how hope is, right? We went.”

As she speaks, she rocks the cradles of the initiative’s recent success stories: twin girls, Katrina and Kareena.

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By Manoj R Nair

A group of Indian-Zoroastrian reformists acquires land at Malad to build a fire temple that will be open to even spouses of community members married outside the fold

It could be an event quite unprecedented in the 3000-year-old history of the Zoroastrian religion. A group of Indian-Zoroastrian reformists called the Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism (ARZ), are planning to set up a fire temple that will be open to spouses of community members married outside the fold.

The move is likely to create a storm in the Indian Zoroastrian (Parsis) community which bars entry at fire temples to non-Parsis, including non-Parsi women married to Parsis and children of Parsi women married outside the community.

In August 2005, the group had converted a Colaba apartment into a prayer hall more liberal in allowing people to attend religious ceremonies. The hall also offered navjote or initiation ceremonies for children of Parsi women married outside the community.

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Ask Parsi youth, who want to know whether issues like housing will be resolved

MUMBAI: Last week, the High Court passed a judgment, one that would in many ways shake the age-old hierarchy of the Parsi community: Every Parsi above 18 years can now elect the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP). It is a big deal when one considers that it is this institution which controls the purse strings of the Parsi trusts and the allotment of thousands of homes to community members.

While the Parsi youth have welcomed this move, there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed. “If the candidates in the election are going to be the same trustees as before, what’s the point?” asks Viraf Balaporia, 27.

He’s not the only one asking this question. Jehangir Dadachanji, 23, is also deeply cynical. “I can foresee the tamasha. Just like it is with our country’s elections, we’ll have contenders going around begging for votes,” he says glumly.

But despite their reservations, young Parsis believe that it is a step in the right direction. The key is to ensure that they don’t lose the momentum. Sanobar, 20, a stunt professional and physiotherapist, is more gung-ho than Jehangir and Viraf. “Maybe now the BPP will work for the welfare of our community, and not for themselves,” she says. To ensure that this happens, Sanobar would like youth representatives on the board. “Of the seven trustees, at least two should be a part of the youth,” she says. “The elders can continue to keep our traditions and values in check, while the youth can tackle the issues we face today.”

Two of the most talked about issues are the decrease in numbers and burial rites. Many believe that at the rate at which the number of Parsis in India is falling, it is only a matter of time before they lose their status as a community and become a tribe. The second issue of burial rites is also related to the decline in numbers, but of vultures, in this case. But while the community elders debate over morals, and quibble over religious principles, the youth are more concerned about the housing problem. The BPP, they feel, is not carrying out their role in this regard.

Ruhanghiz Sethna, 29, a homemaker, says. “I know that there are houses on properties owned by the BPP that lie vacant. So far, internal politics of the BPP has determined the owners of these flats.”

Viraf Pithawala, a 33-year-old banker feels that the elderly trustees have forgotten how important it is for the youth to get a place to stay. “We delay our desire to settle down until we have a home. This is a factor that affects the size of our community. If the BPP can promise flats to newlywed couples, they might get married and start a family sooner.”

Sanobar has another solution to their shrinking population. “The BPP should take a stand allowing all Parsis, not just men, who marry outside the religion to be allowed to continue practising their faith. And, yes, incorporate their children in the community, too.”

Original article here.

From The Economist print edition
Apr 17th 2008 | DELHI

Adherents of an ancient faith worry about its disappearance

TWO of India’s biggest business clans—Tata and Godrej—are Parsees, descendants of Zoroastrians, who fled the Muslim invasion of Persia for India more than 1,000 years ago. But well though some of its members have done, the Parsee community is dwindling. At the time of the 2001 census India had fewer than 70,000 Parsees, a 40% drop since 1941. Since then, the decline has accelerated. A survey suggests that only 99 Parsees were born in the year to August 2007, compared with 223 in 2001.

The community’s very success has played a part in its shrinkage. Young Parsees tend to put off marriage until they have established careers, “leaving time for two children only, if that,” says Mehroo Bengalee, a Parsee member of the government’s National Commission for Minorities. Emigration is another factor: like many prosperous Indians, Parsees tend to go to university overseas, and stay there. But most important is the large number of women who marry non-Parsees. Their children are not recognised as Parsees.

The Parsee community, concentrated around Mumbai, is trying to push up the birth rate. New Parsee-only fertility centres are being built. Young Parsees are given lectures about the benefits of early breeding. Girls and boys are brought together at youth camps, in an effort to encourage inter-Parsee marriage.

Many Parsee women, meanwhile, complain that the one change that could stem the decline will never come. They would like the concession that allows men in mixed marriages to bring their children up as Parsees to be extended to them. “My brother’s children are recognised as Parsees; mine are not,” says Shireen Vakil-Miller who, like her brother, married “outside”. The effect on the Parsee population of her hometown, Delhi, is dramatic. When she arrived in 1991, there were thought to be 800 Parsees in the capital. Today, that number has fallen by half.

The clock is ticking away fast and furious for India’s Parsi community. Alarmed by their dwindling numbers - as per the last census the Parsi population was less than 70,000 - the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has swung into action. The NCM intends to encourage timely marriages and the joint family spirit among Parsis as non-marriage, falling fertility and separation are some of the leading causes behind the decline in their population.

“We want to help them in checking the decreasing numbers,” NCM chairperson Mohammad Shafi Qureshi told IANS. He said Mehroo Dhunjisha Bengalee, a Parsi commission member, was coordinating with community leaders.

The panel took this mission upon itself after its survey found that only 99 childbirths took place in the community last year till August 2007. In 2002, 206 births were reported across the country and the figure came down to 174 in 2006.

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The return of vultures to the Kolkata sky after a three-year gap has delighted the Parsi community in Kolkata despairing of the loss of their traditional way of disposing the deceased.

The vultures’ reappearance has been particularly welcomed by lone Parsi activist Dhan Baria who has been pursuing an alternative to leaving the dead on the ‘Tower of Silence’ after the number of birds dwindled alarmingly in Mumbai as well.

”It is definitely a very good news for the Parsi community,” Baria said.

Baria, who lives in Mumbai, was the first man to show the world photographs of piles of rotten, half-eaten bodies from the Tower there and vigorously campaigned for doing away with the practice of leaving corpses to be fed by vultures.

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Dr. Kersey Antia was in the Zoroastrian news recently, for better or for worse. In fact, the officers at the Colaba Police Station will also tell you who he is. Dr. Antia came to Mumbai to proliferate and zealously canvass for conversion into the Zoroastrian faith. He purportedly has his degrees and his knowledge. He also claims to have profound wisdom; wisdom that has enabled him to interpret the prayers and books of our religion in a manner that no erudite scholar of our past has had.

He gave a talk at the Jamshed Bhahbha Auditorium which I did not attend. The Parsiana this month has him on their cover and writes a very balanced and candid article on the man. All said and done, he came, he spoke but I don’t know how much he conquered. I’m not here to write about Dr. Antia. I don’t want to waste space on him… enough has already been wasted. What I’m concerned about is one of the counter-actions to Dr. Antia’s radical and progressive message.

As a retaliatory gesture, a public meeting was organised to oppose and educate the masses (as small as our masses are!) about the ‘absolute rubbish’ that Dr. Antia was talking about. It was well organised, with about 8 Dasturji Sahebs on the panel. I recognised only Dasturji Ramyar Karanjia sitting up there (nobody’s fault but mine. I’m ignorant about the luminaries we possess). A commendable effort. But that’s where it stopped. No offence to anybody here. I do think it was a laudable effort and in fact it was heartening to see that the community, which I believe has the “let it be… what can we do?” attitude actually rallied around to stand up against what they thought was very wrong. I am practical about our religion. Moreover, I cant blame any Mr. Joseph Peterson for being fascinated enough with Zoroastrianism to want to convert. Can you? We have a kick ass and beautiful religion. Nevertheless, I’m not willing to open my heart, home and life to some person who is not born of atleast 1 Zoroastrian parent, has not grown and is not inherently Zoroastrian.

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The Indian government has a big job on its hands. It is accused today of ‘overseeing’ the decline of tigers. Another iconic creature, the vulture, is also on the brink of extinction and the government is now under pressure to do more to help.

Three species of vulture have crashed in number by 99 per cent in the last 15 years. Yes, 99 per cent – they are close to oblivion. A paper being published soon will detail even greater declines more recently. India is a hair’s breadth away from a national catastrophe. These birds are crucial to the health and wellbeing of millions of its people.

Vultures clean carcasses quicker and better than anything else. That used to mean that farmers could leave the bodies of dead livestock on carcass dumps knowing they would be cleared within hours, assured that there was no risk of disease from the remnants of putrid flesh, confident that the bone collectors and leather tanners dependent on those carcasses for their livelihoods were safe.

It doesn’t mean that any more. Too few vultures mean carcass cleaning is being left to dogs and rats, both of which have soared in number. The risk of rabies and other disease has vastly increased. Those who used to rely on clean bones and sparkling hides can do so no more.

The Parsi community, which uses sky burials to dispose of its dead, is in trouble too. Vultures would consume bodies placed for that purpose on top of Towers of Silence. Those bodies fester now because the vultures don’t come. Other means of disposal are out of the question because the Parsis believe those methods pollute sacred land and water.

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by Bachi Karkaria in the Times of India

I cannot promise to raise a statue of Shivaji in Dadar Parsi Colony. But, in the ultimate cultural surrender, I hereby change my surname to Karkare.

Many years ago I got a grubby postcard with a handwritten scrawl. It said, “We have noted you are using word ‘ghati’ too many times in your writings. Be Ware, or fear an acid attack on your photogenic face.” Last Tuesday, I was part of a TV discussion where a rowdy audience kept spitting out the word ‘bhaiya’ as if it were a paan Banaraswala. The MNS party spokesman was a fellow panelist, so I asked him if this was okay considering the family allergy to racist labels. With a straight face he said, “You cannot use ‘ghati’ when you are in Maharashtra.”

Stranger truths emerged. Forget the shortage of affordable housing in the state’s capital or farmer suicides in its hinterland. It seems the only intolerable, indictable, unpardonable, lapse is to say ‘Bombay’ instead of ‘Mumbai’. The belligerent TV audience attacked any panelist who defaulted as if he were a taxi-driver from Zilla Jaunpur. If the beleaguered anchor hadn’t been quick enough, a couple of new martyrs might have been added to those of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.

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Original article published in the TOI

He is a man of peace. But whenever he dwells upon the crisis that has begun to loom large over the Zoroastrian community in terms of their dwindling numbers, the reactions he evokes are just short of extreme rage.

That’s because Dasturji Dr Kersey Antia is of the firm view that children of Zoroastrian women who marry outside the community must be accepted by the faith.

“If children of Zoroastrian men marrying women from outside the community are accepted, why shouldn’t it be so the other way around too?” he asks. It’s a question not being looked upon too kindly by those who staunchly believe that inter-community marriages “dilute the gene pool”.

Based in the United States, Antia has been the Zoroastrian high priest in Chicago since 1977. He was ordained a priest at the age of 13 after attending the M.F. Cama Athornan Institute in Bombay for nine years. He then went to serve as a volunteer priest even while working at his first job as an officer with the Tata Group.

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This article appeared in the TOI.

The controversy over acceptance of Parsis from mixed marriages into the Zoroastrian fold blew up on Saturday as the orthodox sections of the community disrupted and heckled a talk by Kersey Antia, a priest from the US who preaches freedom of choice for all those who want to accept the faith.

Orthodox Zoroastrians called up the management of the Y B Chavan Centre last week demanding that they withdraw permission for the talk. However, when their demands were not met, they registered a complaint against Antia at the Cuffe Parade police station stating that his speech would be inflammatory.

The controversy over the refusal to accept children from mixed marriages with Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers into Zoroastrianism has been raging in the community for the last two decades with strong stands for and against the move.

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Paris community is caught in a contradiction, a community whose numbers are fast dwindling but is adamant on shutting its doors on the children of mixed marriages. It is an old debate that has resurfaced with a group of liberals trying yet again to coax orthodox Parsis to allow the children of intermarriages to practice the Zoroastrian religion.

About 40,000 Parsis are concentrated in Mumbai. It is a community that has developed a unique and colourful identity since the first Parsis came to India more than a thousand years ago, probably the reason why orthodox Parsis zealously keep the faith.

”I don’t think inter-caste marriage is the answer to decreasing numbers. In fact I feel that it would lead to loss of ethnicity of the religion,” said Noshir H Darawala, Executive Secretary, Centre for Advancement of Philanthrophy.

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The Parsi community is set for a showdown with liberals taking on the orthodox, demanding that non-Parsis who have married into the community — and their children — be allowed to convert to the faith.

With a population of 69,000 according to the 2001 census, the community is the country’s fastest dwindling minority group. This is mostly because children of Parsis married to non-Parsis are not allowed to practise Zoroastrianism. Groups like the Association of Inter-Married Zoroastrians (AIMZ) and Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism (ARZ) are out to change that.

“Injustice is meted out to inter-married Parsi couples,” said Kersi Wadia, co-founder of ARZ. “But the scriptures do not say anything like this. They say the religion is universal.”

The associations have organised a talk on the true essence of Zoroastrianism by Chicago-based Zoroastrian high priest Dasturji Dr Kersey Antia at YB Chavan Auditorium on Saturday. Antia had performed the navjote (initiation ceremony) of an American, Joseph Peterson, who converted to Zoroastrianism after reading the religious scriptures in the 1980s.
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By Farrukh Dhondy

Finally the Indian National Council for Minorities (NCM) has got around to what should be one of the central problems facing the country. A member of the Commission, one Mehroo Dhunjisha Bengalee, has mooted the question of the dwindling Parsi population.

A little history: The Arab-Muslim explosion of 714 AD overtook Parsi-Zoroastrian Iran; the last Zoroastrian king, Yazdegard III was defeated. Some Zoroastrians held out in Kerman for a few generations, but eventually fled to India — 18,000 came to the Gujarati kingdom of Jadav Rana and were given land and protection. Today we number 100,000, a five-fold increase over 800 years.

Like Ms Bengalee, I am a devoted if not devout Parsi-Zoroastrian. I passionately believe, as she does, that we are an endangered species. But I am forced to dissent from her so-called remedies and recommendations. She wants them to “encourage the minority community to foster the spirit of joint family, encourage timely marriages, check divorces and increase intensive post-marriage family interaction countrywide”.

Her report has found that “late and non-marriages, fertility decline, emigration, marriages outside community and separation are the main causes of declining number of Parsis in the country. What is lacking is the zeal of entrepreneurship, early employment and strengthened family ties to live together and lead the Zoroastrian way of life”.
My feeling is that these ‘initiatives’ and good thoughts won’t work.

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An Islamic group in India is asking Muslims to boycott products of a top Indian business group if its owner does not apologise for hosting author Salman Rushdie on a brief holiday this week.

Rushdie stayed at the bungalow of the Godrej family while visiting Mumbai, where he was born and spent many of his early years. The author is a personal friend of the Godrejs, who are one of the big business families in India.

The fact that Rushdie was invited by the Godrejs has angered the All-India Ulema Council - a national grouping of Muslim organisations - which says the family had not cared for the sentiments of Muslims whom Rushdie had offended with his writings.

“We really hope Mr Godrej realises the hurt he has caused us and says sorry for it,” Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi, a council official, said. “Otherwise, we are asking Muslims all over to boycott his company’s products.”

The Godrejs were not available for comment.

The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme religious leader, pronounced a fatwa on the author of Satanic Verses among others, in 1989 that called on Muslims to kill Rushdie because of perceived blasphemy in that novel. Rushdie was forced to live in hiding for nine years. In June, he was selected for a knighthood by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, again angering some Muslims in Iran and Pakistan.

Recently, the presence of another controversial writer, exiled Bangladeshi Taslima Nasreen, has sparked riots by Muslims offended by her books. Threats against her have forced authorities to house her in a secret security facility in New Delhi since November, and she has appealed for more freedom.

Iran is planning on submerging the tomb of King Cyrus (Coresh), the Persian King known for authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Holy Temple.

According to a report by Omedia, an Iranian organization is demanding that the International Criminal Court take action against those responsible.

The Iranian ayatollahs are planning on destroying the tomb as part of a general campaign to sever the Persian people from their non-Islamic heritage; Cyrus was thought to be a Zoroastrian and was one of the first rulers to enforce a policy of religious tolerance on his huge kingdom. Journalist Ran Porat quoted a young Iranian who said that the measures being taken by the Islamic Republic’s regime include the destruction of archaeological sites significant to this heritage.

“The government is in the final stages of constructing a dam in southern Iran that will submerge the archaeological sites of Pasargad and Persopolis – the ancient capital of the Persian Empire,” the report states. “The site, which is considered exceptional in terms of its archaeological wealth and historical importance, houses the tomb of the Persian King Cyrus.”

Cyrus, who lived from 576-530 BCE, liberated Babylonian Jewry from their exile in the famous Declaration of Cyrus (mentioned in the book of Ezra in both Hebrew and Aramaic).

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The Parsi community is facing a unique problem. With only one Parsi priest left in the state, the community is facing difficulties in performing religious rituals. Such is the situation that now they have to depend on audio cassettes to perform various rituals.

For the population of about 300 in the state, the community has just one priest living in Kanpur and he, too, has seen over 75 winters. For getting performed the ‘navjote’ ceremony of their children, Parsis living in any part of the state have to visit Kanpur or Mumbai. Navjote ceremony is a must for children because only after this ritual a child is officially accorded the status of Parsi.

But the situation turns grim in case of the death of a Parsi as it is almost impossible to seek the services of the only priest available in the state in short notice. In absence of a priest, last rites are performed by senior members of the community and the role of priest is performed by an audio cassette.

It is worth mentioning that the number of Parsis has been steadily declining for several decades: the highest census count was 1,14,890 in 1940-41. But now, with the decline of approximately nine per cent per decade, demographic trends project that by 2020 their number will decrease to 23,000. In Allahabad, there are only 11 families which have formed the Allahabad Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman. Out of total 27 members only three are below 25 and most of the rest have crossed 60. Earlier, there used to be a ‘mobed’ for performing rituals in the Fire Temple of the city.

NEW DELHI: India’s official National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has come to the rescue of the tiny Parsi community, which is worried over the disposal of their dead because of the dwindling population of vultures.

It has decided to set up a nursery for breeding vultures around Mumbai, where most Parsis reside. Dr Mehroo Dhunjisha Bengalee, a Parsi member of the NCM hailing from Mumbai, has been given the responsibility to coordinate with experts to set up the nursery.

The Parsis have always had a representative in the NCM, but it is perhaps for the first time that the representative is doing something that benefits them, thanks to the issue pursued vigorously by Ms Bengalee.

“The Parsi community strongly raised the issue of vultures disappearing from Mumbai. We do share their concern, and hence wish to contribute as much as possible to address their problem,” said Commission Chairman Muhammad Shafi Qureshi.

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[Note: The following article expresses the views of Dr Fredie Mehta, the well known executive in the Tata house

Are we imparting any religions knowledge to our children? Dr Fredie asks. Every other community does it, but not we. Our youth has no idea whatsoever about our own Religion and the way of life taught by it. One of the fatal consequences of this is inter marri ages, the surest way to dissolve the "Self" of the community in the vast ocean of the humans on the globe. Upto, at least, the fourth decade of this century practically all the Parsis, from the highest to the lowest, had the same thinking and the same attitudes, the present lack of which is so ably lamented by Dr. Fredie. They had the same burning feeling of preservation and protection of the Community on the solid foundation of the Zarthoshti Din and its tenets, traditions and teachings. They had the same strong apathy for mixed marriages. Since about last fifty years, these currents started reversing their direction; and by the last decade of the century, nobody bothers about the threat of being wiped out.

Dr. Fredie Mehta's views are like a sprinkle of ice-cold water on the hot and parched soil of the Parsi lethargy. The article is by courtesy, Parsiana magazine - Editor]

We are dead and dying community. 62 percent of the boys and girls in colleges do not know one thing about our religion other than that Zarathushtra was there and he was a very great prophet. As many as 25 Percent of our women - and I may say - as many as 18 percent of our boys every year marry outside - w hile proclaiming that they love Zoroastrianism. The trick is a very simple and very clever one but it ought to be exposed. So many boys who marry non-Parsi girls do not register themselves in the census as Parsis. These Parsi boys have forgotten what it is to be a Zoraostrian, they have forgotten what it is to be a Parsi. Do our Parsi parents spend even half an hour teaching Religion to their children? The Catholics take their children to the church every Sunday. The Muslims do so religiously on a Friday. Where are the Parsi boys and girls ?” Unless and until you plant the knowledge about o ur religion into our boys and girls, do not expect them to feel proud about their community or to feel knowledgeable about their religion. You get a person like Freddy Mercury who was absolutely brilliant, who left Rs. 72 crores as a legacy, but not one rupee to the Parsi community. Why? Because. Freddy Mercury had never been taught by his parents what is the Zarathushtrians Religion. What is the use of having brilliant people who don’t feel they are Zarathushtrians. The priests have been reduced to poverty and ignorance, almost to a joke; and therefore, all this tall talk about conversion is nonsense. Your can produce a brilliant chemical technologist. You can produce a brilliant orchestral conductor. But if they don’t feel that they are Parsis, what the hell are we ? They are great as individuals, we salute them as individuals. But as Parsis what are they?

Pherozeshah Mehta said that you have to make your contribution to India but you are also to remain a Parsi and you do not have to be integrated out of existence by intermarriages. If everyone starts intermarrying, then this is what is going to happen; but like Pherozeshah Mehta you will have to say, “we are not going to be integrated out of existence. We are going to remain and maintain our identity.”

Finally let me tell you what Mr. Govalkar, one of the greatest founder members, and close to 32 years, the president of the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) said in 1973 : “I do not understand why the Parsis want to modern­ize. I do not understand why they want to integrate themselves out of existence. I do not understand why Parsis are ashamed of their Sudreh and Kusti… Why do they want to do that? Why don’t they want to keep their identity? We Hindus don’t want to convert the Parsis, as we don’t want Parsis to convert us.

Why do you want to modernize yourself? Foreign technology, yes. Foreign capital, yes. Foreign education, yes. But not at the cost of extinguishing our community. No. : Are we going to remain as Govalkar said, “long after the Hindus have ceased to be Hindus? I hope the Parsis remain the last Hindus of India”

HYDERABAD: In a bid to understand the genetic factors, which are apparently leading to high incidence of various kinds of ailments among members of the Parsi community, a project named ‘Avesthagenome’ was launched in the twin cities recently.

Bangalore based bio-tech firm Avesthagene will collect blood samples to study the genetic make-up and prepare a data of genealogical and medical database of the Parsi community of Hyderabad. Simultaneously, another effort is being taken up to find out the reasons for the large number of breast cancer cases among women of the community.

Inbreeding

The community consists largely of an inbred population whose numbers are dwindling due to self-imposed discouragement of intercommunity marriages. Members of the community from Hyderabad point out that by rough estimates there are just 70,000 Parsis in the country and 1,200 in Hyderabad.

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Despite all oppositions made so far by Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) against construction of Isfahan-Shiraz railway only in 500-meter distance of Naqsh-e Rostam historic site, based on latest reports some measures have been undertaken for marking the railway path according to its original route.

Based on earlier agreements between authorities of Iran’s Ministry of Road and Transportation and ICHHTO, the national project of Isfahan-Shiraz railway was due to change its path and be constructed with the maximum distance from Naqsh-e Rostam to cause the least harm to this historic site. However, its seems by purchasing the farmlands in vicinity of Naqsh-e Rostam and marking the path of the railway, authorities of the project have obviously ignored the previous agreements and are determined to construct the railroad just half kilometer distance of this historic site.

Prior to this, after revising the suggested route by Iran’s Ministry of Road and Transportation, the technical council of ICHHTO decided that the path for construction the railroad must change. Experts of ICHHTO have previously warned that the powerful jolts caused by train would have a harmful effect on the historic monuments in the region including Zoroaster’s Kaba and train vibrations would eventually damage Naqsh-e Rostam monument.

Considering that Pars-e Pasargadae Research Center is determined to prepare the ground for registration of Naqsh-e Rostam in list of UNESCO’s World Heritage site, as annex of Persepolis world heritage site, construction of the railway in such a close distance of this historic site would ruin the chance of world registration of this Achaemenid site forever.

UNESCO asked Iran to give an explanation about construction of the railway near Naqsh-e Rostam in the 31st session of World Heritage Committee.

Located in Iranian Fars province, 12 kilometer distance of Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rostam contains four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings which were carved out of the rock. Kaaba of Zoroaster bears number of inscription belonged to Parthian and Sassanian dynastic eras.

Original article here

IN 1865, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata - a one-time opium trader and scion of a sparkling line of Parsee priests, Zoroastrians who had fled to western India from persecution in Iran - attended a lecture in Manchester given by Thomas Carlyle.

Carlyle, a cantankerous Scot, was known for his historical and philosophical essays, but he also put his mind to the budding field of political economy.

“The nation which has the steel will have the gold,” Carlyle told the lecture hall, and burnt a deep impression on the visiting Indian merchant.

Jamsetji Tata took Carlyle’s idea and, after opening up textile mills, he in time emerged as India’s mightiest industrialist.

Today, the company he founded is a goliath. Tata Group is the world’s fifth largest steelmaker and sees itself as a symbol of the re-emergence of the Indian economy.

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In the recent weeks, there has been news about the selling off of a very important Parsi heritage building. The Temulji Lying In hospice has for generations been the first point of entry into the world for many a Parsi. Most of our parents and grandparents in the 60+ age group were born there. However in recent years, the hospital has come under disues and hardly any occupancy. More modern hospitals and facilities have drawn people away from this Nursing home.

However the selling off of this prime real estate by the Parsi Panchayat is myopic and not in line with common sense and logic. The building and the site can be rehabilitated and with a combination of commercial use and community usage, a balance can be struck to keep it financially viable.

A very viable solution is to convert it to an Old Person’s home for the aging parsi population. The groundfloor could be used for commercial ventures that would pay for the upkeep of the entire property. All said and done this is in the Fort area and therefore one of the most important real estate neighborhoods in the city.

Please take a moment to sign the Online Petition to save the Tehmulji Nursing Home. We will collect these online signatures and forward them to the Parsi Panchayat, in the hope that something good comes out of it.

Below is a plea forwarded to us by email. The actual author is unknown, however the message makes perfect sense.

Parsi Khabar has started an online petition for the same. If you agree with it please go to PetitionOnline and sign it. After 30 days we will deliver the petition to the Parsi Panchayat, and hopefully something will come out of it. If you have suggestions, please express them in the comments section.

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