Also it quite ironical that those who wish to convert others to zoroastrianism want to change it!!
Oh ofcourse some in their fervour to push zoroastrianism want to do away with everything else but the gathas, achieveving further the cause of those who burnt our books in the first place.

You can also feel free to mock and harbour a thirst to refurbish zoroastrianism but the proof of the puding is that after major holocaust and onslaughts on the Mzdayasni empire from christian empires and arab, Zoroastrianism didnt die out , infact rose again..and survived for more than a milenia..now compare this to your rattling for the need to change in at most 50 years.Also compare this sucess to the chaos spread thru demands to alter zoroastrianism to suit personal tasets like yours. You can also consider yourself smarter than zarathustra himelf and thus the need to change it but why not start ure own instead This also takes us to the crux of the chaos and that is selflishly taking from zoroastrianism and again selfishly trying to change it to suit oneself.

About dying out due to traditionalists.
Again how wrong you are. Traditionalists are those who by following a traditions keep it alive and also pass it on to the neext generation..again aiding it to survive another gen.Infact zoroastriansm nor us can survive as Zoroastrians if zoroastrian practises are re written by others..eg islam.christianity, silooism etc.

Infact the old generation that warned against fusion due to intermarriage or other such aspects are correct to the ‘T’ as change to zoroastrianism is being forced by them and zoroastrianism is mainly being lead to chaos due to such desperate wants to change it.

Also if one studies zoroastrianism its practises have proven to be scientific and relevant even today including the practise of dokhmenishini… but again those who want to convert others to zoroastrianism ..in their wisdom also want to change it..!???

Then lets go to your voting bit…
In your fervour for voting , you have dismissed an important factor and that is the will and wishes of the donors!. Ofcourse you would like to change that too! or label them again as traditionalist and thus bad!!
Also if any religion was to change due to voting then you would have worn a Burkha thru out your life since majority of the people during their onslaught on mazdayasnism felt that your forfathers shud adapt to christianity/islam!

Also in ure race to win could you give thought to the fact that even if zoroastrians die out, zoroastrianism wil be studied as an magnificient religion not a concoctions of your tastes! Got to add here that wishful thinking such as end of mazdayasnism was well hoped for those who wanted to change zoroastrianism to their faith but alas this time for the sake of change this catastrophe cud be aided due to the thirst you share to change zorioastrianism from within

Yet Mazdayasnism will win as long as the younger generation studies zoroastrianism before passing judgement to change it.

Again its ironical that such big contradiction again arrises from those who showcase promoting zoroastrianism yet like in ure own words reform it!

The “traditionalists” want to stay the same, regardless, and to them I say great. They are already dying out. In North America Zoroastrian institutions are flourishing, not only because of immigration, but also because of acceptance of others.

Again, I say let us split up the funds and you go your way and we will go ours. As it is they are dying out. We will be the winners.

It will be interesting to see how the vote goes.

Recent hapenings around us sometimes can be taken as lessons especially when on similar issue, our community faces the same delima.

In kashmir the people rejected the proposal of alloting land to other community as ‘It wud change the demography’of the place…by means of demography i.e culture that wud impact the religion and thus wants of the place.. The same place passed a bill to apply shariat law in that land though it belongs to a secular state.
Apart from this it also has advantages politially( again similarity to the Break up of Persia starting from Armenia being christianised–leading to the People of Persia and their religion being rubbleised and made into a minority)…

Communities protecting its demography is not uncommon especially small communities. Even countries adapt such similar steps, like the uae, qatar, muscat etc.

Also the reason to apply religion laws to the civic structure is to make sure that foreign or adapting persons dont influence the law, culture etc of the land with their foreign/alien rel/beliefs.

Another point to ponder from the above example is that the majority of India are not going to take kindly to the deeds of the second majority of india.. and its reprecusions will be felt on the real minorities. In such circumstances, how do zoroastrians who have not yet made the majority feel threathened, protect its intrests .

I am not talking Indian politics here but facets that have been part of our history and once again cud repeat itself, the similarity to the downfall of Persia cud happen to its remaining remenants, lessons of converting a place and thus stating it as’ theirs’…the non existance of noises being heard by the original people of the land..i.e pundits as they are small community mkaking their right seem negligible..and lastly as a lesson for our future … to learn how others be in a minority or majority protect their culture-> rituals–> practises–> community—> thus faith

Also who says that the current leadership is representative of the whole community? Let the people decide!

You and your ilk are after the money that you need to propagate your flavor of the religion.

The money does not belong to you or me. Those who bestowed the trust funds had the choice to do what they wanted. And they set the rules.

Who are you or I to demand their money without respecting the rules they laid down.

So it all boils down to money.

Well for all those who want to change the ways of the society, raise your funds and do your own thing. The funds that exist come with certain caveats, all of which you want to break.

ZAGNY itself is an example. They raise their own funds and they set their own rules as to who can come into their house of worship etc.

So if you are really so zealous, put your dollars in front of your actions and then let it take course.

First of all it is BOTH sexist and racist. Sexist because the offspring of Parsi men marrying nonParsi women are accepted, yet the offspring of Parsi women marrying nonParsi men are not.

It is also racist as people who are not born into the faith are not allowed to join. No other religion in the world that I have heard of does that. None. If one wants to join the religion, then why not?

As for the “indentity,” keep your identity as you see fit. Just allow others to join the religion and go to the agiaries. You can form some sort of “priviliedged club” and have your own meetings, your own ghambars, etc. But as long as the money is tied up by narrow-minded people, then I will speak up.

As for being a Bombay Parsi, well, I am not. I live in the United States, where ZAGNY is quite liberal and open-minded, to much your chargrin.

No deekras, I am not giving negative criticism, but I do want things to change. The upcoming election will be a very big factor in this. And YES, I do expect a big split in the community. This exchange of opinions on this site is proof of what is yet to come.

Go my own way? Fine! Just split the money and agaiaries into two, one for those of us and one for you all, and we will be gone.

Well Said Mr. Rustom Sethna

That madam , is really sitting in US and comenting on issues that come up in Bombay. If she was so concerned, she would rather give her “so called wise advise” to her Dekra’s of Zangy.

So Mrs Siloo, deal with the elections of Zangy and stop poking your noise in our (as you would call ) ORTHODOX matters.

I am preety much proud of my Orthodox ethnicity and rather be called an Orthodox , then be a person like you who has forgotten the pain our ancestors have taken and preserved our beautiful race and religion.

Make up your mind. Is it sexist or racist ? Both are not mutually inclusive that you can combine them in a sentence.

On a larger note, every comment you have here on this site is always negative, berating people and institutions that do not follow your personal philosophy and ideloogy.

If everything about the Parsis of Bombay is so negative, why then do you want to associate with them and be one of them. Why not go your own way, with people who are like minded as you and start your own thing?

You have enough opportunity to do this at ZAGNY, and even there, its not as “liberated” as you would want to be.

Just negative criticism from outside the fence does not bring about any productive, creative dialogue.

I would be most happy if you would be more proactive and positive in your approach and not sound like a broken record on every comment.

Parsi Khabar moderators are free to delete this comment if it is too harsh.

Only solution is to cut down on intercaste marriages and discourage late marriages..

All Other survival technique’s (As accepting non parsi’s and offsprings of intercaste marriages) are gonna make us a part of the main stream and we as Parsis will loose the identity.

And till now, who ever were running the elections and the BPP were atleast doing an excellent job of preserving our ethnicity. So I would not be ungrateful , but atleast give them a due appreciation.