Own ‘Facebook’ to spur Parsis to marry their own

Date

August 4, 2009

Worried about outside-the-community marriages, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has come upon a proactive solution. It plans to launch its own youth club and a social networking website to promote interaction among the community’s youth. The initiative, says the Punchayet, will encourage youngsters to marry within the community.

BPP chairperson Dinshaw Mehta said the Punchayet will launch the Zoroastrian Youth Association or ZYA (the name is yet to be finalised) "with a big bash" in November, targeting 4,000-5,000 youngsters in nearly 5,000 flats across 12 Parsi colonies in Mumbai.
Though primarily meant for the 15-30 age group, the association will have members till the age of 40.

"We want our youth to marry within the community. By forming such a group, they can meet often and hold events. This will encourage interaction," said Mehta.

The portal, including a social networking platform, will bring Parsi youngsters together and create a sense of belonging, he said.

"The website will be ready by October, and we have kept aside a budget of Rs17.5 lakh for the association," he said.

The association will have an office at Gamadia Colony in Tardeo and a hall to host events in the Khareghat colony, Grant Road, Mehta said.

Membership will be free and a core group of 10-15 young minds will do the planning, Mehta said. Another group of 50 people will be formed to organise events while staff will be hired for the administrative work, he added.

8 Comments

  1. Shantanu Chatterjee

    ok i don’t know how to put this politely so the points I’m about to make may hurt the sentiments of parsis so i apologize in advance.

    1.Inter marraiges are good for the community from a genetic standpoint as parsees are unusually prone to genetic disorders which almost certainly is because of excessive intra community marraiges.

    2.The parsees migrated all over when Persia fell to the arabs but only in India did they remain separate this is because of India’s strong caste system in which the parsees effectively became another distinct caste from a matrimonial standpoint, as the caste system dissolves with progress, very few eyebrows are raised if one upper caste marries another ,such as a brahmin marrying a kshtriya, nowadays it is inevitable that parsees effectively honourary upper caste Hindus like the Jains will also inter marry with other Indians.

    The focus should be to preserve the teachings of zoroastrians not some absurd gene preservation mission ironic given that cyrus the great was a champion of human rights and achmanid persia had absolutely no restrictions on persians marrying other citizens of their empire,that didn’t make the offsprings less persian in the past it won’t now.

    My sincere apologies to anyone offended.

  2. Shantanu Chatterjee

    ok i don’t know how to put this politely so the points I’m about to make may hurt the sentiments of parsis so i apologize in advance.

    1.Inter marraiges are good for the community from a genetic standpoint as parsees are unusually prone to genetic disorders which almost certainly is because of excessive intra community marraiges.

    2.The parsees migrated all over when Persia fell to the arabs but only in India did they remain separate this is because of India’s strong caste system in which the parsees effectively became another distinct caste from a matrimonial standpoint, as the caste system dissolves with progress, very few eyebrows are raised if one upper caste marries another ,such as a brahmin marrying a kshtriya, nowadays it is inevitable that parsees effectively honourary upper caste Hindus like the Jains will also inter marry with other Indians.

    The focus should be to preserve the teachings of zoroastrians not some absurd gene preservation mission ironic given that cyrus the great was a champion of human rights and achmanid persia had absolutely no restrictions on persians marrying other citizens of their empire,that didn’t make the offsprings less persian in the past it won’t now.

    My sincere apologies to anyone offended.

  3. Nitika

    I am not sure if BPP knows that, but these things are already happening … youngsters are very active on social networking sites … they meet up with each other regularly and there is one story where youngsters have decided to marry

  4. Nitika

    I am not sure if BPP knows that, but these things are already happening … youngsters are very active on social networking sites … they meet up with each other regularly and there is one story where youngsters have decided to marry

  5. Sharon

    Too little too late, I think. The BPP is slightly behind the rest of the Zarathushti youth. That money can be better used elsewhere.

  6. Sharon

    Too little too late, I think. The BPP is slightly behind the rest of the Zarathushti youth. That money can be better used elsewhere.