The community’s penchant for controversy is never ending. As a result Parsis have been featured prominently in the mainstream news media in the last two weeks of October. Firstly, there is the crucial case of former Valsad resident Goolrookh Gupta which is due for hearing before a five-member bench of the Supreme Court of India this month. Then, the reduction of the no-fly zone over Bombay’s Doongerwadi and the underground Metro whose construction allegedly threatens the foundations of heritage structures and the religious sanctity of fire temples and a well (see "Metro moves," pg 56) has added fuel to the fire.
Two television panel discussions dealt with the rights of Parsi women to marry persons of their choice while continuing to practice their faith, unhampered by community patriarchs. Gupta’s lawyer sister Shiraz Patodia featured along with Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Yazdi Desai and five others on the Mirror Now (MN) panel on October 18 while Gupta featured along with The Parsee Voice editor Hanoz Mistry, blogger Jehangir Bisney and others on NDTV on October 24. Journalists Bachi Karkaria and Sanaya Dalal, and lawyer Geeta Luthra featured on both panels.
While the women knew how to use the electronic medium to advantage, the three men floundered. Desai had a wooden expression throughout and spoke softly, sometimes inaudibly. He kept referring to Parsi "personal law" to justify the community’s ill treatment of women. The panelists were puzzled by his reference as there is no personal law except the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act and a section applicable to Parsis under the Indian Succession Act. Desai also kept repeatedly emphasizing the need to follow the diktats of the six high priests, while there are only five. At one point the MN anchor/moderator Faye D’Souza somewhat unfairly berated him for being rude to his female co-panelists. Desai’s response was inaudible.
Mistry tried to defend the discrimination against women who marry out by offering esoteric explanations which were inappropriate for a television panel format where a participant can barely manage a minute of uninterrupted speech. Bisney also started to read the definition of a Parsi as enunciated by the Bombay High Court justice Dinshaw Davar, before the anchor Ankita Mukherji cut him off.
The MN discussion which went on for over an hour was livelier than the half hour NDTV program. But one point came across: television is about sound bites and drama, not facts. Enlightenment is unlikely to be achieved. D’Souza bemoaned that Gupta was not allowed by the Valsad Parsi Anjuman to perform the funeral rites for her parents who reside in that south Gujarat town. But both her parents, Adi and Dina Contractor, are very much alive. The anchor talked about Gupta being ex-communicated even though prior to the show a researcher for the program had been told there is no excommunication in Zoroastrianism. Once a navjote ceremony is performed, they are Zoroastrians for life unless they themselves renounce the religion.
Regarding reducing the no-fly zone around Doongerwadi, the BPP has, according to the Mumbai Mirror (MM) of October 30 requested the Airports Authority of India "to make a slight modification in the flight path of landing and departing aircraft at the upcoming airport at Navi Mumbai (New Bombay)." The daily also quotes a letter written by Desai to the city collector stating, "the extent of prohibition in the area included within a radius of one mile will be absolute... this is a very sensitive matter...and impinges on (the Parsis’) religious sentiments." The BPP, according to the MM, has also "shot down another proposal of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company to reduce the limits of its no-fly zone in the Towers of Silence from one nautical mile to 500 m to provide helicopter facilities to Malabar Hill residents during disaster and emergency situations." The authorities are unaware that among Parsis the top priority is accorded to the dead, not the living.
Aside from changing flight paths, some Parsis also want the Metro tunnel realigned so that vibrations from the construction and running of trains do not affect religious structures en route. Also there is a fear the proximity of the subways "will break the sacred fire’s contact with earth," Pervez Cooper, vice president of the Clean Heritage Colaba Residents Association told the Hindustan Times (October 28, 2017). "If the Metro passes under the (Seth Hormasji Bomanji Wadia) Atash Behram, the place will lose its sanctity," Cooper avers. But Kala Ghoda Association chairman Maneck Davar, after discussion with the director-projects of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited told Parsiana the Wadia kebla is around 25 ft away from the Metro tunnels.
Cooper led a delegation of Parsis who met Shiv Sena (SS) leader Uddhav Thackeray to lobby for realignment. The group was minus any BPP trustees or high priests but their absence would not have made a difference: the SS is at loggerheads with their governing alliance partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party that has a larger number of seats.
Structional engineer Jamshed Sukhadwalla who has been spearheading the movement to save the Bhikha Behram Well and the fire temples wants the Metro to entirely avoid Jagannath Shankar Sheth Road on which stands the Zarthoshti Anjuman and Wadia Atash Behrams, according to a report in mid-day (October 28, 2017). "Most of the buildings on this stretch are dilapidated. How will they withstand the vibrations during the second piling and boring of the tunnel?" he queries.
The daily quotes Desai as countering, "We can’t take on the cause of the entire road...We are interested only in preserving the sanctity of the (Wadia) Atash Behram."
It is ironic that a community that is regarded by many as the builders of Bombay should now be opposing any major efforts to improve the lives of the 21 million residents of this crowded, baleful metropolis. Perhaps, for once, harking back to past traditions may not be a bad idea.