In 2005-2006 when I was chief executive officer of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), a census was undertaken at the BPP-controlled baugs of inter-married Zoroastrians who resided there. If my recollection is correct, the position then was that Parsi males married to non-Parsis numbered about 40 while Parsi females married to non-Parsis were about 30 in number. There was a plan to send out notices of eviction. Saner counsel prevailed and the plans were put in cold storage.
I am told that the trustees don’t mind if a non-Parsi spouse stays in the BPP’s baugs during the day but departs for his/her parental home after sunset.
Our community is experiencing a dangerous decline in numbers. Do we want to change our mindset, undertake a course correction now, and prevent our extinction in India? We must accept the fact that 39 percent marry out in Bombay (in Calcutta it is 80 percent) and keep the inter-married in our fold. B. T. DASTUR
BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta replies:
We neither agree nor do we recollect having made any statement that would lead one to state that "I am told that the trustees don’t mind if a non-Parsi spouse stays in the BPP’s baugs during the day but departs for his/her parental home after sunset." The statement made by B. T. Dastur is of his own imaginative mind.