of Mahatma Gandhi that Parsis are "In numbers beneath contempt but in contribution beyond compare" of which there is said to be no known historical evidence.
Al Jazeera, in their program "The Listening Post" in the last week of March, stated that people today forward articles on the basis of the headline, without reading the contents. The headline today is worth 1,000 words, or what a picture was in prior times, the news channel commented.
Recently the chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) Yazdi Desai in his BPP Connect column (see Parsi Times, March 4, 2017) repeated an erroneous statement often cited by his erstwhile colleague trustee Khojeste Mistree, that when the BPP was formed over 340 years ago "its only objective was to look after and maintain the lands which are the foundation on which dakhmenashini rests" (see "Dakhmas: ‘back on track,’" Events and Personalities, pg 12). The intention of both individuals was to stress the importance of Doongerwadi and dakhmenashini in the workings of the BPP. Never mind that the statement has no basis in fact and is contradicted by the BPP’s own publication History of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet 1860-1960 authored by the former, erudite secretary of the trust, Sapur Desai.
In the Foreword to the book, former BPP chairman B. K. Boman-Behram states, "In the beginning the Punchayet started as a quasi-judicial body dispensing justice to the members of the community and regulating its usages and customs by what were called ‘bandobusts’ or regulations…The Punchayet performed its quasi-judicial functions for a long period extending from 1673 to 1675 up to about 1823. During this period the Punchayet maintained order and discipline and induced cohesion in the community."
Sapur notes the trustees "frowned upon any waywardness or immorality and impressed upon the community the hallmark of a distinctive character. It also saw to it that the tenets of the Zoroastrian faith and ancient usages were respected. It provided an outstanding leadership which commanded general respect and without which the Parsis during the nascent stage would have been like a flock without a shepherd."
In the chapter "The Parsi Punchayet of Bombay, its origin and growth," he states, "We do not know who its first members were, but it is certain they had some sort of a constitution, albeit unwritten… by which they guided the course of the community… In general the Punchayet enjoyed legislative, judicial (civil) and administrative functions. Penal justice was the prerogative of Government… Between 1775 and 1825 the Punchayet was a powerful social organization."
Over the course of the years, Sapur adds the BPP "turned into a merely socioreligious body, looking after its Doongerwadi properties, dakhmas, sagdis, nassakhanas and Godavara Agiary besides hearing domestic and matrimonial feuds and resolving them… The Punchayet trustees remained merely custodians of their funds and properties."
It was only in 1884 that immovable properties, "which were left out in earlier trust deeds" were included, observes Sapur. The once powerful Punchayet "of earlier days was reduced" to being primarily landlords.
Deprived of their former powers and fallen from grace with the public on account of their internal wrangling, the BPP trustees attempt to make their presence felt by claiming they are defenders of the faith, though none of the present batch has been initiated into the priesthood. Some may belong to the athornan clan but they have not donned the white pugree. Perhaps that is why some of them keep repeating ad nauseam that they follow the high priests blindly. Nowhere in the BPP trust deed is it stated they have to carry out the dictates of the dasturs or that they are subservient to the clergy. This sycophancy backfired when the Navsari Samast Parsi Zarthoshti General Fund voted 156 to six to create an aramgah on a plot adjacent to their Doongerwadi despite the exhortions to the contrary by the five high priests, Yazdi Desai and others.
Some critics accuse the trustees of not adhering to the trust deed. They insist the land can only be used for dakhmenishini and nothing else. But they overlook the fact the Doongerwadi lands once encompassed Khareghat Colony on Hughes Road, Godrej Baug, off Nepean Sea Road and Ambawadi where even non-Parsi BPP staff reside along with their families. Property bequeathed to the trust for housing the poor comprise ownership flats costing lakhs of rupees and leave and license flats auctioned for crores to the highest bidder. All talk of adhering to the settlor’s wishes is often just that, talk.
The high priests, Yazdi and Mistree and many others have opined that the vultures and other scavengers played a secondary role to the heat of the sun for disposal of the corpses in the dakhmas. However in the Vendidad (James Darmesteter’s translation, avesta.org) chapter 6 dealing with purity laws mentions the conversation between Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda. There is no reference to the sun dehydrating the corpses.
"44. O Maker of the material world, thou holy One! Whither shall we bring, where shall we lay the bodies of the dead, O Ahura Mazda
"45. Ahura Mazda answered: ‘On the highest summits, where they know there are always corpse-eating dogs and corpse-eating birds, O holy Zarathushtra!"
In chapter 7, section 51, it is stated ‘He who should pull down dakhmas, even so much thereof as the size of his own body, his sins in thought, word and deed are remitted as they would be by a Patet; his sins in thought, word and deed are undone."
Thus if the trustees, high priests and others wish to atone for the sins they should be tearing down the dakhmas as is advocated every 50 years in the Vendidad.
Also, nowhere in the Vendidad did we come across any statement claiming that the souls of those who are buried where there is a functioning dakhma will wonder aimlessly, as is alleged by Mistree and others. In the Vendidad a burial ground most pollutes the earth where it stands, followed by the dakhmas. The main advantage of the dakhmas is that it occupies less space, the text notes, a practical consideration.
Finally rumor, innuendo, fake news only gain currency if people do not use their discretion. We have seen in the case of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency that gullible voters who are taken in by lies and false promises, end up shortchanged. In the end we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t separate fact from fiction.