With the distraction of the pandemic and the central government’s disastrous all-India lockdown, a once premier institution, the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI), has dropped off the community radar. One would think such a body would have been in the forefront of coordinating a countrywide Parsi and Zoroastrian response to the medical crisis. Its membership supposedly comprises around 70 anjumans. Collating information from across the country and following up with action where required could easily have been managed. Instead, not even a peep was forthcoming.
The much maligned Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) got its act together soon after the sudden, four-hour notice nationwide calamitous lockdown was announced. As did many individuals and smaller organizations and institutions once the disastrous effects of the shutdown became apparent. Food deliveries were facilitated, elderly people and those living alone were called on. Abroad, the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) continued with its activities.
Why did the once premier community organization in India fail so miserably? The FPZAI has a president, five vice-presidents, two honorary secretaries, two treasurers, an executive secretary, an executive council and so on. A website was to be created by a BPP trustee which unsurprisingly never materialized. The Fed Newsletter was discontinued over a decade ago; letters from anjumans, the president informed members, would be replied to within a year! Federation executive council meetings were curtailed to one a year from two (in reality it’s more like once in two years) and instead of a two-day meet the duration was reduced to one.
Allowing that the FPZAI president, BPP and World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) chairman Yazdi Desai was unwell, recovering from a stroke, why did the other office bearers not step in? As ill thought out as the pandemic response and nationwide lockdown was, the FPZAI’s performance at this critical juncture was equally dismal. The body, whose meetings anjumans once vied to host, has been reduced to a pariah. It is little more than a rubber stamp for Desai and a handful of south Gujarat anjumans whose total numeric strength would be between 5,000 to 7,000 or around 10 to 15% of the total Parsi population in India. They rule the roost, dish out favors, appoint to office only those who toe their line. Ninety percent of the office bearers are Desai’s appointees and do his bidding.
Though the anjumans in the West, South, East and North of India are given representation, no one from the East attends, the only attendee from the south may be from Belgaum, a WAPIZ stronghold; the delegate from Calicut was initially refused admission at the fractious May 2019 meet in Bombay as he had not registered as per the requirement. As for the West, Desai moved to eject four of his co-trustees from the executive council of the FPZAI, restrict their cheque signing authority, move the registered office next to his WAPIZ office at Dhobi Talao and in the interim instructed that all correspondence be addressed to his Rustom Baug residence. Between Desai and his cohorts they have made the FPZAI into a federation only in name. WAPIZ, which was once touted as a world body, is moribund. Its jurisdiction does not extend beyond its Dhobi Talao office.
Why have these bodies that could have done so much to bring succor to their co-religionists failed so miserably? Is it a factor of our dwindling numbers? Low energy levels? How then did other individuals and associations manage? North America has one-third the Parsi and Zoroastrian population of India. The organization is manned by volunteers strung throughout the length and breadth of the USA and Canada. Nearly all the families there do not have full-time or even part-time domestic assistance, no chauffeurs, nannies, gardeners, cooks, car cleaners. Still they have raised over a dozen community centers in less than 50 years. They have a functioning Federation and a North American Mobeds Council.
One advantage the North American associations have is that they started out observing democratic norms. Leaders are elected, most often for two-year periods, by universal adult franchise. Women and men can both vote and stand for office. Two women have headed FEZANA. The presidents are elected from various areas. In India though the rules specified Bombay shall head the FPZAI "from time to time" that clause was dropped. Now it is only the BPP chairperson who presides over the all-India body. The limited terms in office in North America ensured no one person or party became entrenched. Annual general meetings are held as scheduled, accounts are disseminated, everyone has a say. This September FEZANA created the post of a chief communications officer to publicize the body’s work in the continent and globally. The new appointee’s role will complement the efforts of the new post of chief social media officer (see "Media matters," Zoroastrians Abroad, pg 16).
Of course the North American organizations do not have to administer 4,200 flats (or is it 5,566? We’ll never know) as does the BPP; or decide whether to charge tenants for the upkeep or not; or whether funds for the needy should be directed for use by the middle and upper middle classes. They do not have to worry about which woman married outside the faith and whether her child has entered a community center or should priests be penalized for praying at the funerals of those who opt for cremation.
In India, the BPP introduced adult franchise as late as 2008. Annual accounts are published sporadically, if at all; public meetings are held once in a decade at the most. The last newsletter was published around seven years ago; electoral reforms and a code of conduct for electioneering are kept on the back burner; much energy is expended in settling old scores and starting new ones.
Several of the FPZAI member anjumans bar women from holding office; the number of women delegates present at meetings is marginal; office bearers serve till they are too old or infirm to do so; in some, the trustees are nominated, not elected or have a restricted franchise.
Traditionally the BPP has treated the FPZAI as a poor relative, sidelining the all-India body. BPP trustees would or would not, depending on their convenience, attend the meetings even when held in Bombay. For outstation meetings very often only the chairman and maybe another trustee attended. Allowing for the functioning of the BPP, this may have worked to the advantage of the Federation.
All this analysis would be immaterial if the institutions achieved the objects for which they were founded. We can lay the blame on the absence of leadership; but after that, what? How does one change a hopeless situation? How does one make people see sense? Writing editorials does not solve problems, it only brings them into focus. The community has to demand better performance, management. But all over the world we see anti-liberal forces of the right taking control. The old orders are breaking down. Inward looking nationalism is the flavor of the day. Why should we be exempt? Sadly, we are not.