The trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) are getting more and more weird in their orthodox demands. Their obsession with who is a Parsi Zoroastrian is rising to preposterous heights, and it is about time the community takes their growing paranoia seriously. The last was that all Parsi Zoroastrian women married to non-Zoroastrians had to make an affidavit during their lifetime to the effect that they have been practicing the Zoroastrian faith and only then will their bodies, on death, be acceptable for consigning to the Towers of Silence. Now the latest is that on the death of such a woman her next of kin must also make such an affidavit only after which her body shall be acceptable at Doongerwadi for disposal. This is the unkindest cut of all!
Apart from the fact that such a requirement is mean, considering that on the death of a dear one, one has to rush around doing things which are required to satisfy the whims of a set of people who do not really matter, what if someone dies on a Saturday evening when all notaries’ offices are closed? The dead can wait, of course. Serves them right for doing the wrong thing! Come Monday, and their problems will be eased. What insensitivity!
By the way, who is a true Zoroastrian? If we apply this same yardstick of practicing the faith through our lifetime to the so-called "pure” Zoroastrians, I think at least 90 percent will not qualify for Doongerwadi. How many Zoroastrians wear their sudreh and kusti all the time? How many go to the agiary every day? How many pray every day? How many do their kusti each time they go to the toilet? How many truly follow the path of Asha as they have been enjoined to? How many never speak lies? How many arrange their fashion needs around their religion and never give up wearing their sudrehs at any point of time? How many... the list is endless.
What about those "pure” Zoroastrians who go to Shirdi and worship Sai Baba? Or those who light candles at Mount Mary? Is this not a clear denouncement of their faith? Or is this general insurance kindly allowed by the BPP? Are these people said to be "practicing the faith” after dabbling in other religions? Or do the BPP trustees just stick their heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge the aberration?
I have a still better idea of being perfectly sure. Why not get affidavits from all of us? Few as we are in the community, it will be easy to collect these affidavits. Why don’t the BPP trustees send their social workers to investigate who really follows the faith, and who fits the bill for being laid to rest at Doongerwadi? They should then wean out all such unwanted elements and preserve the pious Doongerwadi as a burial ground for only a handful of people — maybe only the trustees and their families, making very sure, of course, that each member of their individual families is a "practicing Zoroastrian” as per their own norms.
I might mention here that I had an upbringing where religion ruled — and I grew up unable to shed a number of religious requirements. Many things have stuck to me yet — which may not matter to other Zoroastrians. The point I am trying to make is that if I, with my orthodox background, feel this way about the issue, then I think it is worthwhile for the community to sit up and take notice. I do feel that humaneness, love and the Zoroastrian way of life do transcend these manmade religious needs.
Sometimes I wonder why after all this acrimony so many of us still want to go to Doongerwadi, even though it has become a burial ground now thanks to the lack of vultures and flesh-eating birds. I have repeatedly asked myself this question, and the answer is that I have grown up knowing I shall be laid to rest one day in this beautiful place. Mentally, I belong there at the end. The other reason is, over the years, I have left my dear departed there — and I know I shall follow them there one day — which thought brings comfort. Neither the trustees nor anyone else can deny me my last place of rest.
All these people who parade themselves today as the "protectors of the faith,” are neither interested in religion, nor do they truly understand it. The concept of good thoughts, good words, good deeds is totally lost on them. They are only interested in the chairs which they occupy (which give them power), which they clutch in desperation with both hands, for it is these chairs and not religion, which make them what they are, and which they are loath to give up. It is indeed a sorry state of affairs. There is no hoping that wiser counsel will prevail. Because it never will.
Denying a Zoroastrian her last place of rest and her last rites is in itself not a very Zoroastrian act. Where these "protectors of our faith” will end up I do not know. At the end of it all, will the Bridge of Separation, famously known amongst Zoroastrians as Chinwat Pul, widen enough for them to pass on to heaven, or will it narrow down as per their own narrow way of thinking in their lives on earth, and push them into the hell fires below? God shall be the judge.
At the end I would like to clarify that these are my views, my very own personal views, and I solemnly affirm that I have brains enough to think for myself.
THRITY E. BHARUCHA