Probably the only confrontation that erupted between the orthodox athornan (priestly) Parsi community of Udvada and some local non-Parsi residents was in the years that followed India’s independence and Mahatma Gandhi’s demise. The controversy concerning the admission of two "harijans,” so-called untouchable boys, to the local school, led to its closure.
The residents argued that the caste system was prevailing among the Hindus but not among the Parsis. The two boys at the center of the controversy were deemed outcastes and untouchable because their ancestors had partaken of beef during the famine. As their parents were daily wage earners and not scavengers engaged in handling of human waste or cleaning toilets, the boys’ entry into the school should not have been objected to as long as they were clean and properly dressed. To counter the argument that pious Parsis in cities using public or private transport to the atash behrams never question the caste or "touchability” of co-passengers, drivers or conductors, the orthodox Udvada group maintained that the case of Udvada Iranshah was different because of its holiest of holy status.
A proposal to remove the two boys to a boarding school in a neighboring town was unacceptable to a few adamant residents. This refusal to permit entry to the outcastes resulted in the stopping of the government grant to the school and ultimately led to its closure. Thus began the gradual decline in the Parsi population of Udvada. Dr V. M. MEHER HOMJI
vispimeherhomji@gmail.com