In the year 2000 the North American Mobed Council (NAMC) passed a resolution which in part is as follows:
Parsi is a race. Zoroastrianism is a religion.
The term Parsi applies to the descendants of the original migrants who left Iran to settle in India.
A Parsi is a person born of both Parsi parents who has an inalienable right to practice the Zoroastrian religion.
A Zoroastrian is a person who believes and follows the teachings of Asho Zarathushtra.
It is recognized that Zoroastrianism is a universal religion.
It is further recognized that a Zoroastrian is not necessarily a Parsi.
The reasons for Parsis being against conversion are complex and perhaps rooted in their belief that a promise was given to King Jadi Rana, at the time the Parsis sought asylum in Gujarat about 1,000 years ago. To an outsider in the western world, who reads our journals and modern books, it invariably seems that all Parsis do is argue and fight with each other over trivial things. Right from the year 1900 onwards till the departure of the British, the Parsis in Bombay were not only educated and prosperous but an extremely litigious lot!
Recent convert Williamson
Now, in 2005, the Parsis find themselves declining in numbers due to several reasons. Various incentives are offered in India to young Parsi couples to marry among the community and beget more than two children, the third child being subsidized. But it is too late and too little. The horses have already bolted the stables! The numbers of fertile Parsi females are too few, and the genetic diversity needed for maintaining the genes in a healthy population is just not there and not likely to rebound ever, at least in India.
I bow my head with respect to the Zoroastrians in Iran who have kept our faith alive for several centuries and by doing so making great personal sacrifices and undergoing considerable suffering and discrimination. I also respect the noble Parsis of India who have kept the faith alive, and through hard and dedicated work made the word Parsi synonymous with enterprise, honesty and charity. I am all for promoting the rejuvenation of the Parsi race, if it was at all possible. Since, it looks like at least to me that this is getting more and more difficult by the day, let me think now about promoting Zoroastrianism and spreading the message of Asho Zarathushtra.
At this juncture, when young Parsis are migrating abroad and Parsi businesses are closing one after another or are taken over by others, is it not time to reflect on our declining numbers and admit into our fold at least those children where one of the parents is a Parsi? If the parents are agreed between themselves, and the child is also desirous to have his/her navjote done, who are we to stand in their way? A religion and culture survives only through the strength of its numbers. Without adherents a religion and the associated culture dies. The Parsi culture is dying in India. Make no mistake, the IVs are injected and the oxygen mask is on!
At one time in the past I too was a traditionalist Parsi. I was against the acceptance of children of inter-married couples into the Parsi fold and abhorred the idea of their navjotes being done. However I am now forced to look at the picture in a different light and changed circumstances. The change in my thinking accelerated after I witnessed Parsi priests refusing to perform the last rites of those amongst us who opted to be electrically cremated in areas where the dakhma had no vultures left. You may ask, what is the connection between the two? The fact is that while we are carrying our religious zealotry to the extreme, we are slowly dying out. As our numbers fall the rate of extinction will accelerate. The vultures will never return to Doongerwadi; the environment is too hostile there for their well-being. Even less likely are the Parsi numbers to return to their pre-Independence level; the breeding individuals among our remaining population are just not sufficient to effect a regeneration no matter what incentives are offered. It is not a matter of housing, early marriage or finance; it is a matter of low fertility.
Isn’t a person who leads a Zoroastrian life and has learnt the Avestan prayers and tenets of our religion far better than a ‘born’ Parsi who leads an immoral life? Let us welcome, therefore, with open arms all those who want to join us. Let us consider them as lumps of sugar in the milk bowl. It is fine if the Bombay Parsi Punchayet handouts are denied to non-Parsi Zoroastrians; they may not need them. It is also alright if no flat in our buildings and baugs are allotted to these non-Parsi Zoroastrians; the original donors may have stated that as a condition for their munificence. It is even acceptable to me if individual dasturjis feel very strongly about letting non-Parsi Zoroastrians into their fire-temples. But is it justified to deny the message of Zarathushtra and his blessings to truth and knowledge seekers? We Parsis do not have a monopoly on the Zoroastrian religion. We are not the sole keepers of the faith! Even when the Parsis in India become extinct, the Zoroastrians in Iran, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, Russia and elsewhere will keep the religion alive. Of that I am very confident. I can even dream of a day in the distant future when the mullahs in Iran no longer hold sway and the entire population reverts to the faith of their ancestors! You may laugh, but who thought in the 1970s that the Berlin Wall would one day come down?
I, therefore, welcome the conversion of Stephen Hamilton Williamson (see "Spiritual medicine,” pg 100). Frankly, we have no choice, but to say "Bhalay padharo (welcome); the more the merrier!”
Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA
Davis, California, USA.
The Editors reply
The Qissa-i-Sanjan makes no mention of any promise not to convert.