In most elections the focus is on the candidates and the parties supporting their candidature. The electoral rolls are taken for granted unless someone finds his/her name missing from the lists on election day. Keeping electoral rolls updated is the responsibility of the organization conducting the polls. In our community, many associations have an annual membership fee and hence the list of members is updated periodically.
Smaller anjumans that do not charge a fee can update their lists by striking off the names of the deceased and asking those Parsis coming of age to register. But even smaller anjumans in large urban areas have a problem. The Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman based in Bombay last had over a 1,200 names on the electoral rolls, many of them duplicates or of deceased members. The number that eventually votes is a little over 120.
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) electoral rolls show over 30,300 voters in the general register and over 1,100 for donors who get two votes each. It is doubtful whether there are even 31,000 Parsis in Bombay. Though any Parsi in India can register on the BPP rolls, the number of out-of-Bombay Parsis who do so is minuscule. Enrollment is largely Bombay based. The reason the number on the rolls is so high is because the names of people long deceased continue to appear on the lists. While the BPP could over the years have deleted the names of those consigned to Doongerwadi, which is managed by them, that was not done or was done arbitrarily. Even if those names had been struck off, the names of those cremated might still appear as the BPP would be unaware of who was cremated, where or when. The number of those cremated, however, is small, between 73 and 116 annually.
While deleting the names of the dead is a long, time consuming, tedious and expensive undertaking, it is doable. The more difficult task is verifying how many on the list continue to profess the Zoroastrian faith. The issue arose after a candidate was disqualified by the BPP as her proposer, whose name appears on the electoral rolls, is said to be a Parsi Christian as brought to the notice of the BPP by several parties. She is moving the Bombay High Court seeking redress.
How many others on the electoral lists may have converted is unknown and probably unknowable. Many may follow some other religion or spiritual leader or sect with or without formally converting. While the election system was reformed by introducing universal adult franchise, sufficient planning was not done to prepare updated ongoing electoral rolls for a diminishing community. In the national, state and municipal elections, authorized officials go door to door revising the voter lists. These are published and uploaded for public scrutiny before elections are held.
Even if the BPP were to undertake a similar exercise they would not know where to go outside of the colonies. Parsis are scattered all over Bombay. The problem appears insurmountable. The only real check is at the polling centers where voters are asked to show their BPP issued certificates and some other government issued identification that carries a photograph. But that would not reflect whether one is practicing the Zoroastrian faith or not.
Religion willy-nilly continues to dominate the elections. There is hardly any intelligent discussion on the other main issues facing the community. The social media is abuzz on the interfaith married status of one of the contestants (two candidates are interfaith married of whom one is a front-runner). This despite both having submitted affidavits stating they are married under the Special Marriage Act and continue to practice the Zoroastrian faith.
Many are unaware or are indifferent to the fact that the Delhi Parsi Anjuman has a lady president who is married to a non-Parsi while the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat president is married to a non-Parsi lady. So why the fuss in Bombay over an interfaith married candidate?
In a letter addressed to the BPP trustees, 33 signatories headed by a former BPP chairman stated, "For the first time in the 340-year-old history of the BPP, two candidates have been allowed to contest the elections...though they are married to non-Zoroastrian spouses...The donors and founding fathers of the trust could have never contemplated... (their being) permitted to contest elections... Therefore this ground requires clarification." Ironically, the former chairman was keen the front- runner who is an interfaith married Parsi contest the election.
In 2020, the number of Parsis married to non-Parsis exceeded the Parsi to Parsi marriage figure for the first time ever (see "Bombay: The Telling Figures for 2020," Parsiana, February 21-March 6, 2021). Granted 2020 was an unusual year with the pandemic and restrictions imposed on social gatherings, aside from being a leap year when Parsis are hesitant to get hitched. The statistics collected by Parsiana from 1987 onwards show an average increase in interfaith marriages of 1.5% per annum.
Old barriers are breaking down. Our cover story in this issue focuses on the remarkable Vajifdar sisters who defied orthodox sanctions, verbal abuse and threats of physical assault to perform Indian classical dance in public. These three brave pioneering women led the way for other Parsis to enter the world of the performing arts, theater, show business and the movies.
But as far as institutional discrimination is concerned, for over a 100 years Parsi women did not take up cudgels. Two brave families are currently fighting this inequity but their matters are pending in the courts and with the present disposition of the highest courts in the land, whether they will get a favorable judgment is unknown.
The election would have been an ideal time to focus on how the community intends to deal with its diminishing population, the rising numbers of interfaith married couples and the financial bankruptcy of the once premier trust. But these crucial issues have been barely raised. No memorable slogans have been coined to inspire the populace, no reasons cited why Parsis should bother to vote besides loyalty to a candidate or his/her supporters. For a community that prides itself on its heritage and racial superiority this is indeed a sad state of affairs. The only ray of light as Jamshedi Navroz 1390 approaches is that the two front-runners, who appear certain to be elected, will be a considerable asset to the fractious BPP board.