Archive

The aftermath of the Ahmedabad meeting of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) (see "World body stymied,” Parsiana, January 2005) continues to rouse rancor. The strained relationship between the president of the Federation and the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) Minoo Shroff and the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat president and Federation vice president (west zone) Areez Khambatta is appar­ent from the following correspondence provided to Parsiana for publication. The letters (dated February 17 and 24) have been marginally edited for clarity.

Dear Minoobhai

I am disgusted at the way you people along with your sold Parsi Press are criticizing the whole Ahmedabad meet and me in particu­lar and the way you all have twisted all the facts as well as made a mountain out of those 10 minutes’ commotion... You very well know that this happened because our Madras vice president (Nariman Mogrelia is vice president, south zone of the Federation) spoke out of context against the basic tenets of our religion. As a matter of fact instead of reprimanding him and stopping him from the chair and asking for his apology, sadly nothing was done by you although I had told you. Therefore I had to calm down the delegates by apologizing and you should have as the chairperson (of the Federation) disqualified the Madras Anjuman for flagrant violation of our Federation constitu­tion and that is why as mentioned by (the Jame-e-Jamshed) editor, "You are guilty of acting in a non-Zoroastrian fashion” ...Anyway you very well know the strong objections against the formation of this cosmopolitan world body and about which not only all our seven Vada Dasturjis have objected but even 49 of the 70 anjumans of our FPZAI have done so but still you go on harping that they have reposed confidence in you.

You had assured to convey our strong objections to our coun­terparts abroad but so far although nearly two months have elapsed yet we have not yet heard anything. I had told you all earlier also that they will never agree to the Parsi/Irani Zo­roastrian membership clause as that would not only create a conflict amongst them but would also breakdown their organization and so there was no sense even informing nor waiting for their reply. Even in my letter of February addressed to all the presi­dents/trustees/secretaries of all the Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian anjumans of India I have pointed out their finer points and their game plan also...

I fail to understand the working of the IZO (International Zoroastrian Organi­sation) which you are to head with its two independent arms, the WZO-I (World Zoroastrian Organisation of Individuals) and WZO-F (World Zoroastrian Organisation of Federa­tions), and which are not bound to accept and implement your recommendations and which bluntly speaking as I do... makes your role (that of) a puppet. Therefore IZO is meaningless and power­less and as its president you will be only a figurehead like the present kings of the world.

Regarding WZO-F as rightly pointed out that some of the federations in WZO-F do not subscribe to the membership clause of "Parsi/Irani Zoroastrians only” as they already have hundreds of members of mixed marriages plus a substantial number of converts increasing by leaps and bounds and so they are gaining (a) major­ity and therefore some of their anjumans themselves are alarmed and questioning the non-inclusion of (the) Parsi-Irani membership clause. Here our FPZAI with your leadership and being the apex body world wide should see through and defeat the attempts of other world bodies to take the leadership and frame the constitution, etc to suit their advantage when we have the best solicitors whom we have to make use of as the future of our community depends on this out­come. In no case should our Federation be relegated to a second position now or even in the foreseeable future otherwise it will be a sad chapter in the history of our dear community throughout the world.   

Now coming to this WZO-I which you all have given on a platter to the existing WZO with hardly a membership of 2,000 excluding India, although India specially Bombay having the lar­gest population in the world as well as its 350-year-old BPP with its premier position and otherwise doing splendid work and worth thousands of crores of rupees alongwith a thousand other charitable trusts and with so many agiaries, atash behrams and other religious, educational and medical insti­tutions, etc. It is a shame on our part that even after having flourished and prospered in India for more than a thousand years you still want to give away this new WZO-I to the existing WZO (World Zoroastrian Organi­sation) of London where we are treated as second class citizens and where they want to make a cosmopoli­tan agiary which... has to be stopped at all costs and consequences.

In a nutshell WZO-I should have its headquarters (HQ) in Bombay which will really benefit our Parsi-Irani Zoroastrians of India as well as the world and specially its 45,000 Bombayites who have nowhere else to go and have no punchayet/anjuman of their own where they can have a say and exercise their adult franchise at their doorsteps and for which the Bombayites have always been very keen. This will definitely give them a sense of pride and involvement and will also give a boost to their morale.

I am sure with your huge experience in practically all the spheres of life... you will be able to appreciate what I have said but still if you have any doubts then please give me a tinkle on my personal telephone so that we can have a heart-to-heart talk and thrash out all the misunderstanding. This will save our future generations from being engulfed and swallowed by unscru­pulous bodies such as the WZO and the converts. So without wasting further time we are forming a Parsi-Irani Zoroastrian World Body of Individuals as per the constitution of our Federation and all anjumans of India with HQ in Bombay in order to safeguard and uphold our religion and heritage.

Areez P. KhambattA

cc: Presidents of all the Parsi/Irani anjumans of India

Dear Areezbhai

At the outset let me mention that the views expressed by you are your personal (ones) and not that of the FPZAI. Your signing as the vice president of the FPZAI would hence create a wrong impression, which needs to be corrected.

The phraseology and tone of your letter is deregatory, in... bad taste, and does not deserve a reply. I am doing so only as a matter of courtesy as the president of the FPZAI. I totally disagree with your assessment of the meeting. It is true that the actual pandemonium may have been for 10 minutes, but the entire two-day meeting was unnecessarily charged. From the outset, it was clear that many of those present had come with only one agenda: to stall the formation of the proposed world body, and if they did not have their way, to agitate. At the very first session itself this issue kept on being raised. It was very obvious that many of those present had no clue of, nor were (they) interested in discussing substantive issues like the progress made by the WZCC (World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce), the Venture Capital Fund to create self-reliance among our youth and demography. These are some of the most critical issues facing the community. In fact many of those present were attending the Federation meeting for the first time and represented tiny anjumans which had seldom or never participated in its proceedings before.

The presentation by the president of (the) Madras Anjuman was his personal recount of the activities of his anjuman. Let us accept that all anjumans are autonomous. However, I agree that we could have asked him to stop at some stage and go on to other matters. However, before I could do so, you unleashed the fury and gave me no opportunity to conduct the meeting in a restrained and disci­plined manner which I am used to, and which has always been the practice at FPZAI meetings.

You are entitled to your remarks about the Parsi Press. However, ( I ) take great exception to the words "your sold Press.” You should know that we have no control whatever over the Press which is borne out by the fact that on very many issues they have been highly critical of the BPP and even individual trustees, including myself. We have taken such criticism in our stride. This is the price one pays for being in public life.

As far as Vada Dasturjis are concerned, we certainly respect their point of view and consult them on religious matters. Howe­ver, as intelligent thinking individuals, we have every right to come to an informed decision of our own on other subjects. I am not harping on the confidence reposed in me by some of the High Priests. My reference to the letters received from the two High Priests (which were incidentally totally unsolicited as can be verified from them), was in response to repeated jibes that the BPP has not been consulting them. In fact, the original letter supposed to have been addressed to the BPP, from the High Priests dated 16th December, 2004, and handed over to me at the meeting, has not been received by us to date.

I do not wish to dilate on the ongoing exchanges between the various federations globally. We, on our part, have fully con­veyed the views and concerns expressed at the Ahmedabad meeting to Mr Firdosh Mehta (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America - FEZANA), Mr Dorab Mistry (Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe - ZTFE) and Mr Rustom Dubash - WZO) and their response is awaited.

I will be certainly happy to meet you personally when you are next in Bombay. Do let me know.                 

Minoo Shroff

cc: Presidents of the FPZAI members

The Editors note

The disruption including the raucous behavior and the appeals for calm lasted close to half an hour. Mogrelia had informed the Federation delegates of the survey and its findings at the Bardo­li Federation meeting in November 2003 (see "Revival, not survival,” Parsiana, March 2004). No uproar took place at that time. Mogre­lia as president of his anjuman and south  zone vice president of the Federation was perfectly entitled to state his views. As a matter of fact Mogrelia should have been cheered by the orthodox elements for his refusal to permit entry to children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers to the Jal Phiroj Clubwalla Daremeher in Madras despite 85 percent of the anjuman members who responded to the questionniare favoring the proposal. If there was any jeering due, it should have been from the liberal elements, not the Surat rowdies.