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October 21-November 6, 2020

 
 
Nilgiri herbs

Priest and prejudice

With great sorrow I read a WhatsApp forward from one of the daughters of the late Bahadur Hansotia (pictured) of Cusrow Baug who passed away on September 27, 2020. She was heartbroken that her father had been denied four days’ prayers at the Karani Agiary in Cusrow Baug because he had married a non-Parsi. Hansotia had looked after his non-Parsi wife for five years while she lay comatose in bed, trying every medical option at great financial expense. Parsi Zoroastrian men married to non-Parsis continue to be Parsi Zoroastrians, so why were funerary prayers denied to him? Under which Gatha,......



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Makes one sad reading such news. Both my parents were very staunch and pious Zoroastrians and if alive would not have agreed with the views of the Dasturji, who is Keeper of the faith denying the four days prayers for a good man who did great service to his community. A community with fewer than 60,000 adherents most of them over 50 years old instead of delving on solutions to prevent the extinction of the community are doing the contrary.
- Shapour B Badri
- 06-Nov-2020

It is indeed unfortunate that Mr. Hansotia was denied the four days' prayers at the Karani Agiary. But I believe that the Davar Beaman judgement of the Bombay High Court itself needs to be revisited. It was passed in pre independence days when there was no Indian constitution. I doubt if its definition of a Parsi will stand scrutiny under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, as it seems discriminatory against women. I do hope that the Supreme Court, when it finally gets around to hearing the Goolrukh Gupta matter, definitively ends this gender discrimination.
- Pouruchisti Meherhomji
- 24-Oct-2020

 

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