As Yazdegirdi 1381 dawns the outlook for the community may be upbeat. In a historic decision the Karachi Parsi Anjuman Trust Fund has resolved to grant to the children of Parsi women married to non-Parsis equal status with the offspring of Parsi men married to non-Parsis. This means these children can officially enter the Wadia Dar-e-Meher and be accorded access to all the facilities offered by the Anjuman.
What is particularly laudable is that despite living in an Islamic republic where women are denied many fundamental rights, the Zoroastrians took this progressive step. Even Parsis opting for cremation or burial are permitted last rites at the Anjuman properties. In Iran, effective this March, Zoroastrian women are permitted to become priests; this reform too initiated in the milieu of a fundamentalist, Islamic state.
But in democratic, secular India, the anjumans in the west and south of the country still practice gender bias. In the east and north, anjumans such as Delhi officially permit the children of Parsi women married to non-Parsis entry to their dar-e-meher; other anjumans enrol non-Parsi spouses as members and allow, though sometimes unofficially, the children of interfaith unions admission to the local fire temple.
In his interview with Parsiana this July, the newly elected Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee Muncherji Cama when asked for his reaction if a Parsi woman married to a non-Parsi were to move the courts challenging the gender bias, replied, “As a trustee of the BPP I would remain neutral. The BPP has no role to play.”
His co-trustees probably do not share his sentiments. The issue is a politically sensitive one. Even the High Priests would oppose the move seeing how they do not even favor women becoming priests. If Iran, Pakistan and Delhi lead the way then why not western and southern India too?
The reactionary forces suffered a significant setback in the recently held BPP trusteeship elections. Conservatives, a section of the priesthood, middle-of-the-road individuals and liberals came together in an unusual show of unity to keep an additional, active World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) member out of the BPP.
While this eclectic grouping in itself does not mean the community has become more tolerant, it is certainly an indication that most Parsis are not supporters of die-hard orthodoxy either. The vertical split among the trustees over supporting the two opposing contestants in the July elections has resulted in a lessening of the undue influence of the wives of the two WAPIZ trustees in the working of the BPP. Though their assistance was well meaning, constructive and honorary, trustees’ family members do not have the voters’ mandate to involve themselves in BPP matters. In the youth wing Zoroastrian Youth for the Next Generation (ZYNG), the trustees’ offspring were and are the prime movers. In hindsight a non-partisan team may have been a wiser choice.
The bitter differences between the trustees that manifested at the Rustom Baug polling day fracas meant the days of cozying up to one another are over. BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta who permitted his co-trustees’ spouses dabbling in the BPP’s working and winked at the WAPIZ domination of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) will now not be so indulgent.
Mehta permitted WAPIZ and BPP trustees Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai, their wives, along with WAPIZ chairman Areez Khambatta to rule the roost in the all-India body. Anjumans that represent a handful of people ride roughshod over the opinions and status of the major anjumans. Delhi, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat have been totally sidelined. Four of the five vice presidents along with a host of other WAPIZ sympathizers issued letters supporting Anahita Desai’s candidature over Cama’s. WAPIZ activists such as Anahita, Tannaz Parakh, Meher Panthaki represent anjumans with which they have no geographic connection thanks to a loophole in the FPZAI constitution. Prior to the 2008 BPP trusteeship elections, Mistree, his wife Firoza and Yazdi represented small anjumans such as Belgaum, Panchgani, Sholapur and others.
In the last FPZAI meeting at Valsad, former Bardoli Jarthosti Anjuman (BJA) and WAPIZ founder trustee Jamshed Mohta represented Amroli, which reportedly is not even a member of the FPZAI. Federation vice president and former president of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat Khambatta allegedly became a member of the Vyara Songadh Parsi Jarthosti Anjuman so he could legitimize his vice-presidency (Ahmedabad withdrew membership from the FPZAI in protest, not wanting to be part of an organization in which Khambatta is a vice president). Much of these capers came to light only because of Mohta’s fallout with his former BJA colleagues.
The FPZAI meetings, though well organized, are a travesty. Now Mehta and Cama, along with support from BPP trustee Arnavaz Mistry have an uphill task of wresting control back from WAPIZ and their disciples.
The major worrying factor remains the Tenth World Zoroastrian Congress to be held in December 2013. With only two-and-a-half years left to plan the global meet — one-and-a-half years already having passed with nothing done — there is a lurking fear the event will be parody of the past congresses, especially the ones at Houston and Dubai which set high standards. The venue suggested is a giant air-conditioned mandap on the grounds of the Parsee Gymkhana at Marine Drive as no other venue will reportedly be able to accommodate an expected crowd of over 1,500 to 2,000. The structure will be extremely costly to construct and disassemble and there will be no long-term benefit to the community or city thereafter. In fact the Gymkhana grounds will take many weeks, if not months, to recover from the damage caused.
The tiny Singapore Zoroastrian association had prepared an entire dossier on how they would host the meet, while the BPP reportedly submitted a one-page, handwritten letter saying they wanted to hold the Congress in Bombay. The day of reckoning is now fast approaching. With the BPP trust board fractured, it is hard to see how the trustees, pressured as they are with their own businesses and BPP work will cope with the additional workload. At least two trustees reportedly attend the weekly meetings two to three hours after the start, assuming they attend at all. The so-called “renegade” priests ban case mediation talks are continuing but if no agreement is reached, an expensive and time consuming court battle will ensue; housing allotments, repairs and redevelopment of housing colonies is also on the anvil; Cama termed the Nirlon colony “a disgrace.” A managing committee for organizing the Congress has still to be constituted.
The Congress will be a major disappointment because the BPP rushed into it without any thought or planning. If the apex trust rectifies that approach in the coming years, the community may truly enjoy happier new years.