"The Zoroastrian religion does not bar conversion nor does (Indian law) bar conversion. Yet a ban is imposed on the basis of convention,” said former chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Sam Bharucha while presiding at the launch of Dr Mitra Sharafi’s book Colonial Parsis and Law: A Cultural History comprising three government research fellowship lectures she delivered in October 2009 under the auspices of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI). The rationale behind the bar is that after coming to India for "a 1,000 years Parsis never converted anyone,” the noted jurist told the gathering at the KRCOI on December 23, 2010.
Bharucha narrated the legal travails that a young Zoroastrian girl, Bella, born presumably of a Parsi mother and non-Parsi father faced in seeking admission to the Rangoon fire temple (Saklat vs Bella 1925).
Clockwise (from l): Former Chief Justice of India Sam Bharucha, Berjis Desai, Muncherji Cama, Dr Nawaz Mody and Anita Arenson at the book launch
While Bella succeeded in the Rangoon court she lost before the Privy Council in London. The three-member bench had ruled that Bella was "not entitled to enter the fire temple but if the trustees so wished, they could grant her admission.” Bharucha noted that in the Parsi Punchayet Case of Petit vs Jeejeebhoy in 1908 the two justices ruled that Zoroastrianism "not only permitted but enjoined conversion.” But after coming to India Parsis had never attempted "to convert anybody into the religion. Not a single instance was proved of a person of non-Zoroastrian parent being admitted.”
The former justice noted ironically that when the Parsis landed in India according to legend they presented the local ruler Jadi Rana "with the pot of milk and sugar melting” within. The analogy of the sugar (the Parsis) mixing with the milk (the general Indian population) should give food for thought to the present day Parsi community.
While Sharafi was unable to attend the launch, her one time research assistant at the University of Wisconsin, Anita Arenson, who was present noted that the author found the community knowledgeable, open and welcoming. Sharafi’s associates who came to India to study other communities found them "much more closed,” related Arenson.
Noted solicitor and The Bombay Samachar columnist Berjis Desai gave an overview of the book which is reproduced in this issue.