Ask any Parsi/Irani Zarathushti what is your religion? The answer is simple and straightforward — Zarathushti. Ask them about their ethnic identity and the obvious answer would be Parsi, Persian or Iranian. If we ask them how their ethnic identity influences or determines their religious identity the response would be diverse, depending on the extent to which they have pondered over the issue.
Both ethnicity and religion are associated with beliefs of groups of people. An ethnic group is like a "tribe” in the sense that its members believe themselves to be related and owe loyalty to symbols of the larger group.
The term ethnicity comes from the Greek word ethnos normally translated as a "nation.” The modern usage of the term "ethnic group” varies. For example, a state dealing with external groups refers to them as "immigrants” versus the "indigenous” population. Ethnics have thus come to refer to people with distinct cultural identities who, through migration, have become subject to a state with a different cultural mainstream. Parsi/Iranis in India unequivocally fit the definition of an ethnic group. Culture is a cluster of customs and practices to which a particular group is attached. Though one can easily reject or adapt to another culture, that in no way affects or alters one’s ethnicity. While some sort of blood relationship is a presupposition for ethnicity, such a biological link is not a prerequisite for belonging to a culture.
Ervad (Dr) Jehan Bagli: religions are burdened
While an ethnic group is conventionally deemed a tribe, historically a tribe is viewed as an underdeveloped social group reflecting a way of life that predates modernity and is more synchronous with nature. Tribes are found in geographically isolated places such as deserts, hill and forest regions or on islands rather than in well developed cities. Tribal groups of Native Indians in North America live in secluded reservations. Often tribals belong to low income groups of unskilled workers with a poor literacy level and are beset with issues of alcohol and drug abuse.
The Parsi/Irani community that has produced a chief justice of the Supreme Court and attorney general of India, doctors, professors, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs of international caliber would hardly fit the conventional character of a tribe. Nevertheless, one has to concede that, exceptional as our community is, it is still an ethnic group in the classical sense.
A religion is a belief in and devotion to God, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of a universe and life. All religions have at their core the worship of a divine being, which may differ in name, but the ultimate reality is the same. Most major religions can be classed as universal in their character, and are trans-cultural, trans-national and trans-ethnic. Ethnic faiths are largely tribal in nature by virtue of the fact that an individual is born into it. Ethnicity and religion are inextricably linked in all tribal faiths.
Against this as background, what is the position for the religion of Zarathushtra? There is ample scriptural evidence to support the fact that the religion of Zarathushtra is a universal religion, a fact that is accepted as an important element of Zarathushtrian history. Literary research of Sir Jehangir Coyaji and Iranian scholar Foroughy describe Zoroastrian writings in Chinese books that span a period between 571 BCE to 1000 CE. However, it is not inconceivable that over time even a revealed universal religion can assume local traits and in a sense will revert to an ethnic religion.
This is precisely what happened to the faith of Zarathushtra as it was disseminated across the Iranian plateau from east to west over the vast Achemenian empire. According to the late Prof Mary Boyce we have no record of "how and when the religion reached western Iran, where it first enters recorded history… by the time it did so, Zoroaster’s great vision of a world religion has been largely lost, and his religion had come to be regarded as specifically that of the Iranian people.”
She further elaborates that "these considerations must have been reinforced by inherent pride of race which was naturally strengthened in the case of a conquering people. As the Iranian people were brought to accept Zoroaster’s teachings, they came to regard these as part of their own racial heritage, to be treasured accordingly, rather than the universal message of salvation for all mankind.”
This clearly reflects the vision of Asho Zarathushtra to bring the entire humanity under a single banner of spiritual union. Not only were the religious teachings of Zarathushtra universal, they are indirectly responsible for inseminating the fresh breath of monotheism into Judaism.
Though it was Cyrus who freed the Israelites from Babylon it was the writings of prophets Ezekiel and the prophecies for the post-exilic era in the book of Second Isaiah that brought home for the Jews the concept of monotheism and later the universality of the faith in that era of liberation. Furthermore, it was through Judaism that Zarathushtrianism impacted other major faiths. This clearly resonates in Boyce’s words: "So it was out of a Judaism enriched by five centuries of contact with Zoroastrianism that Christianity arose… a new religion with roots thus in two ancient faiths, one Semitic and the other Iranian.”
It is incumbent on all Zarathushtis to make an extraordinary effort to revert the faith to its rightful place as the first revealed universal religion in the history of mankind. Any attempt to reduce it to an ethnic faith would tantamount to a criminal assault on a way of life so profound and sublime that it would border on blasphemy. Such degradation of a religion that has so richly impinged on the history of the other major faiths that followed can only be regarded as irreligious.
In antiquity religion was a defining factor of ethnicity, languages, customs, and the Zarathushtrian faith may have been no exception. However, it is common knowledge today that tribal/ethnic religions are characterized as having no religious message for all humanity; they do not offer any means of individual or universal salvation and have no unique insight into the will of God. Considering that major faiths such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam significantly imbibed some of the basic concepts of Zoroastrianism, to marginalize the religion of Zarathushtra as an ethnic faith would be ludicrous.
Ethnicity of belonging to a "group” is often manipulated by political and economic forces to satisfy an agenda. Thus an ethnic consciousness can emerge among a group of people who may or may not be uniquely related. Despite claims of the primordial social nature of a group, it can only be a construction of a particular time and place.
There is no question about the fact that Parsi/Irani ethnic group has the inalienable right to practice the Zara-thushtrian faith, having been guardians of the faith since migration of over 1,300 years. However, to intertwine ethnicity of the Parsi/Irani tribe with Zoroastrianism is a distortion that divests the profound teachings of the Prophet of their true status as a major universal faith.
No matter how strong the ethnic bond, for a group to monopolize a sublime universal faith is a direct breach of the message and a violation of the Zara-thushtrian ethical code. Such an act is an infringement of the basic human rights to the free practice of spiritual fulfillment through the concept of Asha. It is offensive not only to those who wish to practice the faith of their own free will, but also to the religion itself to deny such sincere practice.
All religions are based on the concept of a divine force that sustains an ordered existence. Despite being pathways to fulfill the divine needs of people, religions are burdened with borders and limitations that separate groups of people. Spirituality, in contrast, has no borders. To be spiritual is to be conscious of the spirit that is responsible for the creation of the universe and the divine "substance of God” that permeates all the humanity through all religions, including Zoroastrianism. To worship Ahura Mazda is to be a religious Zoroastrian, but to worship God is to be spiritual.
In various religions God is addressed using diverse epithets such as Ahura Mazda for Zarathushtrians, Krishna for Hindus, Allah for Islam, and Yahweh for Judaism. Even though religions compartmentalize humanity and address God by different appellations, the "ultimate reality” does not. This we acknowledge in several of our Zarathushti liturgies when we pray "Ahura Mazda, benefactor of mankind and of all races of mankind…” Ahura Mazda did not create only the Zarathushtis, nor did Krishna create only Hindus or Yahweh only the Jews.
The Bhagvad Gita carries the concept of vasudeva kutambam implying humanity as a family within its oneness. Spirituality is the recognition of the spirit or energy of the creator/god in all the members of human brotherhood, establishing an intimate relationship among them. Spirituality is an expression that reflects each person as a part of the whole brotherhood. There is part of us that owes allegiance to creation as a whole. We are thus a part of all we encounter, and all we encounter is a part of us.
The golden rule is to treat others as we expect others to treat us — a basic human right and spiritual axiom enshrined in social justice and entrenched in all religious traditions including Zarathushtrianism. By practising of this principle Zarathushtis can actualize the concept of Asha in their actions to infuse the relationship of oneness among humanity and to attain the same with the divine. Spirituality is the source of the strength and courage that permits individuals to share the sadness of the pain and grief of those who are victimized by unfortunate events.
As the famous Iranian poet Sa’adi Shirazi writes in one of his poems:
"Human beings are members whole/ In creation one essence and soul/ If one member is afflicted with pain/ Other members uneasy remain/ If you have no sympathy for human pain/ The name of human you cannot retain.”
The spirituality vested in the universal teachings of Zarathushtra demands that humanity strive to transform all injustice, disharmony and suffering in this world to bring it in consonance with righteous order, Asha, through truth and good thinking (Vohu Mana). This can only happen by permitting the religion to bloom as a universal faith as per the vision of the revered Manthran. Associating it with ethnic identity would be truly unZoroastrian and a violation of the vision of the founder. As an ethnic faith the potential for decline and decadence of our glorious way of life is certain.
After retiring as Distinguished Research Fellow from Wyeth Pharmaceutical Research, Ervad (Dr) Jehan Bagli serves as a research consultant. He is chairperson of the Research and Preservation Committee of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America and was president of the North American Mobeds Council.