Funeral rite stirs anger in India
Ramola Talwar Badam
The Associated Press
Friday, September 08, 2006
For centuries, the Zoroastrian dead have been wrapped in white muslin and left at a leafy funeral ground on downtown Mumbai's Malabar Hill, where they are devoured by vultures. Only then, according to the tenets of the ancient religion, can the soul be freed.
But with just a handful of the endangered birds remaining in the city, and with solar panels installed to speed up decomposition working poorly during the monsoon rains, some Zoroastrians are demanding a change.
Pictures of rotting corpses piled at the funeral grounds, secretly snapped by a mourning woman, have sparked a furor over the ancient rituals.
When Dhun Baria learned her mother's corpse would take at least a year to decompose, she slipped into the grounds -- a place few Zoroastrians are allowed to enter -- and took photographs and video footage that have shocked her community.
Orthodox elders of the religion, whose followers are also known as Parsis, say the funeral system is working fine. But Baria challenges that with her stack of pictures, a 15-minute video clip and thousands of handbills she has been distributing in the community showing rotting corpses and body parts.
"Would you like to have the bodies of your mother, father, daughter piled up in a horrible state?" asked Baria, whose mother died nine months ago.
"It is a terrible sight, the stench is horrible. It's as if the bodies have been tortured. The dead have no dignity," she said.
Parsis have placed their dead in a "dhokma," or Tower of Silence, to await the vultures at Malabar Hill -- now the city's wealthiest neighbourhood -- since 1673.
As followers of the Bronze Age Persian prophet Zarathustra, Parsis consider fire a symbol of God's spirit, so cremating the dead is a mortal sin, while burial is seen as a contamination of the earth. However, the vulture is precious to Parsis who believe it releases the spirits of the dead.
But in the past 15 years, millions of South Asian vultures have died from eating cattle carcasses tainted by a painkiller given to sick cows. Conservationists estimate more than 90 per cent of India's vultures have died, creating havoc for Parsis' funeral rites.
The IUCN-World Conservation Union lists India's three species of vulture -- the oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures -- as critically endangered, the category for animals closest to extinction. It could not provide exact population figures.
And with three to four Parsis dying daily in Mumbai, a city of 16 million, it is clear there are nowhere near enough vultures to consume the corpses.
While bodies are coated with lime, scattered complaints are now heard about smells wafting through the affluent neighbourhood. Baria and other reformists are demanding the Parsi Panchayat, or council governing the community's affairs, permit burial or cremation within the funeral grounds.
© The Calgary Herald 2006
Zoroastrianism
How India makes Parsi babies
The Parsis of India are a unique community, but their numbers are declining fast. In an effort to change this, the government is spending $1.5m to encourage them to have more children.
......
Most of India's Parsis live in Mumbai - a city whose statues and buildings pay homage to a glorious past when Parsis were a dominant force as traders and shipbuilders, administrators and wealthy philanthropists.
Some time after the beginning of the 8th Century, a group of Zoroastrians fled religious persecution in Iran, and arrived on India's west coast. They settled in Gujarat - the word Parsi means Persian.
In the 17th Century, they began to migrate to Mumbai, where they built their fire temples, and formed alliances with the British.
The Parsi community is more Westernised than many in India, which is partly why it has shrunk in size. They sometimes delay marriage while they save or wait for a property. And couples began family planning decades ago to ensure they could pay for a good education for their children - which for them is as important for girls as it is for boys. Parsi women are high achievers at work, which often makes them reluctant to marry and start a family at an early age. And being single is socially acceptable - 30% of Parsis never marry.
......
Zoroastrianism
■Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions - Zoroastrians believe there is is one God called Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord)
■Founded by Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra (pictured above), in Persia about 3,500 years ago
■Once one of the world's most powerful religions, it is now one of the smallest
■Zoroastrians are roughly split into two groups, Iranians and Parsis - there are an estimated 110,000 Parsis around the globe and in 2006 the New York Times reported there were probably less than 190,000 Zoroastrians worldwide
■They worship in fire temples and believe fire represents God's light or wisdom
Read more about Zoroastrianism
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33519145
The Parsis of India are a unique community, but their numbers are declining fast. In an effort to change this, the government is spending $1.5m to encourage them to have more children.
......
Most of India's Parsis live in Mumbai - a city whose statues and buildings pay homage to a glorious past when Parsis were a dominant force as traders and shipbuilders, administrators and wealthy philanthropists.
Some time after the beginning of the 8th Century, a group of Zoroastrians fled religious persecution in Iran, and arrived on India's west coast. They settled in Gujarat - the word Parsi means Persian.
In the 17th Century, they began to migrate to Mumbai, where they built their fire temples, and formed alliances with the British.
The Parsi community is more Westernised than many in India, which is partly why it has shrunk in size. They sometimes delay marriage while they save or wait for a property. And couples began family planning decades ago to ensure they could pay for a good education for their children - which for them is as important for girls as it is for boys. Parsi women are high achievers at work, which often makes them reluctant to marry and start a family at an early age. And being single is socially acceptable - 30% of Parsis never marry.
......
Zoroastrianism
■Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions - Zoroastrians believe there is is one God called Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord)
■Founded by Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra (pictured above), in Persia about 3,500 years ago
■Once one of the world's most powerful religions, it is now one of the smallest
■Zoroastrians are roughly split into two groups, Iranians and Parsis - there are an estimated 110,000 Parsis around the globe and in 2006 the New York Times reported there were probably less than 190,000 Zoroastrians worldwide
■They worship in fire temples and believe fire represents God's light or wisdom
Read more about Zoroastrianism
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33519145
The obscure religion that shaped the West
It has influenced Star Wars and Game of Thrones – and characters as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche and Freddie Mercury have cited it as an inspiration. So what is Zoroastrianism? Joobin Bekhrad finds out.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201704 ... d-the-west
It has influenced Star Wars and Game of Thrones – and characters as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche and Freddie Mercury have cited it as an inspiration. So what is Zoroastrianism? Joobin Bekhrad finds out.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201704 ... d-the-west
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swamidada_2
- Posts: 297
- Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2019 8:18 pm
One of India's richest minority groups enjoys some of Mumbai's best rents. Here's why
CNN July 4, 2020, 7:50 PM
"Imagine a world within a world." That is how Hormuz Bana describes the centuries-old community where he lives in Mumbai -- and which is in danger of vanishing.
Located below the Eastern Express Highway, this storied enclave is everything that most of Mumbai is not: idyllic, languid, and devoid of the city's signature traffic.
"Living here has given me a sense of belonging," says the 30-year-old marketing executive.
Bana lives in Dadar Parsi Colony, one of 25 colonies in Mumbai that officials designed solely for Parsis, an ethnoreligious group of Persian descendants in India who follow the Zoroastrian religion.
The Zoroastrians, whose doctrines influenced the principles of Judaism and Christianity, fled from Persia -- modern-day Iran -- to India in the 7th century to avoid political and religious persecution. Over centuries, a thriving community of bankers, industrialists, traders and engineers grew along India's west coast.
But their numbers are dwindling. According to Indian Census data, there were more than 1 million Parsis in the country in 1941. By 2011, there were fewer than 60,000. And by 2050, experts predict numbers will drop to about 40,000.
As numbers dwindle and the community fights to sustain itself, progressives want to widen the remit for new members. But they face strong resistance from more orthodox Parsis, who believe any dilution of their faith is sacrilegious.
Inside the enclave
Dadar Parsi Colony was established in the mid-1890s after the bubonic plague tore through Bombay, as Mumbai was then known, claiming thousands of lives.
At the time, the city was home to about 800,000 people, and the illness quickly spread through crowded slums. To ease congestion, the city's British colonial leaders expanded Bombay's limits to Dadar, then a low-lying marshland.
Visionary engineer Mancherji Edulji Joshi persuaded British authorities to set aside plots for lower middle-class Parsis, and drew up a blueprint of a model neighborhood, detailed to the type of flowers and trees to be planted on the streets. Joshi was given a 999-year lease for 103 plots.
In Dadar, the colony's leafy streets were laid out in a grid formation, lined by low-rise Victorian apartment blocks.
"He had a rule that no building should be more than two stories high," says Joshi's granddaughter, Zarine Engineer. "Before a single house was constructed, he planted the streets with trees, each street with a different kind."
Jam-e-Jamshed Road -- named after the prominent Parsi newspaper -- still has rows of ashoka trees. Firdausi Road, named after the Persian poet Firdawsi, is dappled with mahogany.
There is a library, a function hall, sports grounds, a seminary, a school, and a temple. The buildings are named after their proprietors: Dina House, Readymoney House and Marker House. It was not uncommon for Parsis' surnames to reflect their line of work.
The Readymoneys, for example, made their fortune by trading opium, which was a ready source of money. Another family, the Sodawaterbottleopenerwalas -- "wala" meaning "of a place of trade" -- most likely made a business of opening soda water bottles. It remains one of the best-known Parsi surnames and there's even an Indian chain of restaurants named after them.
Largest colony
Of all the Parsi colonies in Mumbai, Dadar Parsi Colony remains the largest. It is home to about 15,000 Parsis, roughly 12% of the community's global population.
Every morning, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m., the colony's fitness enthusiasts power walk up and down the streets. Many of the older residents surface slightly later, perched on their verandas to pry on what's happening beneath them.
Soon, the fishmongers and vegetable sellers make their way to each apartment, selling their daily produce. The garbage collectors dutifully come to collect the garbage, and the launder does the same for clothes. There's an ironing man to collect and drop off ironed clothes, and the knife sharpener visits to sharpen knives.
But over the years, there have been attempts to thwart the community's traditional way of life. Engineer has, time and time again, fought off threats of encroachment on the colony by municipal corporations.
Joshi's granddaughter, Zarine Engineer, 75, another Dadar Parsi Colony local, sits on the same board of trustees that her grandfather did, the Parsi Central Association (PCA).
The PCA looks after the well being of the colony's residents -- although 99 years later, the PCA's methods have changed. Now, it has a WhatsApp group, in which members voice their complaints -- perhaps a broken street lamp or a pothole -- and Engineer will arrange for it to be fixed.
"When I was a young girl, I would sit beside (Joshi) as he patiently listened to the qualms of the residents," says Engineer. "Some would complain of monkeys entering their house through windows, or a fallen tree, and today I am doing the same."
The apartments are cheap -- and empty
Today, Mumbai's extreme wealth disparity has earned it the moniker of the world's "most expensive slum."
More than half of its residents live in slums with no running water, often just feet from some of the city's most expensive high-rises. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the wider Dadar district costs an average Rs. 145,000 ($1,920) a month.
But rents inside all 25 of Mumbai's Parsi colonies have barely increased in decades. Long-time tenants continue to pay about Rs. 300 ($4) per month, and most are no longer perceived as lower-middle class.
Parsis are one of the most successful and wealthy minority groups in the world. They make up less than 1% of India's entire population, but four Parsis sit on the country's list of top 20 billionaires.
Apartments like the ones in the Parsi colonies -- spacious, well maintained and low in cost -- are hard to come by in Mumbai. Their interiors are a blend of British and Chinese influences, from Victorian motifs carved into oak bed frames to porcelain vases obtained through trade with mainland China.
Rents have remained low because of the Rent Control Act from 1947, which regulates the housing market in Mumbai and limits increase for residents who have been living in the same apartment prior to 1947, said Viraf Mehta, a trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP).
The BPP owns most of the apartments in the Parsi colonies, including about 3,000 which fall under the act, as the same families have lived in those apartments for generations.
Mehta says the BPP rarely increases rents for newer residents "out of benevolence."
Colony apartments are highly sought after for their unique features and low price. Yet about a quarter of flats in the colonies remain empty, according to Mehta. Many of the occupants have settled overseas, but continue to pay the rent to ensure they don't lose the flat.
"The turnover rate is extremely low," says Mehta. "We have close to 1,000 people on waiting lists wanting a flat in one of the colonies, but there are no vacant houses."
Everyone on the waiting list is a Parsi.
Not open
Joshi couldn't afford to build a wall around the colony -- and, as a result, Dadar remains the only Parsi enclave without one. But the lack of a physical wall doesn't mean there aren't barriers to entry for those wishing to join the community.
After the BPP sold three plots to a developer some years ago, in 2009, that developer want to sell apartments on the plot to the highest bidder -- even if they were not Parsi.
The PCA eventually won a six-year battle against the developers, and a court granted a permanent injunction restraining the builder from selling flats inside the colony to anyone who was not a Zoroastrian.
Five years later, the Street Vendors' Act -- a nationwide bill aimed at improving the lives of street vendors -- would have paved the way for street stalls in Dardar colony. Led by Engineer, hundreds of people marched in protest to preserve the colony's heritage.
The plan was withdrawn and the colony's roads remain off limits.
Bana, an ordained Zoroastrian priest, lives in an apartment block built by his great-grandfather. His father grew up there, and his grandmother before that.
"To a layman, it would be very difficult to identify where the colony begins and ends," he says. "But to us, we know each nook and cranny like the back of our hands."
Declining population
Since the 1940s, the number of Parsis in India has plunged.
According to a study by demographer Ava Khullar, there are several reasons for to this phenomenon. Low fertility is one -- about a third of Parsis don't marry, and the average Parsi woman of child-bearing age has one child, compared to a national average of 2.5 children.
The exclusion of children born to women who marry non-Parsi men in the population figures is also a key reason.
The rule became legally binding following the Petit v Jijabhai case in 1908. Suzanne Briere, a French woman and wife of the Parsi industrialist Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, wished for her body to be left in Bombay's dokhmas, or Towers of Silence, to be exposed to vultures, per traditional Zoroastrian death rites.
After her marriage, she converted to Zoroastrianism by undergoing an initiation ritual performed by a priest. During the ceremony, individuals wear a sudreh (a sacred muslin tunic) and kusti (sacred thread) for the first time, while reciting prayers, completing their initiation into the faith.
Whether this conversion was permitted was up for dispute, as orthodox Parsis believed being born into the community was a prerequisite for initiation.
Briere took her case to the Bombay High Court, where Justices Dinshaw Davar and Frank Beamon concluded that the Parsi community consists of Parsis who are born of both Zoroastrian parents who profess the Zoroastrian religion; Iranis from Persia professing the Zoroastrian religion; and the children of Parsi fathers by "alien" (non-Parsi) mothers who have been duly and properly admitted into the religion. The legal definition excludes the children of Parsi mothers by "alien" (non-Parsi) fathers.
Years later, the same rules are largely followed. Reformists argue it is sexist and bigoted, while others believe that it is the way things should be. "I think it is our duty to ensure that we keep our race going," says Bana, who married a fellow Zoroastrian.
"I have no opinion on interfaith marriages. But personally, I think these are some things we can do to give back to a community when it has given us so much."
Locked out of the colony
The BPP follows the same 1908 judgment made by Justices Davar and Beamon. If one spouse is non-Parsi, they are not deemed eligible for colony life.
"As far as the BPP is concerned, this is the law of the land," says Mehta. "Whatever my personal beliefs are, I have a duty to uphold the trust deed which is bound by this."
In 2019, Sanaya Dalal, a Parsi woman married to a half-Parsi man and resident of Dadar Parsi Colony, challenged these rules after her five-year-old son wasn't granted membership to the colony's gym for being "a non-Parsi."
"So I'm supposed to explain to my son that he'll have to bow out gracefully, leaving behind his friends and the playground that he loves so much," she wrote in an opinion piece.
Dalal's case caused controversy within the community, with conservative members supporting the rule and progressive members deeming them anachronistic. After some debate, her son remains without membership, and is not allowed to enter the clubhouse unless signed in by a member.
Farzeen Khan, a 29-year-old Parsi woman who grew up in Khareghat Colony, sides with Dalal. "The solution (to the falling numbers) is to be more inclusive," she says.
"We are one of the smallest but wealthiest communities in the country. I think it's time to open our doors and see how we can be more inclusive, rather than cling onto our exclusive identity from yesteryear," says Khan.
Despite their disagreements, Bana, the Zoroastrian priest, says Parsis will find a way to continue their legacy.
"We aren't a community that focuses on the negative," says Bana. "I'm certain we will overcome any hurdle that comes our way, be it interfaith marriages, or extinction."
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/one ... 55165.html
CNN July 4, 2020, 7:50 PM
"Imagine a world within a world." That is how Hormuz Bana describes the centuries-old community where he lives in Mumbai -- and which is in danger of vanishing.
Located below the Eastern Express Highway, this storied enclave is everything that most of Mumbai is not: idyllic, languid, and devoid of the city's signature traffic.
"Living here has given me a sense of belonging," says the 30-year-old marketing executive.
Bana lives in Dadar Parsi Colony, one of 25 colonies in Mumbai that officials designed solely for Parsis, an ethnoreligious group of Persian descendants in India who follow the Zoroastrian religion.
The Zoroastrians, whose doctrines influenced the principles of Judaism and Christianity, fled from Persia -- modern-day Iran -- to India in the 7th century to avoid political and religious persecution. Over centuries, a thriving community of bankers, industrialists, traders and engineers grew along India's west coast.
But their numbers are dwindling. According to Indian Census data, there were more than 1 million Parsis in the country in 1941. By 2011, there were fewer than 60,000. And by 2050, experts predict numbers will drop to about 40,000.
As numbers dwindle and the community fights to sustain itself, progressives want to widen the remit for new members. But they face strong resistance from more orthodox Parsis, who believe any dilution of their faith is sacrilegious.
Inside the enclave
Dadar Parsi Colony was established in the mid-1890s after the bubonic plague tore through Bombay, as Mumbai was then known, claiming thousands of lives.
At the time, the city was home to about 800,000 people, and the illness quickly spread through crowded slums. To ease congestion, the city's British colonial leaders expanded Bombay's limits to Dadar, then a low-lying marshland.
Visionary engineer Mancherji Edulji Joshi persuaded British authorities to set aside plots for lower middle-class Parsis, and drew up a blueprint of a model neighborhood, detailed to the type of flowers and trees to be planted on the streets. Joshi was given a 999-year lease for 103 plots.
In Dadar, the colony's leafy streets were laid out in a grid formation, lined by low-rise Victorian apartment blocks.
"He had a rule that no building should be more than two stories high," says Joshi's granddaughter, Zarine Engineer. "Before a single house was constructed, he planted the streets with trees, each street with a different kind."
Jam-e-Jamshed Road -- named after the prominent Parsi newspaper -- still has rows of ashoka trees. Firdausi Road, named after the Persian poet Firdawsi, is dappled with mahogany.
There is a library, a function hall, sports grounds, a seminary, a school, and a temple. The buildings are named after their proprietors: Dina House, Readymoney House and Marker House. It was not uncommon for Parsis' surnames to reflect their line of work.
The Readymoneys, for example, made their fortune by trading opium, which was a ready source of money. Another family, the Sodawaterbottleopenerwalas -- "wala" meaning "of a place of trade" -- most likely made a business of opening soda water bottles. It remains one of the best-known Parsi surnames and there's even an Indian chain of restaurants named after them.
Largest colony
Of all the Parsi colonies in Mumbai, Dadar Parsi Colony remains the largest. It is home to about 15,000 Parsis, roughly 12% of the community's global population.
Every morning, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m., the colony's fitness enthusiasts power walk up and down the streets. Many of the older residents surface slightly later, perched on their verandas to pry on what's happening beneath them.
Soon, the fishmongers and vegetable sellers make their way to each apartment, selling their daily produce. The garbage collectors dutifully come to collect the garbage, and the launder does the same for clothes. There's an ironing man to collect and drop off ironed clothes, and the knife sharpener visits to sharpen knives.
But over the years, there have been attempts to thwart the community's traditional way of life. Engineer has, time and time again, fought off threats of encroachment on the colony by municipal corporations.
Joshi's granddaughter, Zarine Engineer, 75, another Dadar Parsi Colony local, sits on the same board of trustees that her grandfather did, the Parsi Central Association (PCA).
The PCA looks after the well being of the colony's residents -- although 99 years later, the PCA's methods have changed. Now, it has a WhatsApp group, in which members voice their complaints -- perhaps a broken street lamp or a pothole -- and Engineer will arrange for it to be fixed.
"When I was a young girl, I would sit beside (Joshi) as he patiently listened to the qualms of the residents," says Engineer. "Some would complain of monkeys entering their house through windows, or a fallen tree, and today I am doing the same."
The apartments are cheap -- and empty
Today, Mumbai's extreme wealth disparity has earned it the moniker of the world's "most expensive slum."
More than half of its residents live in slums with no running water, often just feet from some of the city's most expensive high-rises. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the wider Dadar district costs an average Rs. 145,000 ($1,920) a month.
But rents inside all 25 of Mumbai's Parsi colonies have barely increased in decades. Long-time tenants continue to pay about Rs. 300 ($4) per month, and most are no longer perceived as lower-middle class.
Parsis are one of the most successful and wealthy minority groups in the world. They make up less than 1% of India's entire population, but four Parsis sit on the country's list of top 20 billionaires.
Apartments like the ones in the Parsi colonies -- spacious, well maintained and low in cost -- are hard to come by in Mumbai. Their interiors are a blend of British and Chinese influences, from Victorian motifs carved into oak bed frames to porcelain vases obtained through trade with mainland China.
Rents have remained low because of the Rent Control Act from 1947, which regulates the housing market in Mumbai and limits increase for residents who have been living in the same apartment prior to 1947, said Viraf Mehta, a trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP).
The BPP owns most of the apartments in the Parsi colonies, including about 3,000 which fall under the act, as the same families have lived in those apartments for generations.
Mehta says the BPP rarely increases rents for newer residents "out of benevolence."
Colony apartments are highly sought after for their unique features and low price. Yet about a quarter of flats in the colonies remain empty, according to Mehta. Many of the occupants have settled overseas, but continue to pay the rent to ensure they don't lose the flat.
"The turnover rate is extremely low," says Mehta. "We have close to 1,000 people on waiting lists wanting a flat in one of the colonies, but there are no vacant houses."
Everyone on the waiting list is a Parsi.
Not open
Joshi couldn't afford to build a wall around the colony -- and, as a result, Dadar remains the only Parsi enclave without one. But the lack of a physical wall doesn't mean there aren't barriers to entry for those wishing to join the community.
After the BPP sold three plots to a developer some years ago, in 2009, that developer want to sell apartments on the plot to the highest bidder -- even if they were not Parsi.
The PCA eventually won a six-year battle against the developers, and a court granted a permanent injunction restraining the builder from selling flats inside the colony to anyone who was not a Zoroastrian.
Five years later, the Street Vendors' Act -- a nationwide bill aimed at improving the lives of street vendors -- would have paved the way for street stalls in Dardar colony. Led by Engineer, hundreds of people marched in protest to preserve the colony's heritage.
The plan was withdrawn and the colony's roads remain off limits.
Bana, an ordained Zoroastrian priest, lives in an apartment block built by his great-grandfather. His father grew up there, and his grandmother before that.
"To a layman, it would be very difficult to identify where the colony begins and ends," he says. "But to us, we know each nook and cranny like the back of our hands."
Declining population
Since the 1940s, the number of Parsis in India has plunged.
According to a study by demographer Ava Khullar, there are several reasons for to this phenomenon. Low fertility is one -- about a third of Parsis don't marry, and the average Parsi woman of child-bearing age has one child, compared to a national average of 2.5 children.
The exclusion of children born to women who marry non-Parsi men in the population figures is also a key reason.
The rule became legally binding following the Petit v Jijabhai case in 1908. Suzanne Briere, a French woman and wife of the Parsi industrialist Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, wished for her body to be left in Bombay's dokhmas, or Towers of Silence, to be exposed to vultures, per traditional Zoroastrian death rites.
After her marriage, she converted to Zoroastrianism by undergoing an initiation ritual performed by a priest. During the ceremony, individuals wear a sudreh (a sacred muslin tunic) and kusti (sacred thread) for the first time, while reciting prayers, completing their initiation into the faith.
Whether this conversion was permitted was up for dispute, as orthodox Parsis believed being born into the community was a prerequisite for initiation.
Briere took her case to the Bombay High Court, where Justices Dinshaw Davar and Frank Beamon concluded that the Parsi community consists of Parsis who are born of both Zoroastrian parents who profess the Zoroastrian religion; Iranis from Persia professing the Zoroastrian religion; and the children of Parsi fathers by "alien" (non-Parsi) mothers who have been duly and properly admitted into the religion. The legal definition excludes the children of Parsi mothers by "alien" (non-Parsi) fathers.
Years later, the same rules are largely followed. Reformists argue it is sexist and bigoted, while others believe that it is the way things should be. "I think it is our duty to ensure that we keep our race going," says Bana, who married a fellow Zoroastrian.
"I have no opinion on interfaith marriages. But personally, I think these are some things we can do to give back to a community when it has given us so much."
Locked out of the colony
The BPP follows the same 1908 judgment made by Justices Davar and Beamon. If one spouse is non-Parsi, they are not deemed eligible for colony life.
"As far as the BPP is concerned, this is the law of the land," says Mehta. "Whatever my personal beliefs are, I have a duty to uphold the trust deed which is bound by this."
In 2019, Sanaya Dalal, a Parsi woman married to a half-Parsi man and resident of Dadar Parsi Colony, challenged these rules after her five-year-old son wasn't granted membership to the colony's gym for being "a non-Parsi."
"So I'm supposed to explain to my son that he'll have to bow out gracefully, leaving behind his friends and the playground that he loves so much," she wrote in an opinion piece.
Dalal's case caused controversy within the community, with conservative members supporting the rule and progressive members deeming them anachronistic. After some debate, her son remains without membership, and is not allowed to enter the clubhouse unless signed in by a member.
Farzeen Khan, a 29-year-old Parsi woman who grew up in Khareghat Colony, sides with Dalal. "The solution (to the falling numbers) is to be more inclusive," she says.
"We are one of the smallest but wealthiest communities in the country. I think it's time to open our doors and see how we can be more inclusive, rather than cling onto our exclusive identity from yesteryear," says Khan.
Despite their disagreements, Bana, the Zoroastrian priest, says Parsis will find a way to continue their legacy.
"We aren't a community that focuses on the negative," says Bana. "I'm certain we will overcome any hurdle that comes our way, be it interfaith marriages, or extinction."
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/one ... 55165.html
Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran.
Book Review
Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran. By
Monica M. Ringer. Modern Intellectual and Political History of
the Middle East. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2011.
Pp. xv, 273, with black and white illustrations, bibliography,
notes, and index. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN: 9780815632641.
Covering the period from 1830 to 1940, Monica Ringer argues in
Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran that
religious reform led to “modernity” among the Zoroastrians living in
India and Iran. In particular, she explores the influences of the West,
including the definitions of “true” religion according to
Protestantism as it affected Zoroastrian reformers when they sought
to redefine their religion.
Monica M. Ringer has a Masters in Islamic studies and a Ph.D.
in modern Middle Eastern history, both from UCLA. She is an
associate professor of History and Asian Languages and
Civilizations at Amherst College, and the author of several articles
and a book titled Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural
Reform in Qajar Iran.
In the Introduction, “Modernity, Religion, and the Production of
Knowledge,” Ringer states that the West claimed that to be
“modern” meant to be westernized. Moreover, Protestantism was
linked with modernity because it fostered science, rationalism, and
individualism. However, as Zoroastrian reformers sought to shape
their religion according to Western-Protestant notions of “modern
religion,” they applied, rejected, or modified this concept according
to how it fit into their religion.
The book is divided into eight chapters, and includes illustrations
of Zoroastrian religious symbols, prominent reformers, architecture;
ruins, and a representation of Zoroaster. Chapter one discusses the
fact that because of their commercial and political connections to
Britain, the Parsi Zoroastrian merchant class was attracted to and,
subsequently adopted British ideas of modernity, “enlightened
religion,” and social reform agendas. Reformers strived to improve
education for Parsi women as well as reevaluated their religious
tradition, as they claimed that Zoroastrianism promoted science and
hygiene. The next two chapters deal with the Parsi effort to protect
their religion against criticism from scholars of Zoroastrianism and
linguistics, and Christian missionaries. Parsi Zoroastrians began to
define their religion as moral, “rational,” monotheistic, and lacking
ritual, some of the characteristics of a “true religion.” Religious
reformers were largely the powerful merchants more often than the
less powerful Parsi priesthood, and debates centered on attaining
“civilization and progress.” Also, reformers had divided into the
“Reformist Zoroastrians,” who rejected tradition, and the “Orthodox
Zoroastrians,” who accepted tradition, while altering specific ones.
Chapter four looks at the different viewpoints of Western religious
scholarship on Zoroastrianism and how some believed that tradition
slowed down the progress of civilization, a view held by many
British-Protestant missionaries. Chapter five is an introduction to the
second generation of Parsi reformers of the early twentieth century.
By now, “Reformist” and “Orthodox” reformers were not only aware
of the first generation reformers’ ideas, but also of Western religious
and Zoroastrian scholarship; therefore, dialogue on religious reform
moved away from the merchants and into the hands of the
Zoroastrian scholars, including priests. The goal of the second
generation was to reveal the “true” nature of Zoroastrianism by
stripping it of accretions that came after Zoroaster’s death. The last
three chapters delve into Zoroastrians in Iran. Ringer discusses the
Parsi effort to reform Iranian community organization and religion
using Parsi methods of religious and social reform. In 1853, Parsi
merchants organized the Society for the Amelioration of Conditions
in Iran in order to remove Islamic restrictions on Zoroastrians and to
abolish the non-Muslim tax imposed on them. Religious reform that
took place included the Parsi encouragement of Zoroastrianism as
monotheistic, abolishing animal sacrifice, and bringing back customs
such as the wearing of Zoroastrian garments. By the twentieth
century, Iranian Zoroastrians were able to participate in trade and
commerce, permitted to run for political office, and the first of their
religious schoolhouses was opened. During the period 1870 to 1941,
Iranian Zoroastrians were developing their own opinions on religious
and community practices. Once Reza Shah began his efforts to
nationalize Iran, the assumption was that modernization would be a
return to a pre-Islamic-Zoroastrian past at a national level, because it
was believed that this was the originator of modernity. While trying
to promote Zoroastrianism, Reza Shah sought the aid of Reformist
Kay Khosrow Shahrokh. Shahrokh’s ideas of rational religion as a
way of creating a modern individual by means of equality, social
responsibility, and removal of ritual, believing that Zoroastrianism
was the originator of modern religion, were widely held for the rest
of the century.
The book concludes by comparing the impetus to religious
reform in India and in Iran. Moreover, Ringer argues that religion
was at the heart of moving towards a modern society in the Middle
East and India. But except for India (see Peter van der Veer’s
Conversion to Modernity: The Globalization of Christianity [1996]
and Imperial Encounters [2001]), there are no studies that currently
examine the central role of religious reform in creating a modern
state in the Middle East.
For anyone unfamiliar with religious studies, Ringer strives to
clearly explain concepts that may be vague or esoteric. Although the
book is engaging and well-researched, Ringer tends to repeat herself
unnecessarily.
Scholars of Middle Eastern and religious studies will have a
wealth of information to peruse in the Notes and Bibliography
section, especially since Ringer relies heavily on historical
information for background research. The Index is good and
Romanization of words is accurate. This is an important study
because it reveals the major role religion can play in society. That is
why students of Middle Eastern and/or religious studies and
academic libraries will benefit from owning Pious Citizens:
Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran.
NANCY BEYGIJANIAN
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran. By
Monica M. Ringer. Modern Intellectual and Political History of
the Middle East. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2011.
Pp. xv, 273, with black and white illustrations, bibliography,
notes, and index. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN: 9780815632641.
Covering the period from 1830 to 1940, Monica Ringer argues in
Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran that
religious reform led to “modernity” among the Zoroastrians living in
India and Iran. In particular, she explores the influences of the West,
including the definitions of “true” religion according to
Protestantism as it affected Zoroastrian reformers when they sought
to redefine their religion.
Monica M. Ringer has a Masters in Islamic studies and a Ph.D.
in modern Middle Eastern history, both from UCLA. She is an
associate professor of History and Asian Languages and
Civilizations at Amherst College, and the author of several articles
and a book titled Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural
Reform in Qajar Iran.
In the Introduction, “Modernity, Religion, and the Production of
Knowledge,” Ringer states that the West claimed that to be
“modern” meant to be westernized. Moreover, Protestantism was
linked with modernity because it fostered science, rationalism, and
individualism. However, as Zoroastrian reformers sought to shape
their religion according to Western-Protestant notions of “modern
religion,” they applied, rejected, or modified this concept according
to how it fit into their religion.
The book is divided into eight chapters, and includes illustrations
of Zoroastrian religious symbols, prominent reformers, architecture;
ruins, and a representation of Zoroaster. Chapter one discusses the
fact that because of their commercial and political connections to
Britain, the Parsi Zoroastrian merchant class was attracted to and,
subsequently adopted British ideas of modernity, “enlightened
religion,” and social reform agendas. Reformers strived to improve
education for Parsi women as well as reevaluated their religious
tradition, as they claimed that Zoroastrianism promoted science and
hygiene. The next two chapters deal with the Parsi effort to protect
their religion against criticism from scholars of Zoroastrianism and
linguistics, and Christian missionaries. Parsi Zoroastrians began to
define their religion as moral, “rational,” monotheistic, and lacking
ritual, some of the characteristics of a “true religion.” Religious
reformers were largely the powerful merchants more often than the
less powerful Parsi priesthood, and debates centered on attaining
“civilization and progress.” Also, reformers had divided into the
“Reformist Zoroastrians,” who rejected tradition, and the “Orthodox
Zoroastrians,” who accepted tradition, while altering specific ones.
Chapter four looks at the different viewpoints of Western religious
scholarship on Zoroastrianism and how some believed that tradition
slowed down the progress of civilization, a view held by many
British-Protestant missionaries. Chapter five is an introduction to the
second generation of Parsi reformers of the early twentieth century.
By now, “Reformist” and “Orthodox” reformers were not only aware
of the first generation reformers’ ideas, but also of Western religious
and Zoroastrian scholarship; therefore, dialogue on religious reform
moved away from the merchants and into the hands of the
Zoroastrian scholars, including priests. The goal of the second
generation was to reveal the “true” nature of Zoroastrianism by
stripping it of accretions that came after Zoroaster’s death. The last
three chapters delve into Zoroastrians in Iran. Ringer discusses the
Parsi effort to reform Iranian community organization and religion
using Parsi methods of religious and social reform. In 1853, Parsi
merchants organized the Society for the Amelioration of Conditions
in Iran in order to remove Islamic restrictions on Zoroastrians and to
abolish the non-Muslim tax imposed on them. Religious reform that
took place included the Parsi encouragement of Zoroastrianism as
monotheistic, abolishing animal sacrifice, and bringing back customs
such as the wearing of Zoroastrian garments. By the twentieth
century, Iranian Zoroastrians were able to participate in trade and
commerce, permitted to run for political office, and the first of their
religious schoolhouses was opened. During the period 1870 to 1941,
Iranian Zoroastrians were developing their own opinions on religious
and community practices. Once Reza Shah began his efforts to
nationalize Iran, the assumption was that modernization would be a
return to a pre-Islamic-Zoroastrian past at a national level, because it
was believed that this was the originator of modernity. While trying
to promote Zoroastrianism, Reza Shah sought the aid of Reformist
Kay Khosrow Shahrokh. Shahrokh’s ideas of rational religion as a
way of creating a modern individual by means of equality, social
responsibility, and removal of ritual, believing that Zoroastrianism
was the originator of modern religion, were widely held for the rest
of the century.
The book concludes by comparing the impetus to religious
reform in India and in Iran. Moreover, Ringer argues that religion
was at the heart of moving towards a modern society in the Middle
East and India. But except for India (see Peter van der Veer’s
Conversion to Modernity: The Globalization of Christianity [1996]
and Imperial Encounters [2001]), there are no studies that currently
examine the central role of religious reform in creating a modern
state in the Middle East.
For anyone unfamiliar with religious studies, Ringer strives to
clearly explain concepts that may be vague or esoteric. Although the
book is engaging and well-researched, Ringer tends to repeat herself
unnecessarily.
Scholars of Middle Eastern and religious studies will have a
wealth of information to peruse in the Notes and Bibliography
section, especially since Ringer relies heavily on historical
information for background research. The Index is good and
Romanization of words is accurate. This is an important study
because it reveals the major role religion can play in society. That is
why students of Middle Eastern and/or religious studies and
academic libraries will benefit from owning Pious Citizens:
Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran.
NANCY BEYGIJANIAN
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES