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Ultra-Orthodoxy: Scriptures and Numbers.
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by
B. T. Dastur
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 "A
conservative is a person who believes that nothing should be done
for the first time." - Alfred E. Wissam
Every community has its orthodox and liberal elements, its pragmatists
and renegades. Despite our 100% literacy and Western orientation,
in majority, we are an orthodox community, despite our love for
Western dress, Western education, Western music, and love of English,
as a language. So are the Jews and the Protestants and the Catholics
of Ireland - to say nothing of other religions and communities.
The disturbing aspect of our community is the growing trend towards
ultra-orthodoxy, and it is on the rise! The ultra-orthodox and the
die-hards just do not want to brook any other point of view or interpretation,
either of social mores or its scripture/s. With intent, they have
closed their eyes and will brook no dissent, however learned and
scientific. The core of this group, unfortunately, is very many
priests and a few behinds who think it is their exclusive privilege
to protect, preach and interpret our religion. Those who have joined
that bandwagon are more pseudo-scholars who are believed to have
all the time to do, and nothing to do. They neither generate wealth
nor knowledge, but spread religious zeal of a perverse nature. Let
me explain: our Scriptures are replete with references to our religion
being not only simple, compassionate, scientific and highly ethical,
but as one propounded for all mankind. It also enjoins upon spreading
our religion far and wide, at a time when it was a period of proto-history
when it began, and flourished in Iran and beyond.
I do not want to go into great details, but only quote the following
Scriptures in support of my contention which maintain, categorically,
that our religion is universal, i.e., for all mankind. The Gathas
are replete with references in that direction. Aiwisruthrem Geh,
Haptan Yasht, Deen Yasht, Nameh Khavar and Mahrespand Roj Ni Setayesh
are equally categorical on this subject.
It is appropriate for me to quote Jeedu Krishnamurti:
We all ought to wash our minds completely clean, as the trees
are washed by the rain, because they are so heavily laden with the
dust of many centuries".
We are the only community in the world who disown our girls who
marry out, and so also their children. We go to the outlandish extent
of disowning even the children of Parsi fathers and non-Parsi mothers,
though the law of the land (based on a 1906 Judgement of the Bombay
High Court) legislates that the offsprings of Parsi fathers and
non-Parsi mothers will be Parsis.
Only in our land we can treat its laws with contempt, on the
ostensible plea that religion takes precedence over High Court rulings.
Can you do that in any other country?
I have known fanatics, at fora, who mouth the feelings that we will
die out rather than dilute. These myopic observers who believe in
our racial purity in India, don't know that it is an anthropological
myth.
Even if 10 boatloads of Persian Zoroastrians landed at Diu aggregating,
say, a thousand men, women and children, how did we reach a peak
of 1,14,000 Zoroastrians, in 1941?
A 60-year old anthropological study showed that the Mer Bharvada
(shepherds) of Gujarat freely intermingled with the Parsees (or
the other way round). Their tribe is tall, fair, and hook-nosed,
like us.
My question to the ultra-orthodox lobby is : why do we let the children
of Parsi fathers and Doobri mothers (mostly of Vansda, Gujarat),
work in our Agiaries, Atash Behrams, Dadgahs, and Dokhmas? Isn't
it a rule of convenience?
Where is our purity gone? The only pure tribes left are the Great
Andaman Tribe (50), and the Ongo tribe (12) of the Andaman Islands.
Even the Gypsies or the Congo are not pure. There is no pure race,
worth mentioning, left on this planet. The Sanger Institute in Cambridge
(in Engalnd) has confirmed to me that the genetic difference between
an earthworm and a man is only 0.01%.
It is not a small wonder that the Mobed Council of North America
has taken a more pragmatic view of Parsi Demography on that continent,
rejected our archaic practices and started installing their own
High Priests, such as in Chicago and Toronto.
Many Parsees who went to Burma, Singapore, Hongkong, China and Japan
mingled with the women of the Mongol race, produced offsprings and
established our Fire Temples where those children gained an unhindered
entry.
The ratio of deaths to births in the largest concentration of the
Parsis in the world (Bombay), is 3:1 and many of our Priests, who
form a part of our ultra orthodox lobby, seem totally unconcerned.
One religious practice which irks all non-Parsis is our refusal
to show the faces of our corpses, to them, after the Sachkar is
performed. The reason advanced is that the gaze of the Juddin pollutes
the corpse, which means that our prayers are reduced to an absurdity.
The Geh Sarnu is so powerful that it dispels all things evil. So,
how can the gaze of the Juddin (which is not an evil) defile our
corpse?
In life, we Parsee are known to be the most tolerant on earth, most
liberal, most catholic in our disposition, intensely loyal to our
land and most concerned about the indigent, but when it comes to
death, we are the most intolerant, most bigoted and even hostile.
This practice has got to change. It begets us a lot of bad name,
and this bigotry does us no good and mislabels us. We are a very
fine community, blessed by God in all respects, but the bigoted
elements amongst us have chosen to be of little minds, believing
in some imaginary purity and the misplaced zeal to preserve our
noblest faith.
There are other arcane practices which we need to abandon- as we
have abandoned a lot many: in the days ofettol and doctors' death
certificates, we apply TARO to a corpse show the corpse to a (male)
dog and continue with the stupid practice of Ada Antar.
It is high time that our community rejects, unitedly, those whose
philosophy is misplaced, anti-Scriptural and most uncatholic by
disposition.
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