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 It
is a rainy Mumbai morning, and a young working mother, clutching
her nine-year old daughter's hand, steers her skillfully and hurriedly
through the surging crowd, avoiding the muddy puddles, praying that
an errant pedestrian's habitual spitting does not defile their clothes,
and after successfully passing the final barrier of outstretched
begging arms eventually enter the Agiary gates and phew, what a
difference! Mother and child looked at each other and smiled. Their
smile was loaded with meaning which no words can describe. Inside
the Agiary, being muktad days, the ambience was heavenly with rows
of tables laden with shining vases full of flowers of all kinds
and the fragrance of sandalwood and recital of prayers by the priests
added a touch of solemnity. After paying obeisance at the vases
meant for her grandparents, the little girl sat besides her mother
listening to the priests praying aloud. She observed the people
with her agile eyes, and her mind and heart felt a sublime feeling
of belonging. She became aware of her identity and suddenly a sense
of security and happiness overwhelmed her. The innocence and uncluttered
mind of the little girl made everyone in the Agiary dear to her.
Would the adults at the same time and the same place in the Agiary
have the same feelings for their fellow Zoroastrians? The answer
will be an emphatic NO.
This sordid state of the mind is the culmination of years of disdainful
disrespect for each others' needs and views, erosion in the values
of compassion and tolerance and increase in traits of greed, envy
and crass materialism. This has resulted in our community's Emotional
Quotient (EQ), which is a measure, among other things, of temperament,
happiness, optimism, social awareness, and expression of true feelings,
to reach abysmally low levels. Different classes of Zoroastrians
have evolved, due to economic disparity and living styles, and conflicting
views on religious and social matters, resulting in weakening of
the common identity culminating into a serious state of Crisis of
Identity.
The advent of the British in India and the ensuing industrial revolution
threw up tremendous opportunities and the industrious Parsis of
those days grabbed the opportunities. This is evident from the myriad
surnames inherited by the present day Parsis. The Parsis must be
the only community with the highest number of surnames to population
ratio! The sad part is that most of the businesses and vocations
were not consolidated. The 'do it alone' attitude made the parsis
spread like lone rangers all over India and soon they had a pan
India presence. It is creditable these groups maintained their identity
and also their religious customs and beliefs. The Parsis tenaciously
held on to their identity till the 1940s, as can be seen in the
photographs and living style of those days. There was an iota of
feeling for fellow Zoroastrians and as a result a couple of colonies
and many fire temples were built. However, the small groups which
spread far and wide were soon decimated by natural causes and sheer
logistics of vast distances. Today, most of the Zoroastrian families,
by the grace of Ahura Mazda, are financially well-off. They adapt
well, wherever they reside. As a result inter-dependence within
the community is almost non-existent. The new nuclear families are
self-reliant and do not require constant inter-action between their
community members. It seems, nobody needs anybody. Majority of the
Zoroastrians are office-goers, or in professions. Very few are in
small businesses at the street level which require high levels of
co-operation and inter-dependence as can be witnessed in the Gujarati
and Bohra communities. These communities and many ethnic communities
like the Jews, Japanese, Irish have striven hard to maintain their
identity. The Sikhs have successfully fought court battles in America,
Canada and Europe to retain their cultural identity. Today, children
of a Sikh taxi driver in New York spotting Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh of India on their T.V. screen will immediately strike an emotional
cord and have a profound sense of pride in their identity. The Parsi
community has not strived hard to maintain their cultural and religious
identity. People who migrated abroad did not have a plan to stay
in clusters for preserving their culture and identity. Other Indian
groups who have migrated in larger numbers have managed to stay
together in localities which have been even termed as mini-India.
The Zoroastrians, on the other hand, showing their lone ranger streak,
are spread all over distant places in the foreign lands, and the
only links are loosely assembled federations. As a result, the next
generation is as good as lost as they dissolve in the mainstream,
with their original identity becoming blurred and finally extinguished.
This may also be the fate of those in India. More and more will
opt for mixed marriages and one cannot entirely blame the youngsters,
because the community has contemptuously ignored the warning signals.
The ethnic identity of any community is bound by language, religion,
dress-code, values, customs and history(roots).The Zoroastrians
today, as such, do not have a common language. The hold of gujarati
as a binding language, except in Gujarat and to some extent in Mumbai,
is weakening. Children will pick up the local language which will
become the mother tongue, and English will be the only language
for Zoroastrians to converse (or argue) in the future.
Religion in our community has always been a private affair, which
is good in a way, but today requires an urgent boost in the form
of awareness and practice. The priests should play a vital role
in spreading awareness by becoming more inter-active and approachable,
rather than just tending to ritualistic activities in an impersonal
way. Of course , such activities will require a lot of motivation
and hard work. The youngsters should be encouraged to ask questions
and the mobeds should have the knack or training to demystify their
queries in an interesting way.
Having a common dress code for the modern Zoroastrian is next to
impossible, but an effort should be made by the men to wear the
prayer cap as often as possible and the women can show off their
colourful scarves. This will ensure instant recognition, with a
little help from our distinctive features, when two Zoroastrians
cross each other in the streets of Delhi or Hyderabad, Sydney or
Toronto, Chennai or Chicago!
Customs and values have watered down and the hectic pace of modern
life has taken its toll. But the single most vital factor which
has been blacked out in the community psyche is the woeful lack
of sense of history and pride in our roots. People are completely
merged in their day to day activities and progress in material life
is the sole aim. The Zoroastrians prefer the anonymity of big city
life, and most of them consciously try to shy away from their identity.
Today, the cultural identity of the Parsis has been reduced to culinary
items like dhansak, patra ni machi, and lagan nu custard. Many parsi
writers, a few well-known, use these dishes as an exercise in humour
writing. The word 'eccentric' has become a synonym for parsis. Imagine
the impact on young Zoroastrians when they read only such things
about their community; albeit with some worse detours like the resignations
of Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees. And, as if things were not bad
enough, a wannabe Parsi director/script writer comes along and splashes
muck in the face of the community in the form of a film 'Being Cyrus'.
The need of the hour today for all Zoroastrians is to concentrate
on strengthening their identity, to think wisely for the future,
stop diatribes of hatred against each other, praise the good work
done by individuals and organizations, and overlook the shortcomings.
A lot can be achieved by harnessing our talent, resources, and influence.
Our community has always produced a steady stream of stalwarts in
the past and fortunately there are quite a few alive today. However,
they can be likened to the Brazilian footballers, each one of them
a potential match-winner, but when it came to team work, each one
started playing their own ball-game and as a result were kicked
out in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Germany.
Generating a strong sense of identity consciousness in the young
cannot be more emphasized; because it can do wonders and achieve
laudable results. To cite an example, the Australian cricketers'
strong sense of identity helped them decisively win all their matches
against the World XI, which included the best players from all other
countries, in the ICC Super Cup held in Australia during Sept.-Oct.
2005.
The crises of identity in the Zoroastrian community can be tackled
in many ways. It can be attempted by multi-barrel booming from organizations,
anjumans and federations, or it can be attempted at the grass-root
level for better results.
However, the best imprint of a lasting identity will be gifted
by the young mother, who took interest in reading books on Zoroastrianism,
and cuddling her daughter at bedtime, gradually revealed the teachings
to guide her in life. If this is achieved by every Zoroastrian mother,
then the hand that rocks the cradle will really rule the Zoroastrian
World.
hrirani@rediffmail.com
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