Ray Of Hope For Dwindling Parsi Community

[kdsingh80]

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ray-of-hope-for-dwindling-parsi-community/128466-3.html

Mumbai: Young Parsis today visit the fire temple in much larger numbers and more often than they did 30 years ago. This may not seem noteworthy to most people, but for Zoroastrians, a community, which is likely to be wiped out in less than 100 years at its present rate of growth, this simple act assumes significance.

Depleting in numbers, the Parsi community has been looking at ways to keep their community alive. Now a new fertility scheme from the government and even speed dating could be the dwindling community's only hope.

Bombay Parsi Panchayat's Fertility Project that was launched five years ago, primarily to bolster the dwindling community’s numbers, have helped in adding smiles to many of the Parsis. So far 526 couples have signed up for the services and the scheme has ensured 218 conceptions and 160 successful deliveries.

The fertility project, headed by Dr Anahita Pandole, counsels Parsi couples and offers free treatment to those who have difficulty in conceiving.

Dr Pandole, consultant obstetrician, Jaslok Hospital said that since the Parsi community is small and depleting in numbers with every passing day, every additional birth is of utmost importance.

Prospects are indeed looking up for the Parsi community with the government agreeing to provide an assistance of Rs 1 crore to this fertility project.

Salman Khursheed, minority affairs minister said the government is doing its best to help the Parsis as they form an important part of the community.

However, the battle continues for the Parsis to save their community and carry on the struggle to save themselves from extinction.

[Mithar]

The Parsis are on the verge of extinction. I feel that one of the most counter productive policies of the parsis is that they do not even allow converts from outside to join their community. How do they expect to grow considering that their community has the lowest birth rate? Obvious when Zaroaster was first spreading their faith he must have converted people, Zoroastrians did not just fall out of the sky. They do not even accept a Muslim Iranian who might express interest in his ancestral roots and want to convert to Zoroastrianism.

When one reads about how the once great Zoroastrian civilization of Iran was convert to Islam it is really sad part of history, but I guess that is a different topic.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Mithar

[jaikaara]

i have interacted with them when i use to reside in mumbai, they are the gems of mumbai, with hearts full of kindness and are intelligent...

[dalsingh101]

It makes me wonder why some people rigidly adhere to rules which are highly likely to cause their communities demise? The notion of a genetic identity which cannot be 'disturbed' by 'outside blood' is peculiar.

[kdsingh80]

It makes me wonder why some people rigidly adhere to rules which are highly likely to cause their communities demise? The notion of a genetic identity which cannot be 'disturbed' by 'outside blood' is peculiar.

Dalsingh

Have you seen the Film 1947-Earth If not then I strogly recommend you to see it.

In that Film there was dialogue that Parsi's are like chameleons(Girgit) And changes there color where they went.

Anyway the answer to your question is very simple many times people and leaders of a Religion choose self interest Over the interest of community or Doing whatever to keep a religion alive.The parsi's are best example of this .Whether in India or even in Pakistan they never came into conflict with any other Religion.The reason is they were never interested in propagating their religion

or spreading it to others because it might have hurt their business interests.

There children freely intermarried and converted to Hinduism and islam.It was one of the main cause of decline of their population yet they never cared about it

Is it a coincidence that Both Jinnah and Nehru had Parsi connections.The daughters of both the leaders married parsi's.Nehru was clever enough that he married Indira according to Hindu rights.In India there is patriarchal system yet Rajiv and sanjay were not parsi's

In India Parsi community is the wealthiest and many big industries are owned by them.Tata Godrej are some of the example of this.Today Ratan TAta the Owner of Tata industry announced that He is searching for successor ,but that successor should not be pro or anti Parsi.I can understand about being anti parsi not selected by him but pro parsi not selected is beyond by understanding.

Just to conclude this post I believe that we sikhs are also going like the parsis have gone

[dalsingh101]

KDSingh

Regarding your last statement. Although I agree that there are some things that do not bode well for what is the wider Sikh community i.e. loss of numbers through intermarriage and conversions and low female birthrate, I don't think we are anywhere near the critical situation that the Farsis are at - yet. Lets just say that the Sikh community has been teetering around the 20/22 million mark (numerically) for a while now. I would say if we reach 19/18 million mark, we are in really deep trouble.

But...we should also take notice of the quick assimilation and growth of some other quoms...and we seem to be faring quite badly in comparison. Our low numbers before were balanced by a strong independent streak and robust military, now these seem to have gone, only time will tell what will happen to this new community.

It may just surprise us yet.

Edited August 10, 2010 by dalsingh101

[Mekhane'ch Jannat]

A tree grows when it is full of life then growth stagnates and then it begins to die. This is the natural order of things. It is a crime to try to keep a dead tree alive when its time is past. Because a dead tree cannot bring forth any fruits for future generations to enjoy. What is the point of decorating and embellishing a hollow tree with nothing inside it. Most religions have become fossils, which people try to decorate to try and give them a sembelance of life. At least the Parsis know when there season has come, and at least they can go with honour in tact.

[shaheediyan]

Interesting and thoughtful words MJ.

"sky. They do not even accept a Muslim Iranian who might express interest in his ancestral roots and want to convert to Zoroastrianism."

This is also a very interesting point Mithar. One of my fighting teachers is an Iranian from a pro-monarchy family, who is totally anti-Islam (for obvious reasons) and although not a believer in God, does have a huge affection for the Parsi culture/roots, and even wears the wings ni defiance of the current Iranian regime. I expect there are quite a few them around, esp in the UK, which has well known ex-Muslim communities, many of which have converted to Christianity.

Sometimes a tree seems dead, then a new branch/leaf appears, and the glorious past is brought into light, perhaps via a new perspective...

[tonyhp32]

It makes me wonder why some people rigidly adhere to rules which are highly likely to cause their communities demise? The notion of a genetic identity which cannot be 'disturbed' by 'outside blood' is peculiar.

I think the tradition may have its origin in that when the Parsis fled to India in the 10th century they were allowed to settle in India and one of the stipulations by the local Raja was that they would not seek converts from the local Hindus. Since the vast majority of Parsis outside Iran are immigrants from India, the same tradition of not seeking converts continues outside India. The Parsis in Iran being dhimmis cannot hope to get converts and be allowed to live a peaceful life under Sharia.

There is great scope for the Parsis with the use of new technology especially the internet to reach out to the disaffected youth in Iran and teach them about their pre-Islamic religion and culture. Their religion has the potential to supercede Islam in Iran. We might even see our bud Bahadur Ali become Bahadur Portugeusejee SOASwala!

[kdsingh80]

Here is an informative article about parsis

http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/11spec.htm

Every time a census report is released, the topic is raised all over again -- the declining numbers of Parsis.

One of India's [ Images ] smallest and arguably the best-known minority community, it has produced some of India's biggest names -- in politics (Dadabhai Naoroji); in business (Tata, Wadia, Godrej [ Get Quote ] to name just a few); in the law (Nani Palkhivala and Fali Nariman to name only two of the most eminent); in the armed forces (India's first Field Marshal, S H F J Maneckshaw).

Will this community pass into the pages of history?

The Parsis number just in thousands.

India's Registrar General J K Banthia says the community is heading towards extinction in India, and, in effect, the world because Parsis are only found in India.

He says at this rate Parsis may not live to see the next century.

But not all Parsis accept such dire predictions.

One such optimist is Khojeste Mistree, who runs the Centre for Zoroastrian Studies in Mumbai [ Images ].

"We must remember the Parsis were always a small community right from the time the first Parsis landed in Gujarat around 1,200 years ago. Our numbers have never dwindled drastically; certainly there were a little more of us earlier," he says.

From 1941, when the community probably peaked at 115,000, the 2001 census showed only 69,601 Parsis.

Jehangir Patel, editor of Parsiana, a community magazine, and a liberal voice in the community, believes the writing is on the wall.

"I doubt if our community will really survive beyond this century," he says.

In 1991, the census showed the Parsis had actually increased from the earlier census (see table), while declining every decade.

Mistree says this proves his point. "Our community has not been shrinking, it has simply been dispersing across the globe. There were huge waves of migrations in the 1960s and 1970s to the UK and the US. This trend declined in the 1980s, which explains the high 1991 census. Again migration picked up in the 1990s due to the tech boom, and hundreds of Parsis migrated West," he says.

Mistree says Parsis abroad are marrying other Parsis and the community's number is more or less stable at a little less than 80,000 but that it is much more dispersed now.

"As someone who talks on the Zoroastrian religion, I travel abroad and meet Parsis all over the world, who give me the number of their members abroad. For instance, around 1,000 Parsis moved to New Zealand [ Images ] in the last 12 years, another 1,000 to Australia [ Images ] in the last decade, and so forth. Add them all together and the figure is quite stable," he says.

Mistree belives it is more important to calculate the number of Parsis worldwide before jumping to conclusions that the community is shrinking.

Professor Ashish Bose, one of India's leading demographers, too worries about the Parsi community.

"The statistics are stark. I fear for the community's future. I have told the community that they need to increase their fertility rate to survive the next century," he says.

But is it easy to increase this prosperous community's fertility rate?

As any demographer will point out, there is a direct correlation between prosperity and fertility across the globe: more the prosperity, fewer the children; and vice-versa.

For instance, the fertility rate of prosperous Europeans has fallen dramatically as has that of Japan [ Images ]. In contrast, the poor continue to have more children, as is best illustrated by the rising Muslim population of India.

On the socio-economic and education front, Muslims and Parsis are at the extreme ends of the spectrum.

"The Parsi decline is the price the community is paying for its women's education and emancipation," says Patel.

Parsi female literacy rate is 97 per cent, the highest in India.

Parsi women tend to study more and marry late. They end up having fewer children. "One cannot push couples to have more children just to ensure a community's viability," points out Patel.

For Mistree, there is another problem -- the incredibly high number of bachelors and spinsters within the community.

"Too many of our men and women just don't marry, claiming they haven't found the right person. In such a small community, even if a few hundreds don't marry, the proportion is very high and this directly impacts the community's growth," he said.

He added that he has also told the Parsi Panchayat, which oversees the community's affairs, to come up with innovative ideas to help the community grow.

One such idea is to provide larger houses (more than half of the Parsis in Mumbai live in accommodation provided by the Parsi Panchayat) so that couples can have larger families.

"Mumbai forces people to live in small houses, but since our community is small with so much property, surely we can provide larger residences," he said.

But the final frontier is the question of allowing people to convert to Zoroastrianism, especially those persons whose one parent is a Parsi.

This question has divided the Parsi community right down the middle with the orthodox simply refusing any leeway, while the liberals argue that not reforming will simply ensure the community's extinction.

Dadi Vesuna from the northwest Mumbai suburb of Bandra says he is unaware that Parsis abroad were accepting converts. He thinks it goes against the very grain of being a Parsi.

He says the growing trend of marrying outside the community is wrong. He says the boys and girls going in for mixed marriages should be considered outcastes.

Yuzdi Badhniwalla, electrical engineer and an MBA, is also a purist. He feels the Parsis of India should not intermingle with Zoroastrians abroad and should avoid aligning with the likes of the International Zoroastrian Organisation.

"They don't understand or respect out beliefs. They accept converts because they feel our numbers are dwindling. They always take views diametrically opposite to those of Parsis. I mean the Americans and British. They might not have the land assets that the Bombay Parsi Panchayat has, but they have cash. This helps them garner support to their views. I don't agree with them. We cannot accept converts and we must not join the world body."

To understand the problem it is necessary to distinguish between Zoroastrianism and Parsi, words that are often used synonymously but are not.

The Parsis are descendents of Persians who sought refuge in India after the Arabs overran ancient Persia (now Iran) in the seventh and eight centuries. Thus, there is an ethnic element: they are of Aryan stock that has managed to keep alive their distinct identity. The religion the Parsis follow is Zoroastrianism, founded by the Prophet Zarathustra or Zoroaster.

Traditionally, it is believed that when the first Zoroastrians came to India, they promised the Hindu king who gave them refuge, Jadi Rana, that they would not convert the natives to Zoroastrianism. But another view is that refusing to convert was also a way to ensure that the race remained 'unpolluted.'

Modernity has broken down the walls that separated the different communities, more so in a city like Mumbai where a majority of Parsis live.

Now, almost every third Parsi marries out of the community.

The children of Parsi fathers and non-Parsi mothers can be baptised as Parsis (the ceremony is called the Navjote), but not the children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers.

Incidentally, the privilege to children of Parsi fathers was not granted by the community but by a Bombay high court ruling.

And since community leaders are unwilling to accept the children of Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers, the only way this will change is if someone goes to court and demands that there be no discrimination on the basis of sex, says Patel.

Mistree wonders how people who become Zoroastrians can be called Parsis, since one can only be born into an ethnic community, not join it.

"Such neo-converts can be called Zoroastrians but surely they are not Parsis. What the liberals don't understand is that even if we take in children with Parsi mothers and non-Parsi fathers, it does not solve their concern about declining Parsi numbers. We may increase the religion, but not the community," he says.

He has a point. For the Parsis of India, it is a tough call: should they keep alive their religion even as the Parsi ethnicity gradually disappears? Or keep things as they are and hope that the new generation of Parsi couples will have more children.

Perhaps Census 2011 might help the community decide the path it must tak