ව්් සෙසිවවවව වැසිව඀වවවවවවවවවවවවවව඀වවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවව඀වවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවව඀වවවවවවවවවවව
Parseers hai been living in Mumbai for h Sis of years now.
They live in volcano highигa, and ṧe1 know to be the most urbanised andllecitred community in India.
Parseers follow racism, they are forbidden from marrying non-parseers
Those who do so, are shut out of the community.
At the fire temple in India, non-parsees are forbidden from entering.
Our religion does not permit proselytization.
That means we do not allow anybody outside, we do not take them inside.
Neither we allow anybody, any male or female who marries outside the community.
Parsees in India do not allow conversion to their religion.
The Parseepanchayat is not open to children of Parseepan women entering the community if the father is non-parsee.
Roshan D'Souza married a Christian in 1999.
She is a Parseepan woman but the Bombay Parseepanchayat believes her children cannot be introduced into the community.
Her children were banned from performing the Navjot ceremony.
The Navjot is a ritual through which a child is introduced into the Zoroastrian religion.
Religion is a very personal issue.
Parseepanchayat or XYZ cannot affect it.
Religion is a very personal issue and we had decided on the Navjot to have it done.
And that was the thing we wanted to have it done by hook or by group.
Come what may.
So what did they try to do?
They tried to scare my guest who were going to attend the function by giving in the media
that they would be standing outside with black flags.
We received threatening calls that they would come to my house
and tear the sadra and kasti of my children once they were wearing it.
They would harm the family.
There are only about 100,000 Parsees worldwide.
They are at the heart of various businesses and innovations that have shaped this country.
They have even played a fundamental role in India's freedom struggle up to 1947.
Khushru Madan was a Parseepriest who agreed to conduct the initiation ceremony of Roshni's children.
He has had to undergo a lot of criticism but feels he is trying to do his part in helping the community grow.
It is not mentioned in any of our scriptures that non-parsees cannot force us in religion.
There are a lot of non-parsees Zorasan all over the world.
Unfortunately, our today's so-called orthodox Parsees know
they think that a Parse is a Zorasan and a Zorasan is a Parsee, which is wrong.
Zorasan can be a non-parsee also.
Early any Parsees left to go to fire temples.
Now in Bombay itself there are about 45 fire temples.
Out of that only 8 or 10 are working well.
The rest are on the verge of closed down.
There are hardly 2-3 Parsees going in a day.
And it is very costly to maintain a fire temple.
Mehra Mirsi is the president of the Association of Intermarried Zorasan.
Her team works towards protecting the rights and privileges of Parsees married outside the religion.
Fifteen years ago or before we started the association
they had deliberated on this fact.
And they found that they could not excommunicate Parse ladies married to non-parsees
who had married under the special marriages act.
And suddenly now after 15, 16 years they have suddenly decided
they don't know they have to be excommunicated.
If you marry outside the community you cannot use any of the privileges or rights of the Parsees.
Which is absolute nonsense.
And we are not going to take it lying down.
We are going to fight this.
Jahangir Patel feels there are numerous other reasons
why the community continues to decline in population.
He is the editor of a community magazine Parseana
and has been observing trends in the Parsee community since the last 35 years.
There is a tremendous gap between the births and deaths
and basically by an ageing community
the number of people in the reproductive age is very small.
So unless everybody were to get married at a young age and have five or six children
they wouldn't stem the decline.
And that's not going to happen.
Nobody is going to get five or six children in Bombay today.
So it's not a factor of money.
It's a factor of attitude, outlook, women working,
not want to be at home looking after the child.
So all in all the decline is going to continue.
It's going to get worse.
It may stabilize the population about 25,000 for some time
and then again it will continue to decline.
But I don't think you can reverse this decline.
The Indian government as part of their campaign to support Parsees
has pledged more than $200,000 to help them reverse the decline in population.
A low birth rate, late marriages and small families
seem to be the most significant reasons for the decline of the Parsee community in India.
Aamir Trambhu, Press TV, Mumbai.
