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Why is India's wealthy Parsi community

vanishing?
By Bachi Karkaria
Udvada, Gujarat

9 January 2016

PARVEZ DAMANIA

India's Parsi population is down to a critical 61,000

Udvada is an obscure hamlet in India's western Gujarat state which houses

the holiest fire of India's Parsi community.
Legend has it that it was consecrated some 12 centuries ago on the nearby
Sanjan beach, landing point of a boatload of refugees who had fled the Arab
conquest of Persia to save their 3,000-year-old Zoroastrian faith, and that it
has remained unquenched ever since.

The first-ever Udvada Utsav (festival) held over the Christmas weekend drew
4,000 believers.

Yet, what became the "burning issue" was not the ancient fire but the solution
proffered to tackle the existential crisis once again faced by this distinctive -
and distinguished - community.

Their numbers are down to a critical 61,000, and diminishing by the day;
another 40,000 are scattered across the world with an even greater struggle
to hang on to their distinctive identity.

In his speech, eminent lawyer Darius Khambata said Zoroastrianism, being a

universal religion, should be opened to anyone seeking to join.

This is a red rag, and not only to the bullish. Most Parsis fiercely believe that it
is their exclusive right.

Fresh blood needed

 Activist are concerned about the ageing Parsi population in India

Parsi numbers have declined by 12% every census decade - India's population
increases by 21%. They are projected to plummet to 23,000 in the near future,
reducing this sophisticated, urbane community to a "tribe".

An infusion of fresh blood is desperately needed.

Even literally because cousin marriages are common, and so are the diseases
of inbreeding. Yet, with a combination of racial pride and fear, community
leaders have obdurately resisted any intrusion.

"No conversions" was among the conditions laid down by the ruler of Gujarat
who had given asylum to a group of Zoroastrians who fled religious
persecution in Iran, and arrived on India's west coast.

'Refresh the gene pool'

A 1908 judgement in the Bombay High Court reiterated that "Parsi" is an
ethnic entity restricted to the descendants of those Persian refugees, though
logic may look askance at such racial purity maintained over a millennium.

The judges had added that the child of a mixed marriage could be included in
this definition only when the father is Parsi. (One is born Parsi, but becomes
Zoroastrian aer the initiating "navjot" ceremony).
 Campaigns have been running to promote child birth in the Parsi community

Scholars, liberals - and intermarried women - have protested such

discrimination, and nullifying it would improve the numbers and refresh the
gene pool.

But the argument has always been battened down, not just by the orthodoxy
but the larger paranoia.

"Reform" is a dirty, even treacherous, word for reasons more self-serving than
sacred.

Parsis fear that their envied communal legacy will be appropriated by "half
castes". Intermarriage accounts for 38%, and is growing.

Aer centuries of rural facelessness, the Parsis flowered under British rule.

Their philanthropy came to be as fabled as their fortunes, many made from

the opium "trade" with China.

Apart from spacious community housing, wealthy families endowed

scholarships, hospitals and fire temples.
 AFP

Women are uniformly well educated in the community

All these benefactions have become factors in the insistence on exclusivity

since their trust deeds allow only Parsi-Zoroastrians to access them.

In 2012, the nodal Bombay Parsi Panchayat, which controls the vast trust
funds, stated that a "poor Parsi eligible for subsidised housing is someone
earning less than 90,000 rupees ($1,351; £916) a month"; the urban Indian
poverty line is 870 rupees ($13; £9).

Exemplary minority
But the community has also been a victim of its wealth. Lavish charities
doused the belly fire of the young, especially boys. Girls are uniformly well
educated and scorn "unsuitable" grooms. Migration further queered the pitch.

One in every 10 women and one in every five men remains unmarried by age
50. Fertility rates have fallen below viable levels; only one in nine wholly Parsi
families has a child under age 10.

In 2013, there were 735 deaths and only 174 births, a 13.43% drop from 2012.
Even couples who can, don't have children.

In his speech at Udvada Utsav, popular actor Boman Irani joked about leaders
urging him to help change this situation. "What am I to do? Barge into
honeymooning couples' bedrooms and order productive action?"
 AFP

Boman Irani is a well known Bollywood actor

Catch 22
Even India, loathe to lose such an exemplary minority, has pitched in.

"Jiyo ( keep living) Parsi" is a nationally-funded project begun in 2013 to

encourage more births, including subsidised IVF treatments and grants. But it
could be too little, too late.

Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor, one of the two hereditary high priests of
Udvada, has a refreshingly pragmatic approach.

"How can you say 'xyz is not allowed by our scriptures' when such situations
didn't exist in those times. When parents ask my opinion on their daughter's
decision to marry a non-Parsi, I only say, 'Is he a good man? Will she be
happy?'"
 GETTY IMAGES

Close to half the community is now scattered across the world where intermarriage is inevitable

It's Catch 22 for a proud community which has always punched above its
weight.

Admitting the children of all mixed marriages would substantially improve the
statistics, but will dilute, even destroy, a very distinctive ethnic identity.

In his provocative speech, Mr Khambata said, "You can't endeavour to save our
ethnicity at the cost of our religion." Drastic choice, it seems.

But it had already been made by the Parsis' forefathers who had abandoned
their age-old Persian identity and charted a bold, new course to preserve their
ancient, enlightened Zoroastrian faith.

Bachi Karkaria is a Mumbai-based senior journalist

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