Rakhmetov
09-29-2008, 11:46 PM
http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/parsis.htm
Khorshed Driver is 72, single and lives with her 96-year-old mother in Bombay.
That is not at all unusual for India's tiny and dwindling Parsi community, or Zoroastrians, who fled religious persecution in Persia and landed on Indian shores more than 1,000 years ago.
"We're an ageing and dwindling population," Shernaz Cama, head of a UNESCO research project on the Parsis, said.
"There's a large number of elderly and a small number of younger people.
"As a result, it's difficult for Parsis to find partners in the community."
The entrepreneurial Parsis control more than 15 per cent of the market capitalisation on India's main stock exchange, but account for a miniscule 0.000076 percent of its billion people.
The Parsi population has always been small, but census figures show it fell a third to 76,000 in 1991 from a peak of 114,000 in 1941.
At this rate, the number could shrink to about 20,000 within 20 years, experts say.
"Chances of Parsis as an ethnic group surviving are slim," Jehangir Patel, editor and publisher of Parsiana, a monthly magazine for the community.
"The decline is quite alarming. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest cultures that has survived from the Bronze Age in an unbroken manner.
"But today, you have totally empty villages in western India where you once had a prosperous Parsi population."
Big in business
The Parsis first landed on the western Indian coast in the eighth Century and moved on from being farmers to make a name in industry, particularly the cotton, steel and shipping businesses.
Their association with business shows in many of their surnames: Readymoney, Screwalla, Merchant, Contractor, Doctor, Lawyer and Engineer.
Legend has it that an Indian king, who was not too keen on allowing foreign refugees into his kingdom, sent a bowl of milk to the first group of Parsis more than 1,000 years ago, signifying the land was full and could support no more people.
The Parsis sent the bowl back with some sugar in it to say they would enrich the land and not disturb it.
Today, some of the biggest names in Indian business are Parsi: the country's second-largest business conglomerate, the Tata group; the Godrej group, which makes everything from locks to refrigerators, and the Wadias, one of the oldest names in textiles.
But the highly educated community is on the verge of extinction because of its ageing population, low birth rate and rigid rules about accepting the children of Parsis married to non-Parsis.
"Fifty-three years after independence, we have nothing to fear but ourselves. We are the only community in fertile India that has a diminishing birth rate," Sooni Taraporevala, a well-known scriptwriter, wrote.
"We intermarry amongst ourselves, marry late, have few children.
"In a political climate where religions vie with each other to gain converts, we zealously try to keep them out."
Growing problems
India's financial capital Bombay has the largest Parsi community - about 65,000 - many of whom live in grand colonial mansions with the old world charm of antique wood furniture, lace curtains and embroidered drapery, in ethnic enclaves
The Parsis, many dressed in typical white caps and shirts, get together at the city's 50 fire temples for festivals and other occasions, such as weddings or christenings.
The dwindling numbers have created a host of social and medical problems for the distinctive community that reveres the elements - fire, water and earth.
They do not bury or cremate their dead but leave the bodies in stone towers to be eaten by vultures, to avoid contaminating the elements.
But a shortage of vultures has created another problem, forcing Parsis to search for alternatives that do not violate their beliefs.
The biggest social problem is that many are single because they cannot find Parsi partners, prompting a council of community leaders in Bombay to come up with a unique scheme that subsidises Parsi parents who want to bring up a third child.
Apart from the social crisis, continued inbreeding has made Parsis vulnerable to diseases such as cancer and haemophilia.
"Breast cancer is higher among Parsi women. They also suffer from a deficiency of G6PD in their blood which causes many complications, some of them fatal," said Ms Cama.
Deficiency of G6PD or the glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase enzyme causes blood-related problems such as anaemia.
Tradition prevails
Desperate to prevent the Parsis from fading away, some reformists have suggested the community accept children of Parsi women married to non-Parsis into the faith.
"Strict laws are alienating people," said Delna Patel, a 35-year-old corporate events manager in Bombay.
"It is a beautiful religion. But I will not marry a Parsi man. The community has become so dogmatic that people are holding to wrong rules."
But purists frown upon any suggestion to alter tradition.
"We're a shrinking community," said Driver, a frail woman with a scarf covering her head as she entered the fire temple.
"We can survive only if young people find Parsi suitors."
-- Reuters
Khorshed Driver is 72, single and lives with her 96-year-old mother in Bombay.
That is not at all unusual for India's tiny and dwindling Parsi community, or Zoroastrians, who fled religious persecution in Persia and landed on Indian shores more than 1,000 years ago.
"We're an ageing and dwindling population," Shernaz Cama, head of a UNESCO research project on the Parsis, said.
"There's a large number of elderly and a small number of younger people.
"As a result, it's difficult for Parsis to find partners in the community."
The entrepreneurial Parsis control more than 15 per cent of the market capitalisation on India's main stock exchange, but account for a miniscule 0.000076 percent of its billion people.
The Parsi population has always been small, but census figures show it fell a third to 76,000 in 1991 from a peak of 114,000 in 1941.
At this rate, the number could shrink to about 20,000 within 20 years, experts say.
"Chances of Parsis as an ethnic group surviving are slim," Jehangir Patel, editor and publisher of Parsiana, a monthly magazine for the community.
"The decline is quite alarming. Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest cultures that has survived from the Bronze Age in an unbroken manner.
"But today, you have totally empty villages in western India where you once had a prosperous Parsi population."
Big in business
The Parsis first landed on the western Indian coast in the eighth Century and moved on from being farmers to make a name in industry, particularly the cotton, steel and shipping businesses.
Their association with business shows in many of their surnames: Readymoney, Screwalla, Merchant, Contractor, Doctor, Lawyer and Engineer.
Legend has it that an Indian king, who was not too keen on allowing foreign refugees into his kingdom, sent a bowl of milk to the first group of Parsis more than 1,000 years ago, signifying the land was full and could support no more people.
The Parsis sent the bowl back with some sugar in it to say they would enrich the land and not disturb it.
Today, some of the biggest names in Indian business are Parsi: the country's second-largest business conglomerate, the Tata group; the Godrej group, which makes everything from locks to refrigerators, and the Wadias, one of the oldest names in textiles.
But the highly educated community is on the verge of extinction because of its ageing population, low birth rate and rigid rules about accepting the children of Parsis married to non-Parsis.
"Fifty-three years after independence, we have nothing to fear but ourselves. We are the only community in fertile India that has a diminishing birth rate," Sooni Taraporevala, a well-known scriptwriter, wrote.
"We intermarry amongst ourselves, marry late, have few children.
"In a political climate where religions vie with each other to gain converts, we zealously try to keep them out."
Growing problems
India's financial capital Bombay has the largest Parsi community - about 65,000 - many of whom live in grand colonial mansions with the old world charm of antique wood furniture, lace curtains and embroidered drapery, in ethnic enclaves
The Parsis, many dressed in typical white caps and shirts, get together at the city's 50 fire temples for festivals and other occasions, such as weddings or christenings.
The dwindling numbers have created a host of social and medical problems for the distinctive community that reveres the elements - fire, water and earth.
They do not bury or cremate their dead but leave the bodies in stone towers to be eaten by vultures, to avoid contaminating the elements.
But a shortage of vultures has created another problem, forcing Parsis to search for alternatives that do not violate their beliefs.
The biggest social problem is that many are single because they cannot find Parsi partners, prompting a council of community leaders in Bombay to come up with a unique scheme that subsidises Parsi parents who want to bring up a third child.
Apart from the social crisis, continued inbreeding has made Parsis vulnerable to diseases such as cancer and haemophilia.
"Breast cancer is higher among Parsi women. They also suffer from a deficiency of G6PD in their blood which causes many complications, some of them fatal," said Ms Cama.
Deficiency of G6PD or the glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase enzyme causes blood-related problems such as anaemia.
Tradition prevails
Desperate to prevent the Parsis from fading away, some reformists have suggested the community accept children of Parsi women married to non-Parsis into the faith.
"Strict laws are alienating people," said Delna Patel, a 35-year-old corporate events manager in Bombay.
"It is a beautiful religion. But I will not marry a Parsi man. The community has become so dogmatic that people are holding to wrong rules."
But purists frown upon any suggestion to alter tradition.
"We're a shrinking community," said Driver, a frail woman with a scarf covering her head as she entered the fire temple.
"We can survive only if young people find Parsi suitors."
-- Reuters