Naval officer under the Raj who became a cricket commentator and respected diplomat in Pakistan

JAMSHEED MARKER, who has died aged 95, commanded a minesweeper in the Royal Indian Navy during the Second World War, pioneered cricket commentary in Pakistan in the 1950s, and served as a highly respected diplomat, representing Pakistan in the US and a dozen other countries for more than three decades, culminating in a posting to the United Nations.

Obituary in the The Daily Telegraph

As ambassador to the US from 1986 to 1989, Marker, an urbane, cigar-smoking Zoroastrian from Quetta, was intimately involved in forging a joint strategy with the Reagan administration, which culminated in the Geneva Accords in 1988 and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

At the UN, Marker acted as spokesman for the non-aligned nations and served as chairman of the Security Council. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, by the time he officially retired in 1995 he had been “ambassador to more countries than any other person”.

Later, under Kofi Annan, he served as a special adviser to the UN Secretary-General and in 1998 Annan appointed him his Personal Representative for East Timor, in which capacity he conducted negotiations between the governments of Indonesia and Portugal and East Timorese separatist leaders, which brought an end to a 10-year conflict and led to the independence of Timor Leste.

In September 2004, Pakistan’s then prime minister Shaukat Aziz named Marker as ambassador-at-large for his years of service, and he continued in this role until 2008 under the Musharraf regime.

Jamsheed Kekobad Ardeshir Marker was born on November 24 1922 in Hyderabad, in British-ruled India, into a Parsee family with business interests in Quetta and Karachi. His grandfather, Ardeshir Marker, had moved to Quetta in 1880 from Bombay and established himself as a supplier to the British military.

Jamsheed’s father, Kekobad Marker, developed the family business, expanding into pharmaceuticals, shipping and other areas, and became a notable philanthropist. Jamsheed’s mother, Meherbano, was a pioneer in social work, a feminist and the author of a history of the Parsees.

Jamsheed was educated at the Doon School in Dehra Dun where the name of the Marker family is still celebrated in the form of “Marker cups”, awarded to students for academic excellence. He went on to study at Forman Christian College in Lahore, graduating with top marks in Economics.

During the Second World War, Marker served as an officer in the Royal Indian Naval Volunteer Reserve in command of a minesweeper, which became the first such vessel to enter Rangoon to liberate Burma. He then served on combined operations in Burma.

As partition approached, Jamsheed’s father Kekobad led the deputation to Muhammed Ali Jinnah which secured assurances about the future of the Parsee community in the new Muslim nation. Jamsheed, meanwhile, was working for the government of India’s home department under the future Indian prime minister Morarji Desai.

One day Desai visited Marker’s office and asked him what he thought of independence: “He wanted me to work for him. He said to me, ‘What are your plans?’ I told him that I would go back to my home in Quetta as soon as I was released from the shackles of government … My family had been living in Quetta for three generations. They had gone there with the British as contractors. He said, ‘Quetta might become Pakistan.’ I said, ‘Quetta will become Pakistan and I will go there. That is my intention.’”

His commitment was reinforced by the journey from Delhi to Karachi. “I saw those refugee camps. People in them were all bloodied. They had been through riots. They had no clothes or anything, just small broken-up suitcases. [But] you heard them shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ from each refugee camp … They were determined to survive any situation.”

In Pakistan, Kekobad Marker served as director of the Pakistan Industrial Finance Corporation, and as chairman of the Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan while Jamsheed joined the family business and served on boards of public and private corporations in banking, insurance and shipping.

In 1954 Jamsheed, who had been a keen schoolboy cricketer, was contacted by a former teacher who had become director general of Radio Pakistan: “He called me to say that the English commentators that he had like Jack Coles and some other gentleman are not liked by the Pakistan public because they cannot understand their accent, so why not join us in the box with a newcomer, Omar Kureishi. I hesitated, but he was insistent.”

Marker went on to provide commentary for Pakistan’s first home series against India in 1954-55 and, with Kureishi, became “the voice of cricket” in Pakistan. In later life he was nostalgic about those early days, recalling how Hafeez Kardar, Pakistan’s first captain, was never paid any money but was “driven by patriotism, loyalty and duty”.

He was disappointed with the way the game had evolved: “In the old classic days, the players went on to the field like white sparrows, not dressed like clowns.”

Marker worked in his family’s business until April 1965, when he was appointed Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Ghana, with concurrent accreditation to Guinea and Mali. Over the next three decades he represented his country in Romania, the Soviet Union, Canada, East Germany, Japan, the United Nations Office at Geneva, West Germany, France, the US and finally the United Nations in New York.

He served under political leaders from Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf and regretted that so many politicians “saw Pakistan as an opportunity for themselves, not as an opportunity for the people or the country”. Yet, though he always submitted his resignation each time the government changed, he was too valuable to lose.

Marker published two books of memoirs. Among other highlights of his diplomatic career, he recalled how, during his time as ambassador to the Soviet Union a few weeks before the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, the head of the Indian Army, General Sam Manekshaw (a fellow Parsee and an old friend of Marker’s from pre-Partition days) visited Moscow for an urgent consultation with his counterparts in the Soviet military.

The Soviet hosts took the visitor to the Bolshoi Theatre where they were amazed to find the Pakistani ambassador waiting to greet them, and even more amazed to see Marker and their guest embracing warmly and breaking into friendly chat in Gujarati.

As Pakistan’s ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1980 to 1982, Marker recalled meetings with characters “genuine and shady in tiny cafés tucked away in obscure villages deep in the beautiful Swiss and German countryside” which led to Pakistan acquiring sensitive technology from European firms for its nuclear weapons programme.

As news spread in the West of Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear network, and India applied pressure on the US to intervene, as Ambassador to Washington in the late 1980s Marker outwitted Indian diplomacy with skilful advocacy in Congress and in the US media. He confessed, however, to “a mild, amused contempt for the enthusiasm with which western industrial enterprises, in their pecuniary pursuits, conspired with us to evade their own governments’ law prohibiting all nuclear transfers to Pakistan”.

Marker’s first wife, Diana, died in 1979. He is survived by his second wife, Arnaz, and by a daughter from his first marriage. Another daughter predeceased him.

Jamsheed Marker, born November 24 1922, died June 21 2018

We are happy to announce that our dear friend and legendary contemporary dancer Astad Deboo shall be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award today in Chennai.

If music be the sounds between silence, dance is the language of holding stillness. And, with someone like Astad Deboo, the passing of time necessarily turns into a meditative experience. This weekend, as a part of the Yagnaraman July Fest 2018, the veteran artiste — now aged 70 — will be conferred with a lifetime achievement award. He will also present a dance recital, bringing some of the magic from his five decades of performing across the world, onto the stage at the Krishna Gana Sabha, in Chennai.

Article by Jaideep Sen | Indian Express

The occasion is landmark for many reasons — although, the most crucial of them all is to do with a sense of acceptance for his art form. “It feels good, it feels like a triumph for contemporary dance,” says Deboo, over a telephone conversation. “The Krishna Gana Sabha serves as a sort of gatekeeper for classical dance — for them to consider giving me an award for my journey and work, is important.” The late R Yagnaraman, in whose name the festival and awards are instituted, was massive in stature for the support he extended to artistes, notes Deboo.

By honouring Deboo, the award makes note of his tireless work to establish the contemporary idiom of dance, and its discipline. The most remarkable thing yet is that Deboo is active as a touring performer, and he’s still experimenting and evolving his work.

On contemporary terms

The award also goes a long way to indicate change, points out Deboo, who received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1996, and the Padma Shri in 2007. “When I started off (in the 1970s), ‘contemporary’ was a word not to be used, it was a strict no-no,” he recalls. “Today, you say contemporary, and it’s ‘yes, yes, yes’.”

Expectedly, Deboo has seen his share of below-par work. “Today, youngsters only want instant gratification,” he rues. “Even in contemporary dance, there are a lot of them with absolutely no training!” he exclaims. However, there are many others who have trained in classical dance, and are now looking in a different direction of presenting themselves, he adds. “I believe, the Indian classical dance scene is undergoing change as well — be it in Odissi, or bharatanatyam — there is an increased sense of openness. Now you get to see ensemble works, which you never saw earlier.” Among emerging artistes to look out for in India, Deboo names Surjit Nongmeikapam, Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy, Hemabharati Palani, Virieno Christina Zakiesato and Mandeep Raikhy.

“I keep telling youngsters, a foundation is all-important. A writer reads, a painter studies and paints and paints…” he offers. “Nowadays, everybody is doing contemporary dance! But they need to have a grounding (in terms of training) to build upon.”

The art of slowing down time

For his own part, Deboo admits that his personal style has been constantly changing. “In the last few years, I’ve become an introvert, and more interested in very controlled, minimalistic movements.” It is phenomenal to note that Deboo, as yet, has the stamina to pull off a 60-minute show. “There has to be riyaz,” he asserts. “If I’m to stand on one leg and balance — without practice, that wouldn’t happen!” Notably, Deboo’s movement vocabulary — a methodical, deeply emotive act of slowing things down — has influenced artistes across other fields, from theatre to visual arts. While it has doubtlessly taken a lifetime to hone and achieve that level of control over his gestures and expressions, Deboo recounts a thought handed to him in his childhood. “I always say, what my father embedded in me as a philosophy: ‘The going is delayed, not denied’,” he says. “This helped me take disappointments in my stride, and I believe, sometimes dreams do come true, and sometimes, you just have to keep on going. It’s all about the passion. If some avenues are closed at some point, other avenues will eventually open up.”

Ultimately, though, it’s all about hard work, perseverance and self-belief, Deboo adds. All said, “You have to keep pushing yourself,” he declares. It helps to realise that his sentiment comes with the validation of a lifetime’s incomparable achievements.

Pic courtesy: Amit Kumar

Parsi Khabar is happy to announce that our dear friend Ervard Xerxes V Dastur has won a very tight election for the lone seat of the Bombay Parsi Panchayet.  In a hotly contested election that became a two way race between him and Anahita Yezdi Desai, Xerxes won by over 90 votes.

Image courtesy: Rayomand J. Patell

The race was a hard fought one, with two very strong candidates who excelled in their own fields of expertise but also came with fundamental ideological differences. All elections bring out the worst in the community. And this election was no exception. Even though both candidates tried to remain above the fray, the multitude of anonymous messages floating around wreaked havoc. Both candidates were forced to issue rebuttals repeatedly, and that took away from the time they could have spent explaining themselves.

Xerxes’ campaign had some very innovative ideas and the various beautifully designed, tongue in check ads, and the video endorsements captured the imagination of the voters and were just appropriately lengthy to capture the attention of an attention-deficit whatsapp and facebook world

Anahita ran a tough campaign and highlighted her work over the past 15 years and more serving the community. With such a slim margin; it has to be tough for Anahita at this time. But knowing her tenacity and passion, she will bounce back and continue to do what she does best; and hopefully run in 2022 when the next elections happen.

Parsi Khabar had the opportunity to interact with Xerxes recently in Perth Australia. Some of that is captured on a 40 minute video interview here.

The real work for Xerxes starts now. We will look up to Xerxes working towards achieving all he had hoped to do. We realize the ground realities of fulfilling all campaign promises. And we will continue to monitor Xerxes and his performance in the years to come. We want him to succed. We want all his 6 other colleagues to succeed. Only in their success lies the success of our Kom and community.

As the dust settles, and the community gets back to doing what needs doing; the BPP in general need to address the issue of voter absentia. Rough estimates put the number of eligible voters at about 20,000 to 25,000. Only a quarter or less showed up to vote. That too on a Sunday when the rains did not create havoc. This is a really big issue. For everytime someone bitches and moans about how the BPP is not doing its job, I ask….did you vote ? And if you did not, then you deserve what you get.

In closing, some thoughts…

Anahita has been a fantastic community organizer. Of that there is no doubt. Xerxes should extend an olive branch and urge the fellow trustees to tap that expertise, passion and commitment and put her in an executive professional role to crack the whip and run the BPP as a professional corporate organization.

The BPP should find the funding and hire a Brand manager. This idea was floated by the brilliant adman and our friend Sam Balsara a few years ago. The BPP desperately needs this. Maybe they can hire the guy who ran Xerxes’ ad and branding campaign.

We now have two young trustees. In the years ahead may this become a majority. Newer times need the newer generation to step in. May this election be the one that makes it happen.

Congratulations Xerxes V Dastur. The real hard work begins from tomorrow. Wish you all the strength in undertaking this. Aedun Baad Aedun Taraj Baad.

On Wednesday 27th June, 2018, the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute for Zoroastrian Studies was officially opened.

To mark this joyous occasion, a launch event was held in the Brunei Suite of the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London.

Among the esteemed attendees was Mr. Shapoor Mistry whose generous donation in the name of his late grandfather Mr. Shapoorji Pallonji has provided for the new Institute.

Speeches by Mr. Mistry, Baroness Valerie Amos CH (SOAS Director), co-chairs of the Institute Prof. Almut Hintze and Dr. Sarah Stewart (SOAS), and Mr. Malcolm Deboo (ZTFE) were followed by a few short Zoroastrian prayers by Dastur JamaspAsa.

Guests were further treated to a musical performanceby Dr. Peyman Heydarian on the santur and had the opportunity to view a Virtual Reality film of the Yasna ritual.

Article source 

Khojeste Mistree talks about one of the world’s oldest surviving religions and what we can learn from it in the present day

Zoroastrianism has  an unbroken tradition going back 3,500 years. It is now the faith of a relatively small community centred in Western India and Iran, which continues to tend the sacred flame of its unique vision. Recent years have seen growing Western interest in the tradition, with a major London exhibition at The School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) in 2013, and the establishment of a chair of Zoroastrian Studies. Khojeste Mistree is an elder of the Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, the co-founder of the Zoroastrian Studies Foundation, and author of a comprehensive introduction ‘Zoroastrianism: an Ethnic Perspective’. Here he talks to David Hornsby about the very practical teachings of this ancient spiritual path and how its vision is still relevant in the modern world.

Interview in the Beshara Magazine.

David: We know that Zoroastrianism is a very ancient spiritual tradition. But what do we know about its origins?

Khojeste: We believe that the Prophet Zarathushtra was born in about 1500 bce, in the region of the Aral Sea, in an area which is now between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But there is no written material from the early centuries, so the recorded history of Zoroastrianism really starts from the advent of Cyrus the Great, who was the founder of the Achaemenian Empire in 550 bce. Zarathustra left behind a message in the form of a series of prayers called The Gāthās, 17 chapters, which were passed down faithfully through an oral tradition. But even these were not systematically written down until about the sixth century ce.

David: At the time of the Achaemenian Empire – which was huge, stretching from Eastern Europe to Sind in India – Zoroastrianism was the state religion, and it continued to be so under the Parthians and Sassanians. So for many centuries it was the dominant faith in the Middle East. But these days, I believe the number of followers is relatively small, about 125,000 people.

Khojeste: That’s the figure that has been suggested, yes. We are not sure whether that’s an accurate figure, because it’s been virtually impossible to do a global census of all the places where Zoroastrians now live. If we take the 125,000 figure, we are talking about people who are born Zoroastrians, that is, those whose parentage happens to be Parsi/Irani by birth or ethnicity. These people mainly live in India, particularly in Mumbai, and in Iran, North America, UK, Europe and Australasia. But there are pockets of Zoroastrians today whom I would address as neo-Zoroastrians, who wish once again to come back to their heritage, largely because they are so disillusioned with the regimes in the Middle East. For example, there is a sizeable Kurdish community that now professes to be Zoroastrian. These are people living in northern Iraq, Syria, Iran – that sort of region; and there are also others who genuinely want to become Zoroastrians because they are attracted by the ideology of the faith.

David: It seems that there is a lot of interest in Zoroastrianism at the moment, and a growing understanding of the extent to which it has influenced other religious traditions.

Khojeste: We believe that Zoroastrianism greatly influenced Judaism and Christianity, and then trickled through to Islam. This ‘osmosis’ particularly seems to have happened with the afterlife doctrine. The concepts of heaven and hell, individual judgement, resurrection of the body, the last judgement, the coming of the Messiah – these are mainstream Zoroastrian theological ideas which entered post-exilic Judaism around the fourth century bce. From my understanding of Judaism, it did not originally have a defined ideology as far as its eschatology was concerned.

One must also also bear in mind that a Zoroastrian ruler, Phrates IV, was ruling Jerusalem in 40 bce. So when Jesus was born, there was a very strong Zoroastrian influence in that part of the world. In the New Testament we have the story of the Magi, who came to greet the baby Jesus in his crib. These ‘wise men’ were Zoroastrian travellers from the east, following the star of Bethlehem. They thought that the messiah was going to be a Zoroastrian messiah, and therefore came with gifts for the baby. In that sense, they got their sums wrong.

The Three Wise Men in Iranian costume. Mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, in Ravenna, Italy, completed within 526 ad by the so-called ‘Master of Sant’Apollinare’. Detail from Mary and Child, Surrounded by Angels.

David: There is also much speculation about an even earlier influence on Greek philosophy, I understand.

Khojeste: Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Iran from 550bce to about 651ce, when the region was conquered by Arab forces. That is a period of 1100 years, with only an 80-year interlude when the region was ruled by the Greeks. Of course the Iranians and the Greeks fought all the time, but I think it’s important to note that Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Hermidorus – in fact many of the big names in Greek philosophy – all had Zoroastrian teachers, known as the Magis, who were part of the Zoroastrian ‘clergy’ of that period. Just as a matter of interest, this is also where the word ‘magic’ comes from.

So some of the theological concepts of Zoroastrianism entered Greek thinking at a formative stage. The concept of the Golden Mean, and the use of the mind, which the Greek philosophers developed – all this was present in Zoroastrianism. Therefore, Zoroastrianism not only influenced the occidental religions, but also influenced Greek philosophical thought, and then, if you extend that further, Western civilisation, which is based upon Greek thought. So in an indirect way Zoroastrianism has had a profound influence upon Western civilisation in general.

Detail from The School of Athens by Raphael, painted 1509, now held in the Vatican. Facing the viewer is a figure widely understood to be Zoroaster, holding the celestial sphere (although some commentators believe it to represent the astronomer Hipparchus). Opposite him is the astronomer Ptolemy, holding the sphere of the world. To his right, at the back, is a portrait of Raphael himself as the Greek painter Apelles.

Contemporary Interest

David: You have lived in Mumbai now for nearly 40 years, but you were not born there, and in fact spent some years in England when you were younger.

Khojeste: I was born into a Zoroastrian community in Pune in India, and I came to England at a very early age – something like 16 or 17 – to attend a water divining conference. This was something I was very interested in, and I went on to do what you might call ‘acupuncture of the land’. After the conference, I stayed in the country and studied accountancy. I was articled to a firm and qualified as a chartered accountant, and was on the brink of being made a partner in my firm when I decided that I wanted to discover more about the Zoroastrian religion. So I ended up going to the University of Oxford to study Zoroastrianism at an academic level.

David: You studied in Oxford with Robert Zaehner, who was famous for his work on the mystical traditions of the world. But his early reputation was founded upon his pioneering work on Zoroastrianism and the books he wrote, such as The Wisdom of the Magi.

Khojeste: Professor Zaehner was my tutor for just a year. But he died suddenly, and then I studied with Professor Mary Boyce, who was based in London. I used to visit her in London for my tutorials. Contact with her completely changed my life in terms of knowledge, and in terms of the sensitivity which she had towards the living faith. She had visited Iran in 1964, and also I think in 1966, and spent many months there. She lived with Zoroastrian villagers and meticulously recorded their oral tradition. I think that was a major breakthrough for Zoroastrianism in the West, because until then we had had great Western scholars, but their interest was more from a linguistic point of view, that is, the study of Avestan (the sacred language of Zoroastrianism) and middle Persian, translating the texts and things like that. It was not at all from the point of view of practice. Professor Boyce broke new ground by explaining the religion and the history, and linking both theology and practice to show a continuity of the faith. That is what excited me. She also showed me that there is a wonderful continuity from the time of the Prophet Zarathushtra right down to the present day Parsis/Iranis.

David: Then you returned to India, and started the Zoroastrian Studies Foundation in Mumbai?

Khojeste: Yes, I returned in 1980 because there seemed to be a lot of interest in Zoroastrianism being shown by the young and old Parsis living in Mumbai, and they invited me to give talks. For all these talks the auditoriums were jam-packed and I felt like a religious pop star! Obviously there was a thirst for knowledge within the community. Having studied in England and therefore being fluent in English, I was in a good position to talk to young people. In the 1970s and ’80s there was a great interest in matters esoteric, both here in the West as well as in India. That’s what launched Zoroastrian Studies, a Trust that I co-founded with a lady, Shehrnaz Panthaky, who is still with me in Mumbai. The idea was that we would offer structured courses on Zoroastrianism, and basically be like a filter house for those who wanted to know more about the faith.

Winged oxen/bull sculpted in Persepolis/Iranian style at the entrance to a
fire temple on D.N. Road, Mumbai. Photograph: Paul Quayle / Alamy Stock Photo

David: It’s interesting that having studied in England, you went to Mumbai, the global centre of the Zoroastrian community, to pass on knowledge that you had learnt there. Or was it rather that the people there had the knowledge, but they couldn’t find a way of communicating it in a modern context?

Khojeste: I would say that it was more the way of communicating, plus the fact that I had been trained in a very strict way at Oxford University. Since then things have developed a great deal in Zoroastrian studies. When Mary Boyce died she willed a large amount of money for a professorship to be established at SOAS. The chair was also funded by the Zartoshty brothers – who had been my sponsors – so it is known today as the Zartoshty Brothers Chair of Zoroastrianism. That happened in 2011. Then recently, just last year in July 2017, the Mistry Foundation – not my family! – gave five million pounds to SOAS to encourage the study of Zoroastrianism from an anthropological perspective, meaning the study of the day-to-day tradition and the rituals and so forth. Academia is much more open these days to a holistic way of tackling religious knowledge – studying the oral tradition, talking to people, recording their experiences, etc. This is important because the older generation has a great deal of knowledge, but it is being lost; nobody to date has bothered to tape it, or write it down, and it wasn’t being communicated to the next generation.

SOAS is still the only place in the world doing this. It’s surprising that in a city like Mumbai, which was in many ways founded by Parsis, no benefaction has ever been given to set up a Zoroastrian professorship. Bombay University was greatly funded by Parsi philanthropy, and yet our forebears didn’t think of establishing a chair there.

The oldest surviving Zoroastrian text, written in the 9th century in Sogdian, a medieval Iranian language. It contains a phonetic transcription of the holy Ashem Vohu prayer, which was written originally in Avestan. It was discovered in the ‘Cave of a Thousand Buddhas’ in Dunhuang, China. Read more… Image: British Library Or 8212/84©British Library.

David: In the 1960s and ’70s, a lot of western youth went to India looking for ancient knowledge, sitting at the feet of gurus and wise people. But Zoroastrianism has never had the high profile that some of these had.

Khojeste: You’re right. Zoroastrianism has not had a ‘high profile’ guru as you put it, ever. In a sense we are too small for that. Zoroastrianism is a religion that is practiced by those born into the religion, and while there is a sense of sharing at the spiritual level, it’s not okay to just accept people from the outside to come into the faith. We do not proselytise, and in that sense our religious paradigm is like the Jews and the Hindus. For example, I cannot become a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, because I am not born into the Hindu caste system. But there has always been a great niche interest in Zoroastrianism. I am actually amazed at the number of non-Zoroastrians interested to know more about it. I think it is because it has a very interesting ideology – one which is extremely relevant to modern man.

David: In fact, Zoroastrianism still has quite a presence in modern culture. There is Nietzsche, who entitled his most famous work Thus Spake Zarathushtra, and John Fowles’ The Magus. There is also the contemporary contribution of writers like Rohinton Mistry, who has made his name writing about the modern day community in Mumbai.

The celebrated Parsi writer Rohinton Mistry presents his novel, Family Matters at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2002. Photograph: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Living the Balanced Life

David: But to move on; this is an interview for Beshara Magazine, and Beshara is not ethnocentric – quite the opposite. You described Beshara once as the coming together of different spiritualities and different people in a continuing spirit; so what would you say are the universally applicable characteristics of Zoroastrianism that have meaning for all of us, whether or not we’re practitioners of the religion.

Khojeste: One of the most important principles of the Zoroastrian way of life is to promote harmony in this world, and we believe that harmony begins by being happy within ourselves. If we are happy and content within ourselves, then our primary task is to share that, so that there’s harmony in the environment. Harmony in the environment is what modern man calls ecology, looking after the planet, looking after the seven creations.

For example, a spiritual Zoroastrian is somebody who generates wealth honestly but shares it. Benefaction is a very important duty as far as we are concerned, and the Parsis are known for their benefaction. Considering that we are so few in numbers, the charities that we have promoted are extensive, for the community as well as beyond it. Also, Zoroastrians do not encourage celibacy or fasting. We do not encourage flagellation of the body. We do not encourage abstinence. We do not encourage sleeping on a bed of nails, or punishing the body in any way. From a Zoroastrian point of view happiness is a central feature, and because of this we are enjoined to look after our body.

Hence, you tend to find plump Zoroastrians, enjoying the good life. The point that I’m making to you is that we recognise our body to be the temple of the divine, of Ahura Mazda, because it is in the mind that we have wisdom and knowledge. The Golden Mean is what one should follow. That is, we should not over-eat, and we shouldn’t under-eat either: we should eat just right.

David: So this is about balance?

Khojeste: Yes. At a spiritual level, Zoroastrianism is a religion that teaches us to always be in balance; nothing in excess and nothing in deficiency, that is, to hit the Golden Mean – which is what the Greek philosophers picked up on.

David: There is also the rather wonderful concept of vohū mánā, the ‘good mind’. The first Gāthā for instance, begins:

With uplifted hands and deep humility, I beseech, O Mazda, first and foremost this, the abiding joy of Spenta Mainyu, Your Holy Spirit. Grant that I perform all actions in harmony with Asha, Your Divine Law, and acquire the wisdom of Vohū Mánā, the Good Mind, so that I might illuminate the Soul of Creation.

O Lord of Life and Wisdom, may I reach You in fullness of knowledge through Vohū Mánā, to be graced in the dual life of body and mind with the blessings that come from following Your Divine Law, through whom You lead all seekers after You into the Light.

It seems that Zoroastrians understand that the first thing we need to do is get our own head together. Then, when anything happens to us, we can deal with it in the best possible way. Perhaps this is why Zoroastrianism has endured so long, because people have found it extremely practical in assisting with problems in their lives? 

Khojeste: Let me share with you how practical we can be. We regard Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity, the Wise One, as the source of knowledge and wisdom. How does one perceive knowledge and wisdom? By using our individual mind, which is linked to the cosmic mind. When knowledge and the mind come together, or interact with each other, then we develop the application of that knowledge. The application of that knowledge is what we see as order at a physical level, truth at a psychological level, and righteousness at a spiritual level. So we have wisdom, the mind, and truth coming together, and that then gives one an internal strength, or sovereignty. That sovereignty, we’re told, must be balanced with devotion and piety. When devotion and piety come together with sovereignty we tend to do something well, to the best of our ability. If we do something to the best of our ability, the chances are that it will be remembered. There’s a sense of immortality, of eternalness to that – and that immortality or eternalness is linked to happiness.

David: Can you give an example of how this works in practice?

Khojeste: Let’s say that I want to write a book. To do so I must have the knowledge to write the book. I must use my mind to write the book. The book must follow a certain order, a certain sequence, research and so forth. I must also have the energy to write the book. I must have the devotion or the passion within me to put pen to paper. I must do it well. And if I do it well, then people are going to read it and remember what I have said in the book.

These seven stages that I have walked you through are the seven key principles which a Zoroastrian is enjoined to follow in life. This can apply to any paradigm. Let’s say you want to cook something. If all the key principles that I have just outlined are there, then when people eat what you’ve prepared they will come back for more, as they have enjoyed your culinary skills.

David: If you perceive yourself to be deficient in one or other of these qualities which you know you need for success, what do you do?

Khojeste: To experience these qualities we have a whole ritual dimension of inner and outer rituals, which a Zoroastrian is expected to follow. The ritual dimension incorporates prayers and thanksgiving ceremonies which a Zoroastrian is encouraged to participate in. This then gives us the experiential dimension of what I have been theoretically postulating to you. Zoroastrianism is not just a theoretical religion. It has a very rich corpus of practice and rituals, and when the theory and the rituals come together, that’s the moment when things begin to open at a spiritual level.

Jashan ceremony (celebration) in Mumbai in 2011, attended by 300 Zoroastrian priests. When in prayer, the priests wear vestments of snow-white, which is the colour of purity and holiness. Read more… Photograph: Kainaz Amaria

The Conflict of Good and Evil

David: There is also metaphysics, a cosmology, which underlies this whole process. You have spoken about the way that Zoroastrianism has influenced the Semitic religions, but would you say that Zoroastrianism itself is a monotheistic religion? Is there a concept of One God, One Reality?

Khojeste: It is monotheistic, yes, but I would prefer to use the word heno-theistic. ‘Heno’ means a belief in a supreme Godhead, with a team of divinities helping that Godhead. In my view the only religion that really promotes monotheism is Islam. Even Christianity has the concept of ‘Father, Son and Holy Ghost’, which implies a trinity, whilst Judaism has a series of prophets and is not as focused on monotheism as Islam is.

Most Zoroastrian books will certainly promote the concept of Ahura Mazda, the Wise One, as being the supreme God, the supreme Creator, and so if you want to use a Greek term, then we are a monotheistic faith. But monotheism really means the belief in one supreme Godhead, with no other divinities supporting that Godhead. However, in Zoroastrianism, we have a whole pantheon of divinities. We have the supremacy of wisdom, knowledge, and we have a team of divinities helping us to perceive that knowledge. If you see Ahura Mazda as the field marshal, then we have a hierarchy of six other divinities who are, if you like, the generals. And then we have another lot of divinities who could be seen as the officers. There is a definite scaling down from the supremacy of Ahura Mazda to his team of divinities helping Him. In that sense Zoroastrianism cannot strictly speaking be a monotheistic faith, if one understands and expects there to be just One God and nothing else in a monotheistic paradigm.

David: Islam, for instance, would see all the Divine Names as expressing different aspects of One Reality. Are these other divinity personages in Zoroastrianism not just aspects of Ahura Mazda? 

Khojeste: At one level they are, certainly. But at another level they have an individuality, and therefore people have linked these divinities, which help Ahura Mazda, to the Archangels and the Angels of the Christian pantheon. I actually don’t subscribe to that point of view, because the angels in Christianity do not have individual prayers dedicated to them, whereas we do dedicate prayers to our other divinities. We believe in this concept of seven. We recognise Ahura Mazda to be supreme, the creator, all knowing, ever present, the first one – but not Almighty. This is a very important point which most people tend to question: because if we say that God is Almighty, it implies that God has the power to contain evil. This is a problem that I believe most western and eastern religions face: how do you explain the existence of evil? How do you explain why a 10-year old girl dies in a car crash, or something terrible happens to a perfectly good human being? I would like to say that Zoroastrianism perhaps is the only religion in the world that offers a logical answer as to why bad things happen to good people.

David: And what is that logical answer?

Khojeste: The logical answer is that we believe in a cosmic dualism, so we have Ahura Mazda, and we have the spirit of Ahura Mazda who is in continuous combat with the evil spirit. Does the evil spirit come from God? The answer is no; evil is the absence of God. Every other religion in the world believes that good and evil come from the same source. In Zoroastrianism, evil does not come from God. Evil is the absence of God. And therein lies the difference. You can’t say darkness comes from light, but what you can say is darkness is the absence or moving away from light. We believe that there is this constant battle going on between the forces of good and the forces of evil, until the end of time.

David: Is there parity between them?

Khojeste: No. Because eventually the forces of good will triumph over the forces of evil, and I would have to explain the whole creation story to explain how that unfolds. For the moment what I’d like to share with you is that everything negative which happens to us – in terms of misery, pain, destruction, death – are all seen as the temporary triumphs of evil. Death is a temporary triumph of evil, where evil succeeds in killing the physical body, but the soul and spirit continue their journey until the end of time, when there will be the resurrection and the last judgement.

David: What about poverty and ill health?

Khojeste: Poverty is seen as the temporary triumph of evil, as God wants us to enjoy a prosperous and happy well-being. And similarly with ill health. But as far as illness is concerned, generally we recognise that medical science is gaining ground. Day-by-day people live much longer, so our perception is that the forces of good are getting stronger and stronger versus the forces of evil. By living longer, people are enjoying much more in life than they did maybe five hundred years ago. There’s a cheerful optimism that a Zoroastrian is encouraged to believe in. We are not pessimists. We always see the glass half full rather than half empty.

David: If these two pillars of good and evil are opposed to each other and in constant conflict with each other, is that not a stressful place to be?

Khojeste: Maybe. But it’s a place that we must be in, because it’s the place our soul has chosen to come to, because we believe in one life. I understand that if I was a Syrian refugee and so many negative things were happening – I was stateless, homeless, in abject poverty – I would not be able to be as optimistic as I am sitting in front of you talking just now. However, even a Syrian refugee must dream of a better tomorrow, despite all the pain and hardship that he or she must face.

If disaster happens today in the 21st century, help goes to that disaster area much faster than it did say two hundred years ago. The fact that people live longer is a very important indicator as far as we are concerned. People live longer because things have improved in terms of food, of medical benefit, in terms of education, and so on. Zoroastrianism always upholds a positive approach to life, and this manifests itself even at a spiritual level, because a Zoroastrian is taught to be optimistic.

The sacred flame at the Ateshkadegh Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran. It is said to have been burning continuously since 470 ad.

The Everlasting Fire

David: The one thing that everyone knows about Zoroastrians is that you have a particular relationship with fire, and your places of worship are fire temples. Can you say something about this?

Khojeste: Yes. When we’re talking of fire temples, we have three degrees of what we might call ‘consecrated fires’. We have the Atash Bahram fire, which one could compare to a cathedral fire. Then we have an Atash Adaran fire which is linked to, say, a church fire. And we have an Atash Dadgah fire which is linked to a chapel fire. This chapel fire is one that one can burn in your house, where one recites daily prayers.

The easiest way of explaining the significance of these fires is that a consecrated fire is always seen as the ‘Son of God’, that is, the Son of Ahura Mazda. Therefore, there’s an amazing link between the sacred fire, the concept of Truth, and Ahura Mazda. Through these fires, we are being taken into the presence of the Zoroastrian equivalent of ‘Jesus’. We were seen by the Arabs as fire worshippers, but in fact we are no more fire worshippers than the Christians are cross worshippers, or the Hindus are stone worshippers.

David: What distinguishes these three types of fire?

Khojeste: As I said, the first level is the house fire, which is a chapel fire. Then the next level up is Atash Adaran fire, which is consecrated fire taken from four different households: from the house of a priest, from the house of a soldier or warrior, from the house of a farmer, and from the house of an artisan. These four fires are taken into the fire temple complex, and it generally takes about 20 days for them to be mixed in a certain way. High rituals are performed by the priests, and eventually we get a fire which is sacred and then enthroned. This fire can only be fully experienced and ‘seen’ by Zoroastrians, because you must be in a state of religious purity or awareness to be able to, in a sense, see the ‘Son of God’.

In India we have about a hundred such fire temples where four fires have been brought together, where prayers are offered by the priest five times a day without a break, come rain or sunshine. But we only have eight cathedral fires in India, because it takes around 14,000 hours of ritual practice to consecrate a cathedral fire. These are made with sixteen different fires, taken from the house of a bricklayer, baker, priest, warrior, farmer, an artisan, as well as from the homes of other tradespeople. The fire of a burning Brahmin corpse is also taken, as well as the fire of lightning. As lightning normally strikes when it’s raining, it is a rare occurrence to find a place where lightning has struck and where the place is dry enough for the fire to ignite; furthermore, two Zoroastrians have to witness such an occurrence. But, believe it or not, despite all the odds, we do have eight cathedral fires in India.

David: Are there any fire temples left in Iran?

Khojeste: Yes. There is a very famous fire temple at Yazd. But they have problems now with finding the priests to maintain these fires in the same devout way as we have managed to maintain them without a break in India.

The Atesh Bahram Fire Temple at Udvada, Gujerat. The oldest Zoroastrian temple in India, its sacred flame has been maintained for more than 1000 years. Photograph: IdealIndia.com© Cooperjal Ltd 2012.

David: The fires are kept burning by the priests?

Khojeste: Yes. We use hardwood, which keeps the fire burning 24/7; and we have softwood, in our case in India, sandalwood. In Iran, they don’t have sandalwood, but the texts refer to the use of any form of sweet-scented wood which can be used to feed the fire. These cathedral fires are so special that if you were to say: “Khojeste, here’s a hundred million pounds. Can you build a cathedral fire for us?” I would have to say, “No,” as we do not have the priests today with such a high level of Zoroastrian spirituality.

The oldest cathedral fire in India today burns in a small village called Udvada, some 185 kilometers north of Mumbai, where the fire has been kept continuously burning for over a thousand years. It was consecrated at a place called Sanjan, where the Parsis first arrived in India as refugees in about the 10th century, taking refuge from persecution meted out by the Arabs. To create that fire, Zoroastrian priests had to walk back to Iran to bring what is called the alat, the accoutrements, which are the sacred items that are required before one can even collect sixteen fires to make a cathedral fire. They include things like sacred ash, the hair of the white temple bull, a ring, etc.; and in order for the priests to bring these back from Iran they couldn’t use a boat, so they had to walk back from Khorasan, which is in northeastern Iran. This was a territory that Islam had conquered, and so they had to travel at night in order not be seen by zealous Arabs. They had to find the source along the Indus River, to be able to cross the Indus, by walking across the riverbed as opposed to swimming or anything like that, as they could not bring it across by boat, as fire and water cannot be in contact with each other. It was with that kind of meticulous precision and devotion and care that the alat was brought from Iran.

I am giving you this background for you to understand that, when one is talking of seeing the ‘Son of God’, it is a very special experience for us. These fires have a spirituality, and eventually they begin to communicate with the worshipper in a particular way. I could go to ten fire temples in Mumbai and not have a direct link of communication with any of them. But there may be a fire temple, say, ten miles away from my house with whom I can communicate. Our fire temples are not touristic places of interest. There is nothing architecturally spectacular about them. They have a vernacular style of architecture – very simple compared to a beautiful mosque, church, synagogue or mandir.

David: These very elaborate rituals were not specified in the original message of Zarathushtra, in the way that, say, the rules for Islam were laid down by the Prophet Muhammad. They seem to have arisen because of the sensibilities of people being educated as to their own humanity in the light of what we might call the ‘Zarathushtrian Logos’.

Khojeste: Yes. What Zarathushtra left us were hymns, a series of ecstatic, philosophical poems which are open to a lot of different interpretations. He does not talk at all about everyday use or eating food, or how you should dress, etc. However, customs and practices have developed over a period of time. What we are talking about is the preservation of a certain kind of spiritual energy, which is ethno-focused but has a universal application.

The Ateshgah temple in Baku, Azerbaijan, built during the 18th century by an Indian community on a natural gas field. It is no longer an active place of worship, but it is preserved as a World Heritage site and the fire is kept alight by piped gas. Photograph: Hemis / Alamy Stock Photo

Universality and Change

David: It seems a bit unfair that non-Zoroastrians can’t participate directly in and benefit from these rituals, because – at least at present – entry into Zoroastrianism is strictly on the basis of heredity.

Khojeste: Historically Zoroastrianism has been the religion of the Iranian people, and in that sense it is specific, it is particular. It doesn’t have the universality that some of the other major religions of the world do. I accept that. And yes: these rituals are exclusively done and performed by Zoroastrians for Zoroastrians. There is a movement now where some of our rituals are being done in the presence of non-Zoroastrians, particularly the outer rituals like the initiation ceremony, the marriage ceremony and the thanksgiving ceremony. But there are other ceremonies linked to the sacred fire in which only the priests and Zoroastrian laity can participate.

However, if you wanted to accept the theology of Zarathushtra in terms of what I explained earlier, you certainly could be a Zoroastrian in spirit, and also in terms of your everyday life, and follow the laws of purity, etc.

David: I understand that there is pressure now within the community to amend some of your practices. One area is your mode of burial – where bodies are laid out in the open in what are called ‘Towers of Silence’. There are problems because of a decline in the number of vultures, who are an intrinsic part of this procedure. So some people are urging the adoption of cremation instead.

Khojeste: There are almost no vultures now because of the use of diclofenac, which is administered to animals by veterinarians. This chemical has caused the death of 99% of the Gyps and White-backed vultures that used to live in our part of the world. Now there’s a lot of effort being put into bringing the vultures back, with some success. But millions of vultures died because of the use of diclofenac. It is the rays of the sun which expedite the disintegration of the corpse in the Tower of Silence. Cremation is not permitted in the Zoroastrian faith.

David: There is also some concern now about falling numbers, because many of your young people are marrying outside the religion. As a result there is a movement towards allowing conversion. But I gather you yourself don’t agree with this. There is quite a bit of controversy – bitter controversy even – concerning your position, which is seen as very traditionalist.

Khojeste: There are a number of reasons why I don’t support conversion. One is that if you look at the global situation, I don’t see that our numbers are really falling. The community in Mumbai is diminishing, it is true, but when you look at the number of Zoroastrians worldwide it is greater than ever before. Some people have emigrated and are living in the USA or Europe. Others, like the Kurds I mentioned before, are rediscovering their Zoroastrian identity and returning to the religion.

Another reason is that we are a very small religious community living amongst much larger groups, and the fact that we do not accept converts has been a very important factor in our survival over such a long period of time, because we do not represent a threat to these other religions. Also, we don’t have the facilities for conversion, or the ways and means of introducing people into the religion, as Christianity or Judaism do.

Initiation ceremony (navjote) showing the adoption of the white undervest (sudreh) and the chord (kusti) which all Zoroastrians are enjoined to wear. The vest symbolises the ‘good mind’ and is not taken off except to wash; the chord represents direction and is tied and untied with appropriate prayers five times a day. Read more…  Photograph: Parzor Foundation.

David: So, finally, to round off all that we have covered today, what would you say makes for a good Zoroastrian life?

Khojeste: Every Zoroastrian should be a soldier of truth, be ashava, which is an Avestan word meaning ‘possessor of truth’. If we are the possessors of truth, then our job is to spread the truth. And how do we spread the truth? By being happy within ourselves and spreading harmony in the environment, which nowadays we call ‘ecology’. Live a happy and contented life by upholding the truth would be my Zoroastrian message to others.

Image Sources

Banner: Faravahar, the Zoroastrian symbol, at the entrance of the Ateshkadegh Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran. The sacred flame is said to have been burning continuously since 470 ce. Photograph: EmmePi Travel / Alamy Stock Photo.

First inset image: Khojeste Mistree. Photograph: vqr on-line (https://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2015/09/indias-vanishing-vultures)

Translation of the Gāthā Ahunavaita by Dastur Framroze Ardeshir Bode and Piloo Nunavatty, in Songs of Zarathustra (George Allen & Unwin, 1951)

Other Sources

For a short video introduction to Zoroastrianism, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLM7jFAYyOc

The website of the SOAS exhibition The Everlasting Flame gives an excellent introduction to some aspects of Zoroastrianism; see http://www.theeverlastingflame.com/narrative/index.html

For more on sky ‘burials’, see https://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2015/09/indias-vanishing-vultures.

Books

Khojeste P. Mistree, Zoroastrianism: an ethnic perspective (Square, Mumbai, 1982,1998)

Robert C. Zaehner

          Teachings of the Magi (George Allen & Unwin, 1956)

          Mysticism Sacred and Profane (Oxford University Press, 1969)

          The Baghavad Gita (Oxford University Press USA, 1973)

Mary Boyce, The History of Zoroastrianism, Vols. 1, 2 & 3 (Handbuch der Orientalistik Series, Brill, 1975, 1982, 1991)

Rohinton Mistry

         Tales from Firozsha Baag (Penguin Canada,1987)

         Such a Long Journey (McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 2008)

This manuscript comes not from India or Iran, the lands associated today with the Zoroastrian religion, but from Dunhuang in Central China, and is written in Sogdian, a medieval Iranian language.

It contains a short text concerning the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster in Greek sources) and a phonetic transcription into the Sogdian script of the holy ‘Ashem Vohu’ prayer, composed originally in Avestan, a more ancient Iranian language. Probably dating from the ninth century, this manuscript is some 400 years older than any other surviving Zoroastrian scripture.

Originating in Central Asia, Zoroastrianism teaches the importance of good thoughts, words, and actions, in a world where the forces of the all-knowing Lord Ahura Mazda, are constantly opposed to those of the evil spirit, Angra Mainyu. The oldest scriptures, referred to as the Avesta or Zend, were, however, not written down until around the sixth century AD, many centuries after their composition.

From Central Asia, Zoroastrianism spread southwest to Iran where it was the religion of the Achaemenid kings (550–330 BCE) and their successors until the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century. Subsequently, Zoroastrian refugees from Iran settled in Gujarat in India, where they are known as Parsis, i.e. ‘Persians’. Today, in addition to the Zoroastrians of Iran and India, there are Parsi communities worldwide.

In Central Asia, Sogdian traders, whose homeland was the area of Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, carried their religion eastwards to China where it survived for many centuries alongside Buddhism, Manichaeism and Christianity. Sogdian communities developed at staging posts along the trade route, and in Dunhuang, where this manuscript was found, there is written evidence as early as the fourth century for a Zoroastrian temple, which was still flourishing in the early 10th century. The Sogdian language, in which this text was written, died out some time after the 10th century, but a related dialect, Yagnobi, still survives as a minority language spoken in the Yagnob valley north of Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

How was the manuscript discovered?

This manuscript was one of 40,000 or so manuscript scrolls and fragments hidden in one of the ‘Caves of a Thousand Buddhas’  – a cliff wall near the city of Dunhuang honeycombed with 492 grottoes cut from the rock from the fourth century onwards and decorated with religious carvings and paintings. This manuscript was acquired by the archaeologist and explorer Aurel Stein in 1907 during his second expedition to Central Asia.

What does this fragment show?

This manuscript fragment appears to be the top 10 lines of a scroll. Traces of where the next sheet was attached are still visible at the bottom. The text has been written with some care in a large and calligraphic hand, with a ruled margin on the right hand side. To judge from the paper and style of calligraphy, our scribe may also have copied another similar Sogdian fragment preserved in the British Library which tells the story of the Iranian national hero Rustam. 

Article source: British Library

Field Marshal Manekshaw was loving, gracious, playful and charismatic

Many of us have a day that no matter how hard we try, it leaves us sad and feeling blue. For me it’s June 27. It’s the day that a piece of my heart broke and now 10 years later, I have only just begun to accept that it is
permanent.

Article by by Brandy Batliwala | Indian Express

The phone rang. It was my usually stoic mother telling me that the time was near, my adoring, larger-than-life grandfather was fading. I could not make it back for the funeral although in hindsight I wish I had, at the very least to support my mother who was probably hurting far more than I was. It is, however, a blessing that I was not there. For me, he is still around: Maybe he is traveling or perhaps too busy to chat right now, but Sam is very much alive! More so, when I am at his home in Coonoor. There isn’t a time that I don’t feel that he is going to walk in and say in that oh so familiar voice, “Brandy baby” and hold my hand tight in his. But alas.

Recently I met a young major in Wellington. We got chatting and he informed me that as a part of his military examination he had chosen to do a thesis on Sam. I was pleasantly surprised at the stories he narrated. Ten years after his passing, there is so much I still don’t know about my beloved grandfather. The major told his stories with such enthusiasm and pride, almost as if the two of them had known each other.

In the Nilgiris, every one is particularly proud of their gardens. My grand parents were no different. Once they were having lunch at a dear friend’s home. My grandmother, Silloo, caught sight of a rose. She was so impressed she called Sam over. When he approached her, Silloo said: “Sam, look at this beautiful rose” to which he apparently replied, “I don’t need to, I have you”. Although we hardly heard him pay her such compliments, this is exactly how I remember him — most loving, gracious, playful and charismatic to one and all.

In the narrow lanes of Amritsar is a chemist shop where Sam’s father once practised as a doctor. On his passing, he left the clinic to his friend and colleague, Devraj Marwaha. Hungry to know my heritage, I stopped by the clinic (which is now also a chemist shop) while I was in Amritsar to visit the magnificent Golden Temple. Once again, I was overwhelmed by the love and regard shown to my maternal family. In the shop is a portrait of Dr and Mrs Manekshaw (my great grandparents) and a collage of Sam from his visits to Amritsar and his interaction with the Marwahas. It was truly gratifying that years later we the grandchildren got to meet in person. Naveen Marwaha and I were equally elated.

It is at fleeting moments like these and in glimpses of him in his daughters and my cousins that I have found comfort these past 10 years. Knowing that there are so many people scattered around the country, and indeed the globe, who have a story to tell or a memory to share will ease the pain of having lost a remarkable grandfather. I miss you Sam!

The writer is Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s granddaughter

“I was a little worried and baffled when my mother made an unusual request (rather demand) one day. When I asked her what it was, she said marry a Parsi only. Now I get where that comes from, given the fact that we have dwindling numbers within our community,” says 21-year-old Pashan Dadyburjor, who came up with called the ‘Parsi Project’ – a futuristic concept to keep the Parsi culture alive and relevant.

Article by Dev Kotak | Afternoon DC

The final year design student feels that the community, which in no time will become a tribe, is already a minority at present. He says that for every one Parsi birth, there are four deaths, which is why the concern amongst them is understandable.

Not only are the statistics abysmally low, but also the current crop of ‘bawas’ and ‘bawis’ growing up know hardly anything about the religion, it’s culture and their origin. The Parsis practice Zoroastrianism. They had escaped the Muslim conquest in Persia (now known as Iran) to avoid persecution and landed on the coast of Valsad in Gujarat between the 8th and 10th century CE, where they were given refuge.

The resident of Dadar Parsi Colony is attempting to keep the significance and the history alive by spreading knowledge and facts about the religion through some ‘cool’ and informative merchandise. On the merchandise, a lamassu strikingly features throughout, on all products.

Lamassu’s (depicted as having a human head and a the body of a bull or a lion, and bird’s wings) can be seen outside Parsi places of worship – ‘agiaries’ (fire temples) which are believed to house a protective force.

The products include scarves, shirts, upholstery (cushions, pillows), sugar sachets (milk and sugar story), etc., and all have the lamassu on them. The ‘in your face’ approach will create a level of intrigue amongst people, prompting them to learn more about Parsi values and way of life, feels Dadyburjor.

“Before just a handful of us are left, steps and measures must be taken to preserve our rich heritage. For that, people have to be aware and possess some knowledge of the religion they are practicing. There are no visuals or any graphic material to highlight our origin and the growth of our religion, nor any kind of Parsi history, so people don’t know much either. Through my illustration book, I have shown everything and it is engaging. The art and content make for a good informative read. We as humans will become extinct some day, but not a book. That always stays,” says the enthusiastic ‘bawa’, who hopes that he can spread learning and awareness through his futuristic concept.

By granting asylum to Zoroastrians fleeing persecution a thousand years ago, a local Gujarati ruler inadvertently helped create modern India and benefited the entire world.

The conventional view of history is one of progress. This is not entirely true. Sometimes, societies regress, cultures decline and civilizations fall. This is not a view that Steven Pinker espouses but Francis Fukuyama, the man who declared the end of history, is coming around to. Fukuyama is worrying about President Donald Trump and American political decay.

Article by Ruyintan E. Mehta and Atul Singh | Fair Observor

Trump’s zero-tolerance policy on migrants that caused the separation of children from their parents is certainly an example of this decay.

Trump won power in part thanks to his tough stance on immigration. He raised the specter of drug-dealers, criminals and rapists crossing the American border with Mexico. He promised to build the wall, make Mexico pay for it and stop the deluge of migrants flooding into the US.

In office, Trump has certainly delivered on his promise. Illegal migrants entering the United States are rounded up, locked up in detention centers and then shipped back across the border. Until recently, Trump did not mind separating families and locking children in cages. As per US immigration officials, 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents between May 5 and June 9. After much brouhaha and raucous international condemnation, Trump signed an executive order that allowed for immigrant families to be detained together while their legal cases are considered.

Before his U-turn, Trump claimed that an executive order would not solve the problem. He argued that the only solution possible was the passing of comprehensive immigration reform by Congress. In keeping with his past behavior, the abrasive American president has reversed his stand in the blink of an eye. The US has now become Trumpistan, a land that is not only cruel and intolerant, but also dishonest and hypocritical in almost all its claims and actions.

IMMIGRANTS FROM IRAN

The US could do well to learn from a lesson from the past. This is not a story of Huguenots fleeing France to Prussia, England and Switzerland. It is not a story of Jews fleeing Spain. It is a story of Zoroastrians fleeing Persia or modern-day Iran because of fierce Islamic persecution in the eighth century.

These followers of Zoroaster were members of the world’s first monotheistic faith that began 1,200 to 1,500 years before Christ. Many tenets of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have their roots in Zoroastrianism. In the eighth century, members of this rich ancient tradition fled for their lives to India. Landing in Gujarat, they sought permission from Jadi Rana, the local ruler, to settle in his lands. As per Qeṣṣa-ye Sanjān (The Story of Sanjān), the ruler was apprehensive about giving refuge to people who appeared warrior-like, dressed differently and spoke in strange tongues.

As per oral tradition, Jadi Rana presented a full cup of milk to the refugees to indicate that his lands were already full. These refugees put sugar in the cup to convince the king that they would be “like sugar in a full cup of milk, adding sweetness but not causing it to overflow.” This purportedly convinced Jadi Rana to grant asylum to the beleaguered men, women and children thronging his shores. This was the sensible and humane thing to do. These newcomers came to be known as the Parsis, in cognizance of their Persian roots.

CREATORS OF MODERN INDIA

Fast forward to 2018 and you cannot imagine modern India without the Parsis. The second president of the Indian National Congress was Dadabhai Naoroji, an educator, intellectual and statesman. This Parsi did the early work on the drain of wealth from colonial India to imperial Britain. After independence in 1947, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, another Parsi, created India’s now much-vaunted nuclear program. In 1971, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, arguably the most famous of Parsis, liberated Bangladesh from Islamabad’s oppressive rule.

Thanks to his brilliance, 92,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered, ensuring Bangladeshis could finally live without the fear of being raped, plundered and slaughtered with wanton abandon. Soli Sorabjee, a legendary lawyer, jurist and yet another Parsi, has been a torch bearer for freedom of expression and protection of human rights for decades. In the world of music, Zubin Mehta, the elegant conductor, and Freddie Mercury , the flamboyant rock star, fly the Parsi flag high.

Tata, India’s preeminent business house, was founded and has been run by Parsis for more than a century and half. Not only has it run numerous successful businesses, this multinational has helped build towering national institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, the Tata Memorial Hospital and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Other Parsis have run successful businesses too and set standards for philanthropy in the country.

For centuries, the Parsis have been totally integrated in Indian society. There have been no reports of strife, tension or riots between Parsis and other communities in oral or written history. With a literacy rate of 99%, they remain the most highly educated community in the land, exceeding the achievements of Brahmins, India’s priestly caste, and Sayyids, purportedly direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad.

It is important to note that the Parsi population has never exceeded 100,000 at any point in history. Low birth rates and migration to Western countries has resulted in the population declining to a mere 61,000 today even as India’s population continues to rise. By any standards, the Parsi contribution to India has been staggering and is totally out of proportion to the minuscule size of their community.

LESSON FOR AMERICA

The Parsi story underscores an important point. Penniless refugees and desperate migrants have often been a country’s greatest assets. In the American context, this holds even more true. Immigrants made America great and it is they who will make America great again.

It not without reason that the sonnet on the Statue of Liberty declares, “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” Over 1,000 years ago, the wretched refuse from Iranian shores drifted into the sandy land of Mahatma Gandhi. At that time, if Jadi Rana had acted like Donald Trump, the Parsis would have been cast back into the sea and not only India but also the rest of the world would have been poorer today as a result.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Ruyintan E. Mehta is a serial entrepreneur in plastics manufacturing. He is currently involved in nonprofit work in water, sanitation, and maternal and child health in India as honorary executive director of a US section501(c)(3) foundation. He is also president of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation, an alumni body of IIT Bombay in the US.

Atul Singh is the Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Fair Observer. He teaches Political Economy at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar where he also teaches World History. He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford on the Radhakrishnan Scholarship and did an MBA with a triple major in finance, strategy and entrepreneurship at the Wharton School. Singh worked as a corporate lawyer in London and led special operations as an elite officer in India’s volatile border areas where he had many near-death experiences. He has also been a poet playwright, sportsman, mountaineer and a founder of many organizations. Singh’s knowledge is eclectic, and his friends often joke that it comes in handy when access to Google is limited.

On the tenth anniversary of his passing away (27 June), a few reminiscences of the iconic Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, with whom I share my alma mater.

I was but four years of age when I first set eyes on India’s most iconic military leader. It was 1957 and Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw (Sam in short, for all) was then commanding India’s Tiger Division at Jammu and I was residing not too far at Damana, where my father was the Brigade Major of the brigade stationed there.

Article by Syed Ata Hasnain | Swarajya Magazine

During the division’s athletics tournaments, my only intent was to enjoy the sumptuous tea and the bottles of Vimto, which were always available, Army events are so enjoyable for the young brats. As I flitted from table to table with the third Vimto of the afternoon, I ran into Sam, and him into me. He smiled even as I spilt part of the treasured Vimto, but I still remember that twinkle in the eye. Cut a few years later, Sam was commanding the Staff College at Wellington in the Nilgiris, and I was again with my father, who was a member of the Directing Staff. I ran into him again, but this time with a little more dignity. He gave me a prize for an academic achievement at the Staff College Children’s School of which I remain a proud alumnus.

I remember him hating to be called Uncle or even General Manekshaw; he wanted everyone to call him Sam and we obliged quite gladly. Sam’s personality had permeated Wellington in every way. People posted there were expected to do their work, but more than that they were expected to enjoy themselves and lead a quality life. He was everywhere; riding, fishing, playing golf and bridge and never missing the jam sessions post the movies screened at the great auditorium called Sardar Patel. Sam’s was a personality that was simply infectious. None who served with him ever recall an unpleasant moment, and yet, all the work was done efficiently.

While much has been written about Sam’s great exploits as a soldier only a few people have delved into other aspects of his fascinating personality which made him stand out as a leader. We all know about his background, of how he joined the Indian Military Academy out of protest against his father’s refusal to allow him to become a doctor. His military career involved several infantry regiments and units, being wounded in action in Burma with a Military Cross to boast, and handling the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947-48 as a senior staff officer in the Military Operations Directorate. Not to forget his unforgettable message on taking over 4 Corps (straight from Wellington) at Tezpur in 1962, as the Chinese war machine was moving south towards the Assam plains. The message read – “Gentlemen, I have arrived and now there will be no withdrawal.” He went on to command the Eastern Command, Kolkata, for almost five years before he was elevated as the Army Chief in June 1969.

Just before that he attended the Sherwood College Centenary function at Nainital as the chief guest. That was his alma mater, and mine as well. As he walked into the Centenary play he threw up his hands and said – “Oh all these All Saints girls, they are still the prettiest”. All Saints is the sister school of Sherwood located on the same ridge. This statement by the handsome General sent the girls into a tizzy. His Centenary speech had us all wide eyed as he went on to claim that his stay at Sherwood had made him a better soldier because he was so used to not knowing where his next meal would come from, and when. He also claimed that he developed the killer instinct by learning to hate his rivals; that was said with finger pointing to the rival school across the hill, St Joseph’s College. There were cheers sufficient to be heard across the hill.

While he was the Army Commander Eastern Command Kolkata, Sam’s presence in Kolkata’s social scene was legendary. He strongly advocated that he did not trust anyone who did not drink or smoke; he was a pipe smoker in those days and gave it up later. Once in a public function, a young Bengali got up and started shouting slogans against him, disturbing his speech. He got down from the podium and walked over to the youngster and gave him a sound whack while admonishing him in his anglicised Hindi. The stunned young man blurted out – “Sir ,I only wanted your autograph, nothing else”. Sam, always the man of the moment told him – “Don’t be stupid, don’t take my autograph. Go to my wife and take hers, and a have photo with her too”. Siloo Manekshaw, his charming spouse, so used to Sam’s ways, could always be expected to say, “Oh that Sam, he is mad”.

Just after he became the Army Chief, Sam paid a visit to Binaguri near Siliguri. He was undertaking a longish drive and even being the Chief preferred to go by road. While he arrived for the night halt at Binaguri, people still recall how he refused to enter the guest rooms until he had been taken to the rear to see for himself how his sahayak and the residential guard were staying, and whether they would be comfortable.

No write-up on Sam can ever be complete without a rendering of the legendary stories on how he advised then prime minister Indira Gandhi during the run up to the 1971 India-Pakistan Conflict, which created Bangladesh. New to the idea of war as a means of gaining strategic advantage, Indira Gandhi was, of course, dependent entirely on Sam, who gave her the sanest advice of not to rush into attempting anything big until the nation had been prepared for it. It worked exactly as he wished. It is only his witty statement in response to a query which put him on the wrong side of Indira Gandhi. When asked what may have happened in 1971 if he had joined the Pakistan Army during Partition, Sam replied, tongue in cheek, that the Pakistanis may have won the 1971 war. That remark was never taken too kindly by the establishment, leading to the virtual isolation of a figure who continues to inspire many millions.

If one had to do a professional analysis of what qualities stood out in Sam’s personality that made him an iconic leader, I would classify three of them as the most significant – the ability to state his mind upfront or simply forthrightness, power of persuasion through the most innocuous actions and his immense sense of humour. He could convert the most serious situations into light hearted ones, relieve tension and thus create the environment for decision-making. Because of his sense of humour, he was the finest of public speakers, connecting with the audience almost the moment he stepped on to the stage. With young officers and troops, he had an automatic connect.

There are two lessons for India’s military set-up to learn from the life and times of Sam Manekshaw. First, he remained a General Officer for 13 years before becoming the Army Chief; by contrast, today, an Army Chief steps into the appointment with six years of experience as a General Officer. The difference in experience is palpable. Second is the manner in which Sam handled the political leadership. With nothing to take away except the reputation with his officers and men, Sam could speak his mind and, more importantly, speak his mind very strongly. That is something the Armed Forces leadership finds impossible to do today. It is not for nothing that Indira Gandhi waited for Sam to retire before clearing the proposals of the Third Pay Commission in 1973, which the nation should know reduced the soldiers’ pension and increased that of the bureaucrat – the root cause of the One Rank One Pension issue which hung fire for 43 years.

It seems strange that India’s greatest military leader in years remains unrecognised, without the conferment of the highest decoration that the nation can bestow on him. It is not for us to question why many others have received the Bharat Ratna. It is for us to only state and never demand that nations remain great when they recognise their true heroes. India will become only greater if its Soldier Number One, Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw, posthumously receives the highest honour that can be bestowed on an Indian citizen.

The writer is a former GOC of India’s Srinagar based 15 Corps, now associated with Vivekanand International Foundation and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.

Four decades ago, after a world-wide tour of the West and East that helped him expand his conceptual horizons, a young Astad Deboo returned to his native India—and went down south to train in Kathakali.

The artist was close to 30, an age conventionally considered ‘too late’ to be initiated into the rigours of Kerala’s traditional ballet form, which bears no small touch of the martial art kalaripayattu.

Deboo was already a self-ordained disciple of dance, though. In Kerala, he met another of his gurus and soon he was to make his Kathakali debut in the temple town of Guruvayur.

Article published on Outlook

Yesterday, on the first day of July 2018, the septuagenarian maestro rekindled his organic links with the Deccan. A Gujarat-born Parsi and a Mumbaikar now, though formed in his growing up years in Calcutta and Jamshedpur, Deboo flew back from a Europe tour to receive a prestigious title from a vintage cultural organisation in Chennai.

It was a meeting of opposites in a sense. That blur of mobile geography is the only constant in the dancer’s life. And Madras is as heritage-conscious as they come, mostly known for offering indifference, if not outright resistance, to experimentations in Indian performing arts. It’s thus only on an authentic aesthetic plane that they could meet.

A recognition, if any were required, of Deboo’s auto-governed idiom.

Deboo’s artistry has evolved over the decades, and not just by subtly blending elements from various forms of India and abroad. His dance has acquired distinctness with a stage script thoroughly structured and coloured with signature movements.

Age has mellowed his movements—the bodily charged style has largely given way to a slower conduct through space, even as the flame within has gained a stronger glow.

There are nuanced streaks of eclectic forms, from Kathak to Kathakali to Western, in each of his productions. His idiom is free enough for him to be able to experiment with his accompanists too. If he danced to the deep tones of the rudra veena with dhrupad master Ustad Bahauddin Dagar in Bombay in April, this summer saw him team with a Japanese contemporary composer in Palermo, Sicily. (Those stunning images of him against a towering colonnaded edifice is from Palermo.)

On Sunday, the Padma awardee was honoured with a ‘Living Legend’ award by the prestigious Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Trust in the Tamil Nadu capital. The evening saw Astad staging a work titled ‘Dance Expression’.

As a tribute, Outlook gives you this photo feature on the veteran — he makes for stunning shapes of frozen kinesis, with intimations of some cosmic motion.

In the heart of one of the world’s leading economies, a major transformation is underway. A recent redrawing of state boundaries has named Amaravati the new capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. A wide-ranging master plan calls for the city to be completely redesigned into one of the world’s most sustainable and smart cities, blazing a path for the entire country. Meanwhile, a burgeoning university in Amaravati has chosen its inaugural leader to guide it into the future.

Dr. Jamshed Bharucha, a distinguished academic leader in the United States, has been chosen to lead SRM University, AP – Amaravati, a new research university in Amaravati. He will become the university’s founding Vice Chancellor, departing the Ivy League to contribute to the explosive growth and reform of higher education and research underway in India.

Dr. Jamshed Bharucha to Lead New University in India, SRM University, AP – Amaravati from SRM University on Vimeo.

While the first crop of undergraduates in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SRM University, AP – Amaravati have just completed their first year of classes, the expansion is just beginning. The School of Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences has just been launched, and Dr. Bharucha will be at the helm in time to welcome them. The university’s commitment to the city planners is to open schools of management, medicine, and law over the next few years, growing the student body to 10,000 in five years and 25,000 in 10 years. Located by the river Krishna, the city will occupy 217 square kilometers and will be designed to the highest standards of sustainability. Plans call for 60 percent of the city to be dedicated to either green spaces or water, encouraging water taxis, electric cars, and walking. Like the city it calls home, SRM University, AP – Amaravati is poised for metamorphosis under Dr. Bharucha’s leadership.

As the chief executive of the campus, Dr. Bharucha’s role will be to provide strategic vision in pursuit of excellence in education, research, and engagement, responding to the complex opportunities and challenges of becoming a globally recognized and nationally transformative institution. The emphasis will be on multi-disciplinary approaches, for which Dr. Bharucha is well-positioned given his own research bridging cognitive neuroscience and music.

The Amaravati campus is the most recent, progressive, and ambitious of several SRM University campuses founded by entrepreneur Dr.P. Sathyanaranan, who as President of SRM Trust has committed up to $460 million to establish the Amaravati campus. “Dr. Jamshed Bharucha is a highly accomplished academic leader and we are thrilled to welcome him as Vice Chancellor,” said Dr.P. Sathyanarayanan, who serves as President of the group of SRM University campuses and led the search committee that selected Dr. Bharucha. “I am confident he will excel in this role not only in light of his wide-ranging experience, deep expertise, and intimate familiarity with our opportunities and challenges, but also because of his passionate commitment to helping universities, and everyone within them, serve the world at large.”

Dr. Bharucha has held a variety of academic leadership positions, including President of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Provost and Senior Vice President of Tufts University, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth College, where he became the first Indian-American to be named dean of a school at an Ivy League university. While on the faculty at Dartmouth, he was the John Wentworth Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and received the Huntington Teaching Award and the Undergraduate Teaching Special Award (given by the Student Assembly). He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at Dartmouth College.

“This is a pivotal moment in time for Amaravati – one full of extraordinary possibilities and opportunities to pursue new knowledge, challenge the status quo, and ultimately serve the greater good by enhancing access to education,” said Dr.Bharucha. “Such a time calls for a shift in strategic thinking, flexibility, and freedom to encourage and ignite the curiosity of young minds. I am looking forward to hitting the ground running in my mission to keep this university moving ambitiously forward by inspiring our community of students and faculty to realize their dreams.”

Dr. Bharucha joins a growing number of scholars who are drawn to new and exciting opportunities at international academic institutions. Dr. Subra Suresh, for example, became president of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore earlier this year after serving as president of Carnegie Mellon University. Drs. Bharucha and Suresh are not alone in their pursuit of international opportunities.

Born and raised in Mumbai, Dr. Bharucha worked as a computer programmer at his father’s engineering firm while in high school. He came to the U.S. to attend Vassar College, where he majored in Biopsychology. He then went on to receive a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Yale University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University. He also earned an Associate’s Diploma (ATCL) in violin performance from the Trinity College of London (International Exam Board). He has received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation in the U.S., and has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from Vassar College, where he serves on the Board of Trustees, and the Pride of America award from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. His past research has focused on the cognitive and neural basis of the perception of music, employing computational neural net models, behavioral experiments and functional MRI. More recently, his research has been on data-mining approaches to understand the comparative financial positions of American colleges.

Under Dr. Bharucha’s leadership, the university will embark on a new era, laying the foundation for a bright future on the path to academic discovery and lifelong learning.

We are happy to announce that the beautiful coffee table book edited by our dear friend Meher Bhesania of Dubai UAE. “Zarathushtra and the Origins of Zoroastrianism” is now available and shipping from the United States.

This book was launched at the recently concluded 11th World Zoroastrian Congress in Perth, Australia

Book Highlights:

• A story on history’s most powerful, influential and fascinating figure – Prophet Spitaman Zarathushtra

• From its roots in Iran – the key turning points in the history of the Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian Dynasties

• The story of Zoroastrianism: A chronicle of Persian civilization from ancient Iran to present era

• The flowering of the Zoroastrians on Indian Soil

• The visual history of the Legends and their Legacies

• Authentic stories by scholars and historians on Zoroastrianism: Exploring the social, cultural, and economic legacies

• Creative art watercolor paintings on Zarathushtra from birth to old age

• Spectacularly illustrated articles with 410 photographs, artifacts and maps

The book makes an ideal guide on Zoroastrianism and a wonderful gift for any occasion.

The price of the book in the US is US$ 50/- (includes shipping/courier). Those who are interested can send an email to zoroastrianbook@gmail.com to place an order.

You can pay via:

Option 1 – Check: The check should be written in the name of “Firdosh Bhesania” and posted to: 13541 104^th PL NE, Kirkland, WA 98034.

Option 2 – Paypal: Payment should be made to bhesania@hotmail.com

For additional details and to order, email zoroastrianbook@gmail.com

We help a charming, old Yezdi 250 CL II retrace its roots in Udvada, the holy land of the Parsis in India.

Article by Ruman Devmane Autocar India

To many, Udvada is no more than just a sleepy beach town. Tucked away in a corner of Gujarat, it appears to be one of the thousands of nondescript entries but one that unfolds in a charmingly quaint manner once you pass under its unexpectedly grand archway. This is home to a thinning but eternally devoted community of Parsis, united by race and a sense of belonging, neither of which can be contested. I’d brought along a Yezdi – which, as you will discover further into this story, shares more with the ever-industrious Parsis than just a name – in the hope that it would garner us a warm reception. There’s nothing that hasn’t been said before about Parsis and their love for classic motorcycles, right?

It, therefore, came as a blow when an old gent, rather articulately, asked us to simply leave. His objection was to the wonderfully acoustic ring-ding-ding exhaust note of the Yezdi CL II we’d brought along. Clearly not a fan of two-stroke motorcycles, and perhaps of Yezdi’s unique hidden carburettor feature, he addressed his displeasure with a restraint that implied it may have assumed a violent form some decades ago. Since the solemnity of the Udvada Atash Behram, also known as the Iranshah – the holiest of Parsi fire temples in the country – was at stake, I wheeled the Yezdi out of sight, although still feeling dejected at being denied the opportunity to reason. At least the Yezdi belonged here, after all.

An old Parsi resident in prayer – not an uncommon sight in Udvada – gives our lensman a glance.

In 1970, brothers Rustom and Farrokh Irani had been at the helm of Mysore-based Ideal Jawa for a nearly a decade. They enjoyed the goodwill from the Maharaja of Mysore, at whose persuasion a factory to produce Jawas under licence was erected. Terms with the wondrous Czech motorcycle marquee came to an end towards the end of the ‘60s, and, keen on not losing steam owing to this, the Irani brothers decided to continue using existing Jawa mechanicals within a new wardrobe. This was a good idea – as many of us can attest even decades since – but a nameless one. Inspiration struck when the Iranis looked over their shoulder. Hailing from the Yazd province in Iran, a well-established Zoroastrian settlement even amidst the strong Islamic emergence, the Iranis decided to dedicate their first independent motorcycling venture to their roots. Owing to its largely inaccessible geography, Yazd remained unaffected by the conflict in the region, elevating its status as an indestructible inhabitation. The Iranis’ choice was made  simpler because ‘Yazd’ means God in Persian. In a world driven by belief, you can’t do better than that for a name.

The gear lever retracts to serve as the kick starter, a quirky mechanism that’s part of the charm.

The Yezdi brand of motorcycles lived up to its name, too. A battered, weather-worn testimonial to this was by my side, today – a CL II from 1981. Kashif Chilmai, one of the

many formidable cogs in the Autocar India machinery, happens to own this motorcycle, which shares its space with a 1973 Jawa 250. His contagious enthusiasm meant the ride to Udvada was cheerful but, thankfully, an uneventful one. For one, he’d never tire of pumping the kick-starter (of which you have to do only half a dozen, on a good day) before the final, definitive kick that would fire the CL II up. It was an oddly satisfying procedure to witness every time we took a small break in the camera car. Sometimes, we’d pull over for a needless break just to put him through the visibly demanding task, although he didn’t know this at that time. Through all of it, the Yezdi always emerged unfazed.

The ‘hidden’ carb. You can’t see it, of course.

In the labyrinthine lanes of Udvada, the CL II didn’t come across as the pinnacle of two-stroke performance, but it wasn’t so even in its own time. In any case, the ageing populace of the temple town wouldn’t have been quite besotted with a blur of blue smoke. As a consequence, I didn’t seem to mind the idyllic 20.5Nm of torque (or whatever was left of it after nearly four decades) and the ‘wingback’ riding position. It really was like being on a reading chair you were likely to find only in your grandparents’ house, except this one had a smoking habit and four gears. The 248.5cc air-cooled engine was designed for a sedentary lifestyle, in a very infectious way.

Twin-pipes provide beautiful acoustics. Or not, depending on where you live.

It was prayer time in Udvada. Well, actually, it’s always prayer time in Udvada. Borrowing from my experience from earlier that morning, I instinctively stalled the Yezdi – finding neutral is notoriously difficult, which is ironic considering just how many false neutrals are there in the gearbox! Prayer in Zoroastrianism is a tranquil affair – unless you happen to be zipping up and down the road on a Yezdi outside, of course – and the few hundred that inhabit the hamlet participate with a curious zeal. The Atash Behram – which translates to ‘victorious fire’, the highest grade of ritual fire in Zoroastrianism – is majestic even to those for whom it is out of bounds, and houses the oldest continuously burning fire in the world. It is one of nine such temples in the world, eight of which are in India and only one in Yazd, Iran. The elderly gentleman’s anguish didn’t seem entirely misplaced, in hindsight.

Window shopping for sandalwood outside the Atash Behram.

Beyond the short temple street in Udvada, there isn’t really much else of significance. It’s pretty much a ghost town, which proved to be an ideal setting to ride the Yezdi in a nature best suited to its capabilities. I rode past houses left to isolation, momentarily invoking the enthusiasm of strays. Occasionally, I’d stop for a picture or just to soak in a crumbling abode, and then heel-shift into first, a manoeuvre I am yet to master with grace. Closer to the coast, where houses didn’t line the streets, the sun would cast a relaxed shadow of me astride the Yezdi, which was easy to get transfixed on. In any case, I wasn’t going fast enough to cause irreversible damage to life or limb. Even if I did, it was sure to not be the rage among tabloids the next morning. Nothing about Udvada ever was.

On recommendation, we paid a visit to Globe, a sprawling establishment renowned for its hearty Parsi meals and comfortable accommodation. Tucked away within a gated residential community, the quiet staffers did lay down an elaborate breakfast spread – traditional Parsi akuri (creamy scrambled eggs), large slices of bread, a minced meat preparation, tubs of butter and jam, and a tall tea flask, all of which was usurped with relish and alarming urgency. Too well-fed for immediate activity, we lounged aimlessly in our chairs, until we were greeted by the property’s owner – a jovial, bespectacled man we had seen buried into the day’s broadsheets upon entering. The Yezdi hadn’t gone unnoticed by him, and he was quick to make an animated mention of his youth, much of which he had spent on one. I couldn’t help notice the sense of longing his words betrayed, though.

An earnest longing for a simple life can only emerge from having lived one. It explains why the motorcycles of the era, such as the CL II, were similarly uncomplicated, too. Yezdi, for one, believed more in providing a trendy, decently zippy and reliable motorcycle to the era’s wave of free-spirited youth, but its brief went not far beyond that. That it went on to establish itself as an indestructible machine, one which would be passionately sought after several decades later, may not have been a dire part of the plan, but that’s how it turned out anyway. There will never be anything like the Yezdi again, but there needn’t be either. After all, some fires are destined to burn eternally.

Copyright (c) Autocar India. All rights reserved.

The below is a profile of the legendary scholar Dr. Irach J S Taraporewala penned by his grandson and namesake Irach Taraporewala. This appeared on the Zoroastrian Heritage page on Facebook

When the administrator of this page asked me to put together a profile of my late grandfather, the Zoroastrian scholar and translator of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, Dr. Irach Jehangir Sorabji Taraporewala, at first I thought that wouldn’t be possible, as I never actually knew or met my grandpa. I was born four months after he passed away, and was in fact named for him. The more I thought about it, though, I realised that I in fact DID know him, through the family legacy, the anecdotes about him I had heard, his own writings and most of all through the love and respect for him from so many that I always felt all around me, growing up, that have persisted over six decades since his passing, and so I DID have the wherewithal to tell his story.

My grandfather was born in 1884 in the then princely state of Hyderabad (Deccan), where his father was in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nizams put their trust in Parsis to run and manage their Treasury and the kingdom’s financial matters, and generations of Taraporewalas have served the Nizams there before and since. After completing his schooling in Hyderabad and then receiving a BA degree in English and Sanskrit from Elphinstone College, Bombay in 1903, the young Irach Taraporewala went abroad to England to study at the University of Cambridge and then law to became a full-fledged barrister-at-law in London. He was soon to have returned to India to become a practicing lawyer, but a chance meeting with Professor Christian Bartholomae, Professor of Philology, with a particular interest in Indo-Aryan languages, including Avesta and ancient Iranian studies, while my grandfather was traveling in Europe on vacation, changed the entire course of his life. He left a potentially lucrative career in law behind, and instead moved from England to the University of Würzburg in Germany to work under Prof. Bartholomae for his Ph.D on Avestan texts, which he obtained in 1913.

Dr. Taraporewala returned to India prior to the outbreak of World War I to accept a chaired professorship of Comparative Philolology in the Linguistics department at the University of Calcutta; he had married my grandmother Soona who hailed from Gamdevi, Bombay and they had three boys over the next few years, the youngest of whom was my father. Dr. Taraporewala was a co-founder of the Linguistics Society of India, that he called for to be created at a linguistics conference held in Lahore in 1928. After a tenure at the University of Calcutta, he moved to the Dept. of Linguistics at the Deccan College in Pune in 1940, that soon became the premier institute of linguistics in the nation. A special professorship on Iranian Studies was also especially created for him there. After retiring from Deccan College, he was brought on to serve as the first “Behdin” – non-priestly class principal of the Cama Athornan Institute in Andheri, Bombay, where noted mobeds and religious luminaries such as Dasturji Nowrooz Minocher-Homji trained under his tutelage.

He and Soona also took on the role of caring surrogate parents to all the boys boarding there who were away from their own families while studying to become Zoroastrian priests at the institute. Dr. Taraporewala’s books in linguistics included his well-used and still used textbook, “Elements of the Science of Language”, “Sanskrit Syntax” and also treatises on devotional Gujarati literature and Sanskrit literature such as the Adhyaksha-Pracara and the Kautiliyam-Artha-Shastra. The Parsi poet Ardeshar Khabardar who wrote in Gujarati was a good friend of his. Dr. Taraporewala became quite fluent in many languages including Gujarati, English, German, Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian, Marathi, Bengali and Avesta. After retirement he settled in a home called “the Anchorage” on Vatchagandhi Road in the Gamdevi area of Bombay, the lane behind the agiary there. In his “retirement” he tasked himself with working diligently on completing the meticulous scholarly task of translating the Gathas of Zarathushtra that he had begun years earlier; the divine words of Ahura Mazda Himself passed on to mankind through the hymns of Zarathuhtra.

Dr. Taraporewala had studied the literal translations of the Gathas of Zarathushtra by foreign scholars over decades of his own academic scholarship, but had found they were lacking the depth and spiritualty, and lacked the lyrical poetic character of the original Avesta text that he felt within himself in reading them and understanding the context. He had enjoyed the privilege of learning the techniques of meticulous research scholarship from Dr. Bartholomae in Germany, but scholars like that European mentor lacked the personal spiritual and contextual connection with the Zoroastrian faith that he had within in himself. He felt only a Mazdayasni Zarathushti raised in the faith and practising it could do justice to convey the tenets of the faith and the spirituality of the message of Ahura Mazda embodied in the holy hymns of Zarathushtra. He made it a mission in his remaining years to complete the task of translating the Gathas. While translating the verses he followed the maxim “Read things of the flesh with the eyes of the Spirit, not the things of the Spirit with the eyes of the flesh”. That labour of love and devotion finally led him to publish the “Divine Songs of Zarathushtra” in 1951, his comprhensive treatise on the Gathas, for which he earned his reputation and respect as a great scholar of Zoroastrianism. Throughout this effort, his dear wife Soona, my grandmother, was battling the ravages of cancer, but he persisted, with her blessings and encouragement. On the day he got his print proofs of the manuscript of the book back from his publisher, he went to tell the news to ailing Soona by her hospital bed. She smiled with tears of joy in her eyes and held his hand, so glad that his mission in life was near fruition. She died quietly and peacefully in his presence that day, a few hours later.

For all his erudite scholarship, Dr. Taraporewala was not a stern or taciturn man- quite the contrary. He had dignity and quiet humility, which he taught each of his three sons and his daughters-in-law through example, but he also he had a sharp wit and a sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye. In his final years, he enjoyed the company of his first four grandchildren and there are wonderful family pictures in our albums of him playing affectionately and mischievously with each of them. The family knew him by the affectionate nick-name “Pop” and that is how we still refer to him. His home was visited by religious scholars of all faiths and from many lands with whom he met and held discourses. He was extremely well-read, and built a vast home library of several thousand books on diverse topics over the years. He was a proponent, like his illustrious and spiritual father Jehangir Sorabji before him, of the Theosophy Movement of Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant and he would walk from Gamdevi every week to Sandhurst Road to attend the meetings of the Theosophical Society at the Blavatsky Lodge there.

Dr. Taraporewala was pleased in 1955 to receive an invitation from the University of Tehran in Iran to take up a chaired Professorship in Indo-Iranian Studies, and despite his age, at 71, he jumped at the opportunity, leaving family behind, to move alone to Tehran. Regrettably, his health declined there and he was forced to return to Bombay, where he passed away in January 1956.

Dr. Irach JS Taraporewala – “Pop”, would be extremely gratified to know of the resurgence in the interest of the true message of Zarathushtra and the Gathas that now exists, and is likely smiling down on each of us. He was a man of stature, but to us as family, he was also like any and all of us – in his staged life roles first as a loving son and brother, then as loving husband, father, father-in-law and grandfather, as well as being a mentor, teacher, guide and sage to so many. His was truly an exemplary life well lived, not in terms of acquisition of any great material wealth, but in the wealth of heart and spirit, the unrelenting pursuit of wisdom, and an entirely full life of the propogation of Manashni, Gavashni and Kunashni expected by Ahura Mazda of a true Mazdayasni.

Parsi Khabar adds:

The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra written by Dr. Irach J S Taraporewala was reprinted with full permission of the family by FEZANA. It is available for purchase online on FEZANA’s website and in India at Parsiana

To take care of Parsi fire temples across the country and fight for the preservation of their sanctity if need be, solicitor Berjis Desai has floated the idea of forming a body whose primary function would be to exclusively guard the interests and needs of agiaries.

No politics here

Desai, who is one of the petitioners praying to Bombay High Court to not allow Metro-III underground tunnels under the sacred Atash Behrams, suggested formation of the body in an article he wrote on Sunday for a community newspaper.

This body, which will be completely devoid of any kind of politics, would be known as the Parsi Zoroastrian Guards of the Holy Fire (PZGHF). Desai believes instead of having a knee-jerk or ‘often-delayed response to a crisis situation facing a consecrated holy fire, it is prudent to have a dedicated body, keeping a constant vigil.’

Speaking to mid-day, Desai says contributions would be sought to get the ball rolling for PZGHF, “Initially, I think some of us will contribute to create a corpus of Rs 2 crore after which we will get donations from NRI Parsis. The money will be used if an agiary is in a state of disrepair or if it requires the services of a part-time mobed [who will be paid by PZGHF] to tend to the fire. The idea is to have a body that will ensure fire temples are not facing problems.”

Desai makes it clear that PZGHF will steer completely clear of politics. “It will be pure service and those want to join and offer their services, will be welcome to do so.”

Sukhadwalla on board?

Structural engineer Jamshed Sukhadwalla, who single-handedly fought the battle against the Metro-III tunnelling in its early stages, has been requested by Desai to be one of the seven trustees on the PZGHF board. Sukhadwalla says that forming such a body is the need of the hour, but it will take some time to crystallise, “The idea (to form PZGHF) is Berjis’s but we have not yet had a detailed discussion on the matter. It will be taken up at an appropriate time. Fact is, such things should have happened over three 3 years ago, but better late than never.”

Desai said, “By the time PZGHF is up and running, it will be at least another six to nine months. It should be properly funded by the beginning of the next financial year.”

Parsi Khabar is happy to learn that the beautiful Cooper Agiary in Lahore will be celebrating its 125th Salgreh this month. Below is a message from our dear friend Perin Boga.

Cherished Friends and former Lahore Residents,

It gives us great pleasure to convey to you that the Bai Awabai Ardesir Cooper Agiary will be celebrating its one hundred and twenty-fifth Anniversary on Sunday, 29^th July, 2018.

Knowing you have offered your prayers before the holy atash of our beloved Agiary in earlier years, or in other ways been associated with the Agiary, may we request you to join us in celebrating this historic event by sending a message, however brief, for the occasion. Messages may be sent to Perin Boga, at: perinboga@gmail.com We shall endeavour to circulate your response to those gathered. Your memories and thoughts of the Agiary would be treasured for all time.

Maintaining the Agiary over the years has been a daunting challenge with ever rising costs. Should you wish to assist us in coping with our expenses, gifts, no matter how small, would mean a lot to us. Those who reside in the USA may contact Mr. Rustom M. Challa at: mzs@sbcglobal.com or Mrs. Khurshid Challa at: kntab@aol.com

We would also like to take this opportunity of expressing our warmest appreciation and deepest gratitude to those many who have contributed over the years. Their generosity has been of tremendous help in keeping our sacred atash glowing bright.

Please pass this message on to friends and relatives. We greatly look forward to hearing from you.

Affectionate regards,

Perin Boga

Honorary Managing Trustee

Trustees: Amy King, Rati Framroz Cooper, Sarosh Challa, Jamshed Jassawalla

Determined expert on Zoroastrianism who founded degree courses on world religion and zipped across the world on crutches

As a child sick with tuberculosis of the bone, John Hinnells spent the best part of seven years isolated in hospital. When he was as young as six years old he was placed on wards full of adults. Only on Saturdays could his parents visit and John would weep as they left. He made sporadic appearances at school, missing months of teaching. “You’ll never work when you grow up” was a frequent taunt. Yet Hinnells, the son of a Derbyshire miner, possessed grit and resilience. Briefly suspended from school for tripping up his tormentors with his crutches, he left with the equivalent of 3 O’ levels. This proved no obstacle to a glittering future in academe.

Published in The Times London

Once a novice monk, he was drawn east to study the roots of Christianity. Later he became an authority on Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest faiths, which originated in Persia (modern-day Iran). Sometimes obliged by his ailment to lecture from a wheelchair, Hinnells founded four degree courses in world religion at Manchester, Newcastle, the Open University and Soas (the School of Oriental and African Studies). Remarkably he also managed, while using crutches, to zip across the world from Zanzibar to Canada to survey the Zoroastrian diaspora. Staying with modern followers of the Persian prophet Zoroaster, he asked searching questions of their religious beliefs while savouring slow-cooked aromatic curries. He relished Bombay, once missing a flight because an elephant was squatting on the road to the airport. And he found Indians especially kind when they saw his physical difficulties. His frame was contorted, with one leg shorter than the other. Stoically he endured his knees being replaced and many operations on his feet. With a stiff, straight leg secured by pins he was unable to sit down, and could only perch on chair edges. By his thirties doctors suggested to Hinnells that he consider amputation. He always refused, and at a party met an orthopaedic surgeon who suggested that Hinnells should try a hip replacement, an operation then in its infancy, at the Wrightington Hospital, Wigan. “I’d like to do something I haven’t been able to before,” announced Hinnells, after successful surgery. Fearlessly he embraced white-water canoeing with his wife and sons. He had never let physical difficulties get in the way of adventure. Once with a friend he scaled Thorpe Cloud at Dovedale in Derbyshire, encased from chest to toe in plaster. Reaching the summit, he decided that navigating down on crutches was too tricky. So he gleefully slid down on his bottom, burning a hole as he did so in his plaster.

John Russell Hinnells was born in August 1941 in Derby, the only child of William, who after mining worked on the railways, and Lillian (née Jackson), a dinner lady and school cook. At the age of 13, Hinnells won a place at Spondon Park Grammar School in Derby. He taught art after taking a course at Derby and District College of Art. Sensing a call to priesthood, he began training in Cumbria then entered Mirfield Monastery near Leeds. His plans for a life with the Anglican Community of the Resurrection changed the day he met Marianne Bushell, a visitor whose cousin was at the monastery. Smitten, within 24 hours of first meeting they vowed to marry. Marianne (always known as Anne) and Hinnells married in 1965 after he had obtained a degree in theology from King’s College London. She taught literacy to children, and was a calm counterpoint to her husband’s taste for debate. Around the dining table of a home adorned with brass lamps and vibrant Bombay rugs, Hinnells sparked discussion with his sons, Mark and Duncan, on the increasing importance of world faiths because of global migration. How, he asked in a light Derbyshire burr, might religion influence social policy? Hinnells had obtained a lectureship at Newcastle when he was 26 and from 1970 worked at the University of Manchester, where he was made the professor of comparative religion. In 1993 he received the chair of comparative religion at Soas in London and became the founding head of its department for the study of religion. Geographers and sociologists alike were intrigued by Hinnells’s 30-year investigation into the world’s Zoroastrians that was published in 2005. More than 1,800 answered a questionnaire he devised that pinpointed religion as a key marker in the identity of migrants from southeast Asia.

As an adviser on religions to Penguin, Hinnells also edited succinct guide to faiths, including the Penguin Dictionary of World  Religion (1984). Other scholars offered the project felt swamped by its scope. However, by 8am daily Hinnells was in his study rattling out letters on a manual typewriter requesting contributions from the world’s most prestigious religious scholars. He asked Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Zoroastrians and Jews to write of their beliefs, at a time when accounts of world faiths were largely penned by western Christians.

At home he relished entertaining ministers of all faiths, including the Parsee High Priest, who was one of his friends and was often spotted in Hinnells’s garden lobbing a cricket ball to his sons. After Marianne’s early death from cancer in 1996 a devastated Hinnells left Soas and took up a visiting fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge. Later he invited Alison Houghton, the widowed former librarian of Robinson College, to share his bungalow. She had Alzheimer’s disease and they made a solid team — he was the memory, she was the manpower. Hinnells would remind her to switch off the gas before they left for trips to the Buxton opera festival. She carried the bag he could not pick up. Later Hinnells moved near his older son, Mark, who works for the engineering firm Ricardo. Although he was frequently unwell, his death was unexpected. After falling ill while sharing a meal with Mark, he was diagnosed with septicaemia in hospital. Surgery was planned, but Hinnells asked if he might sample his favourite beverage. “No,” said the doctor. “It’s nil by mouth if we operate.” The next morning he said that Hinnells was not well enough for surgery. Agreeing and aware that this meant death was imminent, Hinnells merely replied: “Can I have that Diet Coke then?” The many letters sent to his sons since his death speak of how often he helped others, whether that was with securing a university place, a book deal or a lectureship. “Dad saw what people were capable off,” recalled his son Duncan, who is a solicitor. Perhaps his own struggles inspired him.

Hinnells’s mother once bumped into her son’s former headmaster. He mentioned hearing that Hinnells had become a university lecturer. Assured that this was untrue, the headteacher replied, “I thought not,” only for Lillian to gently smile. “John,” she replied, “is now a professor.”

John Hinnells, professor of world religion, was born on August 27, 1941, and died on May 3, 2018, aged 76.

After nearly a year of delicate refurbishment and some touches of modernity, Tata Group’s iconic headquarters near Flora Fountain, the Bombay House, will reopen on July 29, the 114th birth anniversary of JRD Tata.

Article by Vijay Tagore | Mumbai Mirror

Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata and group boss N Chandrasekaran will inaugurate the renovated British-era structure, which was closed for business for the first time in its 94-year history in August last year.

One of the new features of the heritage building is digitisation of security and operations.

Chandrasekaran had said last year that the group wanted to “create a workplace that’s more collaborative, contemporary and youthful”. The façade of Bombay House has been left untouched; only the interiors have been refurbished. A kennel has been built to house stray dogs which famously milled around on the property and enjoyed Ratan Tata’s affection. The Homi Mody Street that leads to the building has been beautified.

Mumbai-based architect and urban conservationist Brinda Somaya oversaw the Bombay House renovation. She had earlier told Mirror that this was the first-ever restoration undertaken inside the three-storey building and that it would also involve creation of a state-of-the-art lobby. Over 550 employees of various Tata firms and interests were shifted to Fort House and other locations last year as the work began. They will be moving back in this month.

A Tata Sons spokesperson confirmation the inauguration, but refused to comment more.

Bombay House came up in 1924. It was designed by Scottish architect George Wittet, who was also behind Mumbai’s gems such as the Gateway of India and the Prince of Wales Museum.

The building was supposed to undergo repairs in 2016, but the plans were reportedly put on hold as the Tatas battled a series of allegations by ousted Tata Sons chairman Cryus Mistry.