The Global Working Group/Global Council of Zoroastrians Trust (GWG/GCZT) meet in Bombay on February 2, 2025, though on a Sunday, was a welcome event. Community leaders from 10 countries — India, US, Canada, Australia, UK, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Singapore, Dubai and Iran — and prominent professionals from Bombay plus an industrialist from Ahmedabad converged to discuss issues that confront the community. Speakers were conversant with what was happening in the community and offered thoughtful suggestions. Some voiced commonly proposed solutions to the problems that perennially plague the community, while the realization that new thinking was required was also acknowledged.
Many of the problems are of our own making and can be tackled, such as institutionally based gender bias. But others defy answers: These include the dwindling population, the increase in interfaith marriages, the shrinking number of Zoroastrians taking up priesthood, safeguarding immovable property where there are no Parsis left in the vicinity. Such an admission may be considered defeatist by traditionalists. But, as distinguished jurist and guest speaker Darius Khambata rightly pointed out, quoting the English naturalist Charles Darwin, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adaptable to change.” The oft repeated "Serenity Prayer” widely attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr also applies to the community: "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.”
Much of our energy is expended on wanting to change the things we cannot and opposing attempts to change the things we can. Zoroastrians abroad favor equal rights for women. Here many oppose this, not on any religious grounds but because of gender bias and racism. The Saklat vs Bella judgment gives trusts the leeway to admit to agiaries the children of Parsi women married to non Parsis. So far only the Delhi and Karachi anjumans have exercised this prerogative and permit the children entry. The trustees of other fire temples, in order to avoid controversies and litigation, or because they are genuinely misogynists, fight shy of implementing any reforms.
One would have thought the Ninth World Zoroastrian Youth Congress scheduled for December 2027 in Bombay would have been the ideal forum to take up the issue of gender bias since it affects females in India the most; but when representative Rohinton Rivetna of Chicago inquired if the issue of demographics would be touched at the youth meet, Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Viraf Mehta stated the subjects were still under discussion. So, to hope that sexism would be erased may be expecting too much. The older generation may turn a blind eye to such blatant discrimination but one would expect the youngsters, especially females, to be more perturbed. Mehta, one of the founders of the Zoroastrian Youth for the Next Generation (ZYNG), which he claims to be the largest Zoroastrian youth association in the world, voiced his disapproval at the North American youth representative making no mention of ZYNG when speaking about the proposed World Alliance of Young Zoroastrians. "We don’t count,” he lamented. Sad but true.
The two ZYNG representatives who spoke at the GWG meet in 2025 were not the ones who had addressed the gathering at the 2024 meet. ZYNG functions in the shadows: elections, if held, are kept secret; no accounts are published, and if they are, they are not disseminated; names of the president and other office bearers are not publicized... Exactly what Mehta’s role in ZYNG is and who calls the shots is not known. ZYNG, like most youth organizations in the Indian community, appears to have no cutoff date for remaining a member or holding office. Many youth organizations here are run and managed by 50 or 60 or 70-year olds! One remembers attending a Youths’ Own Union function at Allbless Baug in the mid-1970s where the association was sponsoring the navjote initiation of several children from disadvantaged backgrounds. One kept wondering who the youth leaders were before it dawned that the middle aged people one was liaising with were the leaders! They were no longer young but that did not deter them from remaining members and office bearers of the organization.
Several GWG speakers spoke on the need for youth to be encouraged to take part in community activities, but as a former president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) Arzan Wadia noted, the harder part was getting them to stay on.
On the subject of priesthood, Rivetna noted that even in North America practicing priests were getting older. The community needed a "global solution.” The only apparent solution is to find ways to manage without priests. In Lahore, Pakistan two ladies looked after the local agiary. The Bhuj agiary property has a non-Parsi caretaker.
Dorab Mistry of the UK did however talk about financing the training of a potential scholar priest. While such a priest will be a welcome addition to the fold, it will not compensate for the absence of priests to serve in the numerous fire temples or various Zoroastrian communities settled across the world.
The GWG/GCZT combine has, and is, attempting to formulate several worthwhile and essential schemes for the welfare of the global Zoroastrian community. But more importantly it is also functioning as a think tank. Other organizations are too caught up in the day-to-day management of their local communities, that they don’t have the time, energy, inclination or perspective to think globally. In North America, FEZANA members meet and exchange ideas that enrich each association. India, which has the largest number of Parsis in the world and the maximum number of anjumans and punchayets, lives in isolation. The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India has met only once in the past five years and the gathering comprised largely associations from parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. No one is aware of what is happening elsewhere in India.
By sharing experiences, voicing concerns, exchanging thoughts, the entire community benefits. We may not agree with one another but our knowledge increases and our thinking broadens. Perhaps in such an environment acceptable, innovative solutions could emerge.