Zoroastrian funeral rites arouse anger in India

Traditions in balance
She says that to allow bodies to decompose for months is a violation of the tenets of the religion, which says souls join the spirit world four days after death.

“After four days, the bodies of your loved ones should mix with the earth, or how will their soul be released?” asked Baria.

But Burjor Antia, a Panchayat trustee, says Baria has committed a religious offense. “Naturally you will find dead bodies there, and not a valley of flowers,” he said. “If you open a grave, will you not find worms and a half-eaten body?”

Antia insisted, “We cannot cremate or bury, that is breaching our sacred religious injunction.”

Orthodox members are upset that Baria entered the Towers of Silence, amphitheater-like-structures set on pillars amid the lush 55-acre garden cemetery atop Malabar Hill.

Antia admits the solar panels don’t work well during the annual rainy season, but said the elders were working out a more advanced system to dehydrate bodies and speed decomposition.

Vigorous debate
The controversy has stirred a debate in the dwindling Zoroastrian community — about 82,000 of the world’s 130,000 practicing Parsis live in India, most in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.

“The system has failed miserably and people are getting upset,” said Jehangir Patel, editor of Parsiana magazine. “More people are asking questions about bodies lying and rotting and left there.”

Patel, like other reformists, wants an alternative — some want to be allowed to pray over the dead within the funeral grounds and then cremate bodies elsewhere.

Many are worried. “It’s not as if death is something you can control,” said Homi Mehta, a 32-year-old Parsi architect whose faith in the funeral rites has been shaken by the controversy.

“If someone I loved died during the monsoon, I wouldn’t want them to be left hanging there.”

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