The announcement of a Navjote ceremony of a child born to a non-Parsi (Hindu) father and Parsi mother in Nagpur, has sparked a heated controversy within the community. The Navjote which is scheduled for 14th November, 2023, has garnered staunch resistance from Nagpur’s Parsi Anjuman and other orthodox community members, as well as from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), which has declared that the child will not be recognised as Parsi, in keeping with the law. Nagpur’s Parsi Anjuman and most of the 500-strong Parsi community residing there have refused to accept the validity of this Navjote.

This news has spurred debates on various community groups across social media platforms with some referring to the act as blasphemous and seeking strong action. The Nagpur Anjuman has also stated that the priests of Nagpur’s only fire temple would not be performing the Navjote ceremony. As per the law, the Supreme Court orders have established that a child with a non-Zoroastrian father cannot be initiated into the ceremony, whether at religious premises or at home. In short, you have to be born of a Parsi father to be recognised as Parsi.

This controversy has revived the old debate about who can be called ‘Parsi’, with at least three court cases challenging this view, from Mumbai, Kolkata and Gujarat, where Parsi women married outside the community have sought equal religious rights for themselves and their children. A number of community members are of the view, that it is these stringent rules about who can be called a Parsi, that have worsened the dwindling population crisis in the community.