Dr. Adil Malia

5th March, 2024, marked the launch of the renewed initiative: ‘Centre for Avesta-Pahlavi Studies’, at the Kalina campus of Mumbai University (MU), inaugurated by our H’ble Minister of Women & Child Development, and Minister of Minority Affairs – Smt. Smriti Irani. Indeed a historic day of pride for the Zoroastrian community – thanks to the untiring efforts of the core team comprising Er. Parvez Bajan, Er. Cyrus Darbari, Shiraz Kapadia, Shirin Contractor, Meher Contractor and Dr. Daruwalla, and myself – Dr. Adil Malia.

This is a 5-way ‘Samanvay’ project. For the uninitiated, ‘Samanvay’ (in Sanskrit) means harmonious co-ordination, integration or synthesis. It refers to the act of bringing together diverse elements of the equation in a manner which creates a coherent and unified whole, for collective progress.

The project envisions building a ‘State of the Art Centre for Avestan Culture. Setting up this Centre promoting Avestan culture and studies is a unique and live ‘Samanvay’ project, that is currently underway, being worked on by 5 critical stake holders:

1. The Ministry of Minority Affairs, GoI
2. Govt. of Maharashtra
3. University of Mumbai
4. Centre for Distance And Open Education (CDOE), at University of Mumbai
5. The ‘Zoroastrian-Parsi-Irani’ team comprising Dr. Adil Malia, Er. Dr. Parvez Bajan, Er. Cyrus Darbari, Mrs. Meher Contractor, Ms. Shirin Contractor, Mrs. Shiraz Kapadia and Dr. Kerman Daruwalla.

This Group of stakeholders held its second meeting on 8^th April, 2024, at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Auditorium, at Kalina. Several integral issues were discussed including design of the infrastructure, planned international teaching Partnerships, course content for various programs, and also the need to go beyond teaching Avesta-Pahlavi languages at this Centre and to focus on various course designs that would make the proposed Centre an all-inclusive International Centre for Development of Zoroastrian & Avestan Culture.

The Central Government was represented by Principal Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs – Srinivas Katikithala; Joint Secretary (Education) – Jitendra Singh Raje; their Undersecretary and other officers from the Ministry. The State Government was represented by the Sr. Secretary. The Mumbai University was represented by Vice Chancellor – Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni and Head of the English Department at MU – Dr. Shivaji Sargar, who is also appointed as the first Nodal Officer of the project. The Centre of Distance & Open Education was represented by Dr. Santosh Rathod – the Second Nodal Officer, and our team was led by Dr. Adil Malia and Er. Dr. Parvez Bajan, along with five members of our team, named above.

The good news is that admissions for the relevant Avesta-Pahlavi language graduation (MA) level courses will commence by June 2024. Students interested in pursuing the same can contact Er. Cyrus Darbari on email: cyrus_darbari@ashinfo.com for relevant details.

We, as a group, communicated our wholehearted support to the Government and other stakeholders and further expressed our keen desire to work with the larger team of stakeholders, not only as beneficiaries of the program, but more so, as working partners, right from the design stage of this project itself.

Our community members are crucial to this project – your contributions in terms of your knowledge, skills and ideas will make this joint project a grand success. Do write in and share your ideas and suggestions with us, either directly to me at adiljmalia@gmail.com or to Er. Bajan (pmbajan@gmail.com), Er. Cyrus Darbari (cyrus_darbari@ashinfo.com), Dr. Kerman Daruwalla (kerman.daruwalla@gmail.com), Shiraz Kapadia (Shirazvkapadia@gmail.com), Meher Contractor maresa@rediffmail.com), or Shirin Contractor (shirindara@gmail.com).

Education is the best way to institutionalize and sustain our language and culture for posterity. Let us all collaborate and work together to make this project a resounding success!