Till 1907 I drew the attention of leaders in Bombay to this fact, but scholars and eminent people alike refused to countenance the Bahai Movement as anything more than an innocent institution, or a Brotherhood, like the Theosophical Society. The Bahai religion had not found a footing amongst the co-religionists of Karachi at that time. In 1914 when I went to America a second time with my wife, the Bahai movement appeared to have gained a firmer foothold. This was the result of a wide-spread propaganda in Europe and America from 1911 to 1913 by Abbas Effendi who had adopted the name of Abdul Baha.
Mr. Ardeshir Edulji Reporter, who had been residing in Teheran for nearly four decades as a representative from Bombay of the 'Society for the improvement of the condition of the poor Zoroastrians of Iran, is of the opinion that the Zoroastrians of India are making a serious mistake and their indifference is extremely harmful to the community. Every year an increasing number of Zoroastrians is abandoning the religion of their forefathers and becoming Bahais. Despite repeated warnings the coreligionists of Bombay are not being alerted.
Saturday 17 September 2011
Strong Factors Underlying Conversions
Various Jewish scholars have suggested reasons why the Iranian Jews might have been attracted to the Bahá'í Faith. We might see how many of these can be shown to apply both to Jewish and Zoroastrian converts.
Habib Levy suggests that
1. The poor economic condition of Zorastrians
The condition of the Zoroastrian community in Yazd began steadily improving in the latter half of the nineteenth century when representatives from the Parsi community in Bombay were sent to Iran to ameliorate the oppression and poverty under which the Zoroastrians lived. Besides establishing schools, influencing government regulations, and introducing internal reforms into the Zoroastrian community, the contacts with the Parsis of India led to the establishment of trade relations between Bombay and Yazd in which Zoroastrians played a prominent role. Out of this relationship arose a mercantile and professional class that had been hitherto absent among the Zoroastrian community of Iran.
The early conversions to the Bahá'í Faith occurred among this group and again followed or accompanied economic improvement. The upwardly mobile were often the first to convert.
2. Ignorance of Zorastrians of Iran from basic tenents of their Religion
Like the Jewish clergy, the Zoroastrian priests in Iran were poorly educated entrenched in ritualism, and unable to respond to social change. Parsi agents sent to assist the Iranian Zoroastrians often found their efforts frustrated by intransigent priests. When one Parsi agent, Kay-Khusraw Ji Sahib, established a body of elected laymen to oversee the activities of the Zoroastrian community including those previously regulated by the clergy, the Zoroastrian priests were said to have poisoned him (Sulaymani, Masabih-i 4:404-6).
3. Bahai manipulated the writings for their own use
Dreading the oppression of the Muslim Mullahs of Iran, the Bahais carried on their work clandestinely in the beginning. They could not construct public places of worship. Practising of the faith and even conversion when the occasion presented itself, were conducted behind closed doors. For generations our community had been disgruntled by the persecution of the mullahs. We had been rebuffed, repudiated and rejected. At such a stage of existence the Bahais welcomed us with open arms. They invited us to dine with them. This was something to gladden the hearts of our unfortunate co-religionists in their homeland, Iran. They were naturally drawn towards the Bahais. The shrewd Bahais played upon their religious sentiments and deluded the ignorant Zoroastrians that the prophecy in their scriptures that Shah Behram Varjavand would come one day has been fulfilled, for Bahaullah himself was Shah Behram Varjavand.
In some of the unauthentic Pazand and Pahlavi books written after we lost our kingdom, it has been foretold that Shah Behram Varjavand of Kyanian lineage will come some day. At the age of thirty he will raise an army of Hindus and Chinese and attack Iran and conquer it and will reinstate a Zoroastrian regime in Iran.
It is understandable that uneducated Zoroastrians of Iran, fifty or sixty years ago, believed these fictitious fairy tales; but for highly qualified and cultured Parsis of India to gulp down such fantastic stories today is truly regrettable. Certain gentlemen inform us that Shah Behram Varjavand will be born between 1941 and 1950 and that 1940 to 1990 will be very bad years for the world. These people write that, with his spiritual powers and the [724] strength of his prayers and purity, he will perform universally renowned miracles by arresting electricity in the atmosphere that suspends aero planes high up in the air, will poison the planes engaged in warfare and bring them down! What a miserable exhibition of the intellectual prowess of men who have qualified and stepped out of the portals of the Bombay University!
Habib Levy suggests that
1. The poor economic condition of Zorastrians
The condition of the Zoroastrian community in Yazd began steadily improving in the latter half of the nineteenth century when representatives from the Parsi community in Bombay were sent to Iran to ameliorate the oppression and poverty under which the Zoroastrians lived. Besides establishing schools, influencing government regulations, and introducing internal reforms into the Zoroastrian community, the contacts with the Parsis of India led to the establishment of trade relations between Bombay and Yazd in which Zoroastrians played a prominent role. Out of this relationship arose a mercantile and professional class that had been hitherto absent among the Zoroastrian community of Iran.
The early conversions to the Bahá'í Faith occurred among this group and again followed or accompanied economic improvement. The upwardly mobile were often the first to convert.
2. Ignorance of Zorastrians of Iran from basic tenents of their Religion
Like the Jewish clergy, the Zoroastrian priests in Iran were poorly educated entrenched in ritualism, and unable to respond to social change. Parsi agents sent to assist the Iranian Zoroastrians often found their efforts frustrated by intransigent priests. When one Parsi agent, Kay-Khusraw Ji Sahib, established a body of elected laymen to oversee the activities of the Zoroastrian community including those previously regulated by the clergy, the Zoroastrian priests were said to have poisoned him (Sulaymani, Masabih-i 4:404-6).
3. Bahai manipulated the writings for their own use
Dreading the oppression of the Muslim Mullahs of Iran, the Bahais carried on their work clandestinely in the beginning. They could not construct public places of worship. Practising of the faith and even conversion when the occasion presented itself, were conducted behind closed doors. For generations our community had been disgruntled by the persecution of the mullahs. We had been rebuffed, repudiated and rejected. At such a stage of existence the Bahais welcomed us with open arms. They invited us to dine with them. This was something to gladden the hearts of our unfortunate co-religionists in their homeland, Iran. They were naturally drawn towards the Bahais. The shrewd Bahais played upon their religious sentiments and deluded the ignorant Zoroastrians that the prophecy in their scriptures that Shah Behram Varjavand would come one day has been fulfilled, for Bahaullah himself was Shah Behram Varjavand.
In some of the unauthentic Pazand and Pahlavi books written after we lost our kingdom, it has been foretold that Shah Behram Varjavand of Kyanian lineage will come some day. At the age of thirty he will raise an army of Hindus and Chinese and attack Iran and conquer it and will reinstate a Zoroastrian regime in Iran.
It is understandable that uneducated Zoroastrians of Iran, fifty or sixty years ago, believed these fictitious fairy tales; but for highly qualified and cultured Parsis of India to gulp down such fantastic stories today is truly regrettable. Certain gentlemen inform us that Shah Behram Varjavand will be born between 1941 and 1950 and that 1940 to 1990 will be very bad years for the world. These people write that, with his spiritual powers and the [724] strength of his prayers and purity, he will perform universally renowned miracles by arresting electricity in the atmosphere that suspends aero planes high up in the air, will poison the planes engaged in warfare and bring them down! What a miserable exhibition of the intellectual prowess of men who have qualified and stepped out of the portals of the Bombay University!
Summary of Zoroastrians conversion to Bahai Faith in Iran
Up to that time [1882-83] no one from among the Zoroastrians [in Yazd] had accepted the Faith. Indeed, the Bahá'ís could not imagine that these people would embrace the Faith, because they were not involved in the early history and events associated with the Manifestations of God and were not included in any discussions concerning the Faith. (Quoted in Taherzadeh, Revelation 103 1)
According to Dastur Dhalla, the eminent Zoroastrian theologian, roughly 4000 Zoroastrians converted to the Bahá'í Faith in Iran, with an additional 1000 in India (cited in Dhalla, Dastur Dhalla 703). This conversion movement involved a significant portion of the educated merchant elite of the Zoroastrians in Yazd (Stiles, "Early Zoroastrian"), all of the Zoroastrians of Qazvin (Dhalla, Dastur Dhalla 726), and a significant number in Kashan and Tehran as well. The accuracy of all these figures, being based largely on the impressions of outside observers, is open to question. Neither the Bahá'ís nor the minorities from which the conversions were occurring kept membership records at this time.
During the Babí period there were few minority conversions. The only account I have found is the lone instance of a Zoroastrian who witnessed a Babí being beaten, stripped naked, and paraded through the streets. This persecution induced the Zoroastrian to examine the religion, and he soon became a Babí ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Traveller's 21).
When Mírza Abu'l-Fadl, the great Bahá'í scholar, was expelled from his position as a teacher in a religious school after it became known he was a Bahá'í in 1876, he was able to obtain employment from the Parsi agent Manakji Limji Hatari, who had been sent by the Zoroastrian community in India to assist the Zoroastrians of Iran. Mírza Abu'l-Fadl taught Persian literature to Zoroastrian children in Manakji's new school and served as Manakji's personal secretary. Some of the earliest Zoroastrian conversions to the Bahá'í Faith resulted from Mírza Abu'l-Fadl's association with the Zoroastrian community (Mihrabkhani, Sharh Ahval-i 19-23).
According to Dastur Dhalla, the eminent Zoroastrian theologian, roughly 4000 Zoroastrians converted to the Bahá'í Faith in Iran, with an additional 1000 in India (cited in Dhalla, Dastur Dhalla 703). This conversion movement involved a significant portion of the educated merchant elite of the Zoroastrians in Yazd (Stiles, "Early Zoroastrian"), all of the Zoroastrians of Qazvin (Dhalla, Dastur Dhalla 726), and a significant number in Kashan and Tehran as well. The accuracy of all these figures, being based largely on the impressions of outside observers, is open to question. Neither the Bahá'ís nor the minorities from which the conversions were occurring kept membership records at this time.
During the Babí period there were few minority conversions. The only account I have found is the lone instance of a Zoroastrian who witnessed a Babí being beaten, stripped naked, and paraded through the streets. This persecution induced the Zoroastrian to examine the religion, and he soon became a Babí ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Traveller's 21).
When Mírza Abu'l-Fadl, the great Bahá'í scholar, was expelled from his position as a teacher in a religious school after it became known he was a Bahá'í in 1876, he was able to obtain employment from the Parsi agent Manakji Limji Hatari, who had been sent by the Zoroastrian community in India to assist the Zoroastrians of Iran. Mírza Abu'l-Fadl taught Persian literature to Zoroastrian children in Manakji's new school and served as Manakji's personal secretary. Some of the earliest Zoroastrian conversions to the Bahá'í Faith resulted from Mírza Abu'l-Fadl's association with the Zoroastrian community (Mihrabkhani, Sharh Ahval-i 19-23).
Monday 12 September 2011
Zoroastrian conversion to Bahai Faith in India
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| Zoroastrian Baha'i women of Bombay, India (1933) |
At first some Zoroastrians of Iran and later Iranian Zoroastrians settled in India accepted Bahaism. The secret movement of this new religion had misled us in the past. We have been misguided by their deceptions up to this day. The Bahais have no churches, they have no priests, they are free to marry non-Bahais. The President or Secretary of an association takes the place of a priest in their marriage ceremonies. Some such prominent person recites a short prayer. Thereafter the couple, their guardians and leading men of the assembly sign the document. At the time of the wedding an 'Alvaha' chosen from the Alvaha composed in Arabic by Bahaullah is recited. Under the canopy of their faith it is permissible to retain the 'sudre' and 'kusti' when necessary, to pass as Zoroastrians when need arises, to derive benefit from communal funds and its institutions. The corpse of the deceased they bury in their own separate cemetery.
After the death of Baha'u'llah and the inauguration of the ministry of Abdu'l-Baha, the Baha'i community in Bombay was split as a consequence of the activities of the followers of Mirza Muhammad Ali who had challenged his half-brother's right to legitimate leadership. As a result, Abdu'l-Baha directed a number of prominent emissaries to India, both Persian and Western, to guide the community and encourage teaching. Among these were Mirza Mahmud Zarqani, Aqa Mirza Mahram, Mirza Hasan Adib, Ibin-i-Asdaq, Lua
Getsinger, Mrs. H. Stanndard, Sidney Sprague, Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober. By 1908 the work of these individuals along with a small group of local converts had produced functioning communities in Bombay, Calcutta, Aligarh and Lahore. Of these, the Bombay community took the forefront in both teaching and translation work. Its advancements in the area of translation marked the first time any of Baha'u'llah's writings had been translated into one of the native languages of India. Bombay also managed to acquire the first Baha'i cemetery in India, and Abdu'l-Baha designed the layout of the sight. The activities of the Bombay community were commented upon by Sydney Sprague who in 1908 reported: "There are three meetings a week held in Bombay and there are as a rule eighty to a hundred men present He also noted that it was not easy to become a Baha'i: "It often means a great sacrifice on the part of a believer, a loss of friends, money and position."
During this period, a number of Indian Zoroastrians ("Parsis") were converted to the Baha'i Faith, thereby forming a nucleus of future Baha'i leadership in India. The conversions came about as a result of the work of agents who had originally been sent abroad by the Indian Zoroastrian community to help their coreligionists in Iran. There they came into contact with the Baha'i Faith and supported its activities. Later, several Iranian Zoroastrian converts to the Faith traveled to Bombay (notably Mulla Bahram Akhtar-Khavari) and actively promulgated their new religion among local Zoroastrians. Although they were met with opposition by some of the conservative dasturs, these missionary converts were quite successful in opening the Zoroastrian community to Baha'I concepts and teachings.
In following this tack the Baha'is were in many ways mirroring the attitudes of the reform movements with which they came into contact. Reform was primarily the prerogative of the upper classes who often looked to English liberal ideas and institutions for inspiration. There was little thought of speaking to the masses. Even in the secular Indian political arena it was English educated Indians in the professions who came to form, in effect, a new class, which prior to the arrival of Gandhi on the national scene was virtually cut off from the mass of the population. Moreover, the fact that for the most part the Baha'i message was presented in Persian, Arabic, Urdu, or English added to the sense of exclusivity, as these languages were generally associated with cultural elites.
Also of considerable importance was the establishment of the Afnan's printing press in Bombay which not only resulted in greater contact with other Baha'i communities in the Middle East but also gave to that city a unique Baha'i cultural identity. Extensive telegraph, rail and steamship networks, initially established by European entrepreneurs and colonial governments for their own purposes, now linked the Middle East and British India and were key technological prerequisites for this greater integration of the community, as well.
Bahai tactics of converting Zoroastrians
Dreading the oppression of the Muslim Mullahs of Iran, the Bahais carried on their work clandestinely in the beginning. They could not construct public places of worship. Practicing the faith and even conversion, when the occasion presented itself, were conducted behind closed doors. For generations our community had been disgruntled by the persecution of the mullahs. We had been rebuffed, repudiated and rejected. At such a stage of existence the Bahais welcomed us with open arms. They invited us to dine with them. This was something to gladden the hearts of our unfortunate co-religionists in their homeland, Iran. They were naturally drawn towards the Bahais. The shrewd Bahais played upon their religious sentiments and deluded the ignorant Zoroastrians that the prophecy in their scriptures that Shah Behram Varjavand would come one day has been fulfilled, for Bahaullah himself was Shah Behram Varjavand.
In some of the unauthentic Pazand and Pahlavi books written after we lost our kingdom, it has been foretold that Shah Behram Varjavand of Kyanian lineage will come some day. At the age of thirty he will raise an army of Hindus and Chinese and attack Iran and conquer it and will reinstate a Zoroastrian regime in Iran.
It is understandable that uneducated Zoroastrians of Iran, fifty or sixty years ago, believed these fictitious fairy tales; but for highly qualified and cultured Parsis of India to gulp down such fantastic stories today is truly regrettable. Certain gentlemen inform us that Shah Behram Varjavand will be born between 1941 and 1950 and that 1940 to 1990 will be very bad years for the world. These people write that, with his spiritual powers and the strength of his prayers and purity, he will perform universally renowned miracles by arresting electricity in the atmosphere that suspends aero planes high up in the air, will poison the planes engaged in warfare and bring them down! What a miserable exhibition of the intellectual prowess of men who have qualified and stepped out of the portals of the Bombay University!
In some of the unauthentic Pazand and Pahlavi books written after we lost our kingdom, it has been foretold that Shah Behram Varjavand of Kyanian lineage will come some day. At the age of thirty he will raise an army of Hindus and Chinese and attack Iran and conquer it and will reinstate a Zoroastrian regime in Iran.
It is understandable that uneducated Zoroastrians of Iran, fifty or sixty years ago, believed these fictitious fairy tales; but for highly qualified and cultured Parsis of India to gulp down such fantastic stories today is truly regrettable. Certain gentlemen inform us that Shah Behram Varjavand will be born between 1941 and 1950 and that 1940 to 1990 will be very bad years for the world. These people write that, with his spiritual powers and the strength of his prayers and purity, he will perform universally renowned miracles by arresting electricity in the atmosphere that suspends aero planes high up in the air, will poison the planes engaged in warfare and bring them down! What a miserable exhibition of the intellectual prowess of men who have qualified and stepped out of the portals of the Bombay University!
The Bahá'ís are fragmented into the following sects
- People of Bayan or Bayanis
- Essence Of the Baha'i Faith
- Unitarian Baha'is
- Free Baha'is
- Reform Baha'is
- New History Society
- Those who Believe In Continuation Of Guardianship
- Orthodox Baha'is (followers of Joel B. Marangella)
- Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant (Jensen group, Missoula, MT)
- Baha'is Loyal to the Guardian (followers of Jacques Soghomonian)
- Tarbiyat Baha'is (followers of Rex King et al)
- Heterodox (Haifan) Bahá'ís
- 5 Elders
- Daheists
The Bahai Covenant
Bahá'ís present their "Covenant" as something unique to their religion. They present it as an undisputable documented contract of inheritance, a will and testament, that is protected by God so that any violaters against it will be rendered impotent by it. The Bahá'í Faith's history is full of fragmentation, and the course the Bahá'í Faith has taken quick surprise turns on a number of occasions.
Bahá'í Faith is itself a product of Covenant Breaking
First Covenant Breaking
The act that brought the Bahá'í Faith itself into existence was in defiance of such a covenant. The Báb's successor, was actually Mirza Yahya and Not Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ís produced evidence that Bahá'u'lláh was the Báb's intended successor, but did not deny that the Báb appointed Mirza Yahya.
Second Covenant Breaking
Bahá'u'lláh appointed his eldest son Abdu'l-Bahá as his successor and after him his younger son Mohammed Ali. After the death of Abdu'l-Bahá although Mohammed Ali was alive still many followed , Shoghi effendi the grandson of Abdu'l-Bahá. Not following Mohammed Ali was Covenant Breaking of Bahá'u'lláh's writing.
Third Covenant Breaking
Later, the third Bahá'í leader, Shoghi Effendi, died childless. Having failed to produce a will, and having failed to leave any clear indication of a successor, Shoghi left the Bahá'í world in a precarious situation. What he did was in apparent violation of the Bahá'í Covenant. The Bahá'ís whose allegiance lies with the heterodox organisation, those loyal to the Universal House of Justice currently seated in Haifa, Israel, maintain that those who are true to the Covenant will be empowered by the Covenant.
Bahá'í history shows us a different picture. At many times, the Bahá'ís who eventually prevailed were nearly vanquished. The Bahá'ís loyal to Universal House of Justice claims that they are are dominant group, but even that domination seems impotent and obscure, lacking the influence to even familiarize the world with the word Bahá'í in this information age.
Bahá'í history is mottled with inheritance disputes. In defense of their Covenant, Bahá'ís regard the darker periods as divine tests, arguing that egos are often tested by opportunities for power.
What Bahá'ís do not acknowledge is the fact that their history is just as fragmented as other religions, with breaks occurring from its first years to the years following the death of Shoghi Effendi.
www.sectsofbahais.com
Bahá'í Faith is itself a product of Covenant Breaking
First Covenant Breaking
The act that brought the Bahá'í Faith itself into existence was in defiance of such a covenant. The Báb's successor, was actually Mirza Yahya and Not Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ís produced evidence that Bahá'u'lláh was the Báb's intended successor, but did not deny that the Báb appointed Mirza Yahya.
Second Covenant Breaking
Bahá'u'lláh appointed his eldest son Abdu'l-Bahá as his successor and after him his younger son Mohammed Ali. After the death of Abdu'l-Bahá although Mohammed Ali was alive still many followed , Shoghi effendi the grandson of Abdu'l-Bahá. Not following Mohammed Ali was Covenant Breaking of Bahá'u'lláh's writing.
Third Covenant Breaking
Later, the third Bahá'í leader, Shoghi Effendi, died childless. Having failed to produce a will, and having failed to leave any clear indication of a successor, Shoghi left the Bahá'í world in a precarious situation. What he did was in apparent violation of the Bahá'í Covenant. The Bahá'ís whose allegiance lies with the heterodox organisation, those loyal to the Universal House of Justice currently seated in Haifa, Israel, maintain that those who are true to the Covenant will be empowered by the Covenant.
Bahá'í history shows us a different picture. At many times, the Bahá'ís who eventually prevailed were nearly vanquished. The Bahá'ís loyal to Universal House of Justice claims that they are are dominant group, but even that domination seems impotent and obscure, lacking the influence to even familiarize the world with the word Bahá'í in this information age.
Bahá'í history is mottled with inheritance disputes. In defense of their Covenant, Bahá'ís regard the darker periods as divine tests, arguing that egos are often tested by opportunities for power.
What Bahá'ís do not acknowledge is the fact that their history is just as fragmented as other religions, with breaks occurring from its first years to the years following the death of Shoghi Effendi.
www.sectsofbahais.com
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