One sin, the arrogance to think that the other is somewhat lesser

 The communists have politicised their followers by making them propagandists. They call the process, Agitprop, a word created by joining Agitation and Propaganda. In a way the process of agitprop is somewhat like religious evangelizing. Their sacred book -The Communist Manifesto- implores party workers to agitprop and their cadres to do interpersonal Mass-Work, win trust of the masses and eventually convince them of the communist worldview, what others simply called Brain-Washing or Indoctrination. This is essentially the agenda of every comrade. 

Followers of every sacred book, be it Karl Marx’s The communist Manifesto, Mao’s Red-Book, Christian’s holy Bible or Muslim’s holy Quran, knowingly or innocently have been politicised to support one over other, resulting in some kind of societal powerplay.

The communists have their cadres, Christians have their Missionaries and Muslims have their Maulanas. They and their followers have ‘The Book-Ordained’ duty to propagate their beliefs by Mass-work, Witnessing, Dawat etc tools of respective ideological conversion. Deception and surreptitiousness becomes second nature to these workers. The central belief of all the propagandists is that the other people are ‘asleep’, not knowing that they are being exploited, marginalized and deprived of justice in their current political, religious or social setup and therefore need to be awakened, rescued or saved. Thus, all these followers have that special agenda when they talk to the ‘other’. Behind their talk, be it  sweet and friendly in appearance or violent and threatening, is a lurking desire to enroll the other into their fold. This manipulation is one sin, not committable by non-evangelical religions and pagans. 

A man with an agenda is feared by a common man. Fear is compounded when the agenda driven men are blessed by authorities of government or religion. Naive, poor, defenceless general public become their easy victims. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a 1984 Nobel Peace prize winner, from South Africa had brilliantly summed up the plight of the naive poor people: "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."Hindu scriptures do not profess evangelism therefore they are free from the sin of arrogance of supremacism and agenda, overt or covert, of canvassing and increasing their ilk at the expense of shrinking other ilks. However, Hindus still do value good qualities and they do implore one thing, just one thing, to everyone, be he or she a Hindu or not, to “कृण्वन्तो विश्वं आर्यं” -Rig Veda 9.63.6, ‘to make our world nobler’. Let's all become gentlemen. 

A friend does not do things surreptitiously. He does not claim perfection. He would not have ulterior agendas. He takes you as you are. He sees you as his friend. He is not politicised. Live-and-let-live way of life comes naturally to him. The Indians, majority of them, fit this slot. Non-threatening, not taking sides, eager to help as and when needed.

Depoliticized people look at the other in a friendly, nonpartisan way, as a part of their own and that is what is one important step towards world peace.

The Opening of The Grand Egyptian Museum Should Sensitize Us. Let’s Not Some Day End Up As Museum Exhibits

The Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in presence of several world leaders, opened a museum in Egypt on 1st Nov, 2025. It is named “Grand Egyptian Museum” and it is the world's largest museum dedicated to one single culture, a long extinct culture.

While, it is commendable to preserve for posterity, the remains of the civilization of the ancestors, my mind struggles with a disturbing thought: While on one hand we enthusiastically try to immortalize remains of the long dead civilizations in books, movies and museums, on the other hand are working relentlessly towards pushing to extinction and death some still living or barely surviving civilizations that have so far resisted their destruction by the ‘civilized’ us! 

The history bears the fact that despite their military debacles and waning material and political power at the hands of foreign invaders and occupations, the way Egyptians lived, their civilization, their gods and culture remained almost intact. Certain periodic political instabilities owing to their weakened leaderships, economic struggles, famines, invasions and occupation by  the Greeks, Assyrians, Persians, Romans annexation after Cleopatra VII’s defeat etc factors did result in Egypt’s overall decline. However, despite its decline, Egypt's cultural legacy was still intact. That is, till the establishment of the Church of Alexandria in the first century CE when things began to rapidly change. 

Under Romans, with the edict of Milan, the Christianity was legalized in 313CE, culminating in Christianity becoming a ‘State Religion’ in 380CE. A large population was converted to Christianity, eventually making the legacy of the great Egyptian culture extinct. In the course of competitive religious supremacy, when Islam came into existence, Egypt's religious landscape changed again, sealing for ever any possibility of revival of ancient Egyptian culture.

As a result, today, there is no one in Egypt for whom Pharaoh Ramesses II is any inspiration. Nor is there anyone in Egypt who worships Ra (the sun god), Osiris (the god of the underworld), Isis (the mother goddess), Horus (the sky god), and Amun (the king of the gods). There is no one who can give conclusive and definitive information on construction methods of awe inspiring mighty pyramids nor is anyone available to tell us real stories behind the Sphinx. All that is left is ruins of pyramids in the desert and the rest of the things that can be carried away as exhibits in the museums.

The successors of worshippers of Egyptian gods are now curious onlookers, paying for watching the remains of their ancestors. Like rest of us, I too paid to watch what mummies looked like, the bare walls of interior of great pyramid of Giza, the sarcophaguses, bought a clay bust of Tutankhamen as souvenir, ate traditional Egyptian breakfast dish, ful medames, commonly known as just ‘ful’(made from fava beans) with ‘khubz’ (flat bread made from wheat), left for home with troubling questions of dying ancient civilizations. 

It is a pattern. The path from living culture to dead culture and then relegation to museums, is repeated all along. Be it Greeks, Romans, Norse, Celts, Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and numerous others, heathens or pagans cultures, their remains are only to be found in museums. Other still surviving ancient cultures, who have resisted total destruction, such as Hinduism, Judaism, Canada’s First Nations faiths, Australian Aborigines’s faith, Faiths of Pagans of various shades, Zorastrianism, Faiths of Bahais, Kurds, Druze etc are under mortal threat of extinction, sooner than later, under the boots of Christianity and Islam driven by scripture supported competitive religious supremacism.

None of us should feel threatened irrespective of the faith we subscribe to. However the onus lies with leaders of predatory religions. The leaders of evangelical faiths could inculcate the idea of respect for others, not as an abstract notion but as an intellectually and spiritually deducible idea that every human is created by God, making every individual divine and therefore unworthy of contempt, hatred or violence but worthy of unconditional respect. 

The Hindus, Jews, Canada’s First Nations, Australian Aborigines, Pagans of various shades, Zorastrians, Bahais, Kurds, Druze etc. are suffering from constant onslaught from the predatory and dogmatic religions like Christianity and Islam. They are subjected to overt or covert contempt, hatred and ruthlessness. Evangelists clergy of the church spreading ‘good news’ and Mosque imams and maulans extending dawas (invite to join Islam) run charities with the ultimate motive of relegating these cultures to Museums and imposing sharia laws. It is perhaps unfair to fully blame adherents of Christianity or Islam because the very scriptures of these two religions give sanction to the supremacist mindset to their followers. Holy books implore them to ‘save’ souls of unfortunate pagans or heathens. They are called names and branded “devil worshippers” and their deities are damned as ‘demonic’. For them even Gandhi is a devil worshipper and his soul should have been saved.

While the Zoroastrians and Bahais have lost all their territories in the places of their origins, the territories of Hindus around the place of their origin has significantly shrunk (shown in the map) since the advent of Christianity and Islam. The surviving faiths need protection the way we protect endangered birds, animals and fish because their numbers and scriptural openness  leave them vulnerable. They do not mean harm to anyone nor their scripture support harming anyone and therefore expect courtesy of no harm from others.

It is  arrogant to think that others are somewhat less and are deficient in some ways and unless they submit to my god and my religion they are condemned forever. And it is vicious vilification of others to brand them as devil worshippers and brand their deities as demonic. These two makes for a lethal cocktail, dehumanising other and making them a fit target for religious conversions, harassments, threats, deprivations and in worst case even genocide. In 1990, a call was given by way of slogans like "Raliv, Chaliv ya Galiv" (in local Kashmiri language-"convert, leave, or die") that led to genocide and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir. It is estimated that between January and March, 1990, about 110,000 Hindus left Kashmir, never to return. further shrinking Hindu territory even in this time and age. 

Religious supremacy has a tendency of manifesting as a political weapon and power. Neutering evangelism can depoliticise the general population and can serve world peace. Deemphasing evangelical streak in the religions can help vulnerable surviving cultures of the world to feel less threatened. 

Religious competitiveness is not helpful to the world. Mutual respect is. Lets sensitize us, let the Grand Egyptian Museum inspire us how not to destroy cultures. 

Original Map Source Ishvara7 at English Wikipedia. — Samuel P. Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations”, CC BY-SA 3.0, at https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3259955 (And modified by the author to reflect 300BC Hindu Influence Sphere)

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Trutch Street is now renamed as Musqueam Street in Vancouver, Canada

In one more recent instance, the Indigenous Musqueam People of Canada have restored their dignity by rejecting memorialization of their colonial tormentor Joseph Trutch.

Joseph Trutch never liked native Indians and he never hid his utter scorn for them. The author, Robin Fisher, who researched and wrote a book on Trutch and his Indian land policy, quotes him: "I have not yet met with a single Indian of pure blood whom I consider to have attained even the most glimmering perception of the Christian creed” As regards to their language and capacity to understand, he adds, "the idiosyncrasy of the Indians of this country (Canada) appears to incapacitate them from appreciating any abstract idea, nor do their languages contain any works by which such a conception could be expressed." Trutch was the first Lt. Governor of the Canadian province of British Columbia. He came to Canada in 1859. Above quotes make Trutch abundantly clear, the First Nations lacked the ability to think and even their language does not support the tradition of rational thinking. Can the First Nations lionize him by any memorial in his name?

The Indigenous Native Population of Canada is variously known as Indians, Native Indians, Indigenous peoples or more commonly now as the First Nations. There are many groups of natives spread across vast territory of Canada who have their distinct cultures and languages. One among these groups is Musqueam First Nations, in Vancouver.

Based on a long standing demand of Musqueam First Nations, the city of Vancouver has removed the name of Trutch from a Vancouver street.and has at last renamed the street as Musqueam Street (šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm Street). And to make it sweeter for the first nations, the name is spelled not in English but in their native language, hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, Pronounced: Humqaminam.

A well known public speaker and an author David A Robertson devotes a chapter entitled: “Support the renaming of colonial memorializations” in his new book, published in 2025, entitled “52 ways to reconcile, how to walk with indigenous peoples on the path of healing”. The author has given examples of memorialization of some colonial individuals who were outright insensitive (read as brutal) towards the first nations, but still being immortalized by the independent Canada. They appear as names of institutions, parks and streets. In a tell tale example the author has summed up the chapter with a conversation he had with Germans asking if they would have memorials for the architects of Holocaust. Suggesting how an Independent Canada can continue with memorialization of colonial masters who considered native Indians as lesser people. Attitude of Colonial masters was no different from those Nazis who considered Gypsies, Romani etc, as lesser people. In Germany, there are no memorials in the name of Nazis and no child named Adolf Hitler.

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Columbus Day Celebration or Indigenous People’s Day Celebration in the Americas ?

Christopher Columbus: More of a mercenary than an explorer. His expeditions resulted in the massacre of millions of native American Indians, plunder of ancient civilizations, the loot of millions of tons of gold and mass-colonization of a huge territory having a population of millions. Destroyed mercilessly a civilization who had no ill will towards Europeans.

The United States of America Celebrates “Columbus Day” on the second Monday of every October to mark the epoch-making journey of Italian sailor Christopher Columbus, who had reached American shores on Oct 12, 1492. It made history as it was for the first time ever that a Christian sailor had reached the ‘new’ world. Along with the USA the rest of the countries of Americas also mark this day in some or other way.

The muslim rulers of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and Arabs had blocked the land route from India to Europe, making it impossible for the Europeans to directly import Indian spices, fine textiles, steel for swords, sugar and a host of other fineries. Search for an alternate route to India was absolutely inevitable if Europeans wanted to live a decent life. Major European sea-faring nations of that time, such as Spain and Portugal and the Pope, who was considered as Emperor of the emperors made heavy investment in funding the expeditions in search of a sea route to India.Christopher Columbus, (born. 1451- died. 1506) had set sail for ‘India’. Spanish king Ferdinand-II and queen Isabella-I had funded the voyage blessed by Pope Alexander-VI.

When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from the voyage, assuming that he had succeeded in finding a sea-route to India was in for a rude shock. What he thought was India, wasn’t it and that a sea route to India was discovered by another sailor, his Portuguese rival, Vasco De Gama. 

Albeit, Columbus did not find a route to India but the historical significance of his voyage does not diminish because the Americas, the new land he discovered, too had proved to be a land of riches. Christopher Columbus was the hero for Europeans who subsequently followed in his footsteps and settled in the new territories, who could enjoy the wealth and bounty of the Americas.

Christopher Columbus became a legend. What is famously the ‘American dream’ could not have existed but for Christopher Columbus. Americans, especially the Italian Americans, began to celebrate Columbus day in their communities. However subsequently it became a pan-american festival, duly endorsed even by the USA who had become independent from British and French rule. 

Americans are marketing geniuses and true to their reputation, all the festivals they decide to celebrate become grand events to look forward to. Columbus Day is no exception, it becomes a great event where police bands on the streets flanked by motorcycle mounted policemen, flags and rest of the paraphernalia make it a celebration to remember and cherish. . 

However, all of the Americans do not view this day with the same lens. The European settlers who had escaped the poverty and hard living conditions of Europe were the beneficiaries of the bounty of America considered him a hero whereas the native Indians of America who had become the biggest losers did not appreciate Columbus. Native Indians had experienced first hand massacre, rape, diseases, destruction of their tribes and had faced ridicule of their way of life by the Europeans. For them Columbus was the biggest villain. These two starkly opposite points of views, have now given rise to two different ways of celebration on the very same day. Some call it “Columbus Day” while others call it “Indigenous People’s Day”.

During the heydays of Black Slavery and Colonial times, Americans celebrated the day as Columbus Day without any hesitation or any sense of guilt. However with waning colonialism and upsurge of freedoms the Columbus Day celebrations have begun losing its sheen and began experiencing some pushback from a new generation of Americans. The massacre, loot and cruel destruction of the natives by the Europeans did not sit well with their conscience. They felt that to celebrate Columbus was immoral and not tenable for a progressive society. Marginalised, barely visible, on the verge of extinction, the Native Indians joined in the push back and together with new generation Americans, they are now marking the celebration, not as Columbus Day but as “Indigenous People’s Day”.

Even post independence, the US Government had continued with colonial mindset and had opened residential schools for children of natives. Children were forcibly carried away, abducted and lodged there. These schools, mostly run with the assistance of Church were more like torture centers for molestation and every other kind of abuse. Thousands of children died there and were buried unceremoniously. In the Washington Post of May 29, 2024, they had published a story on the existence of Boarding Schools for natives. They reported that From 1819 to as recently as 1969, the U.S. government separated Native American children from their families to eradicate their cultures and seize tribal land decimating tribes through violence and spreading disease.

Those few natives who survived and those few whose conscience bit them want to recall their forefathers with reverence and their struggle against the colonisers when they celebrate The Indigenous People's Day. Almost every country on the American continent and on the Caribbean islands have now begun celebrating “The Indigenous People’s Day” in preference to or along with the “Columbus Day”.

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Lapu-Lapu, A Remarkable Filipino Festival - Recalls Roots and Traditions of Pre-Colonial Pristine Bygone Era

 Be it America or Asia, Europe, Australia or Africa, all the peoples of all the countries seem to be under the influence of an unfathomable spell that mysteriously pulls them towards their roots, towards their forefathers and their past traditions. Apparently, even unknowingly, this magnet is working its way. It is subtle, self-manifesting, unnoticeable yet compelling. They, so it seems, want to resurrect and reclaim the past that was viciously destroyed and buried deep and indeed, the effort has started, faintly though, to show up. The Lapu-Lapu festival of Filipinos is one such example.

World was shocked on 26th of April, 2025 with a news flash from Vancouver, BC. It was:

Presumably it was an unfortunate accident. The driver was said to be a mentally unstable person. The tragedy has nothing to do with the history of Lapu-Lapu, however it did bring into limelight the Filipino festival of Lapu-Lapu and what it meant for the ordinary folks. The festival keeps alive the pre-colonization society in the consciousness of the present day Filipinos.

Lapu-Lapu, seems almost an unthinkable festival for a country that is deeply Catholic Christian. This is mainly because, the person, LapuLapu, who is celebrated, was a person who resisted catholicism and successfully prevented its introduction into the Philippines for many decades.

The festival of Lapu-Lapu is celebrated everywhere in the world where the Filipinos have made their home but its main festivities take place in the city of Lapu-Lapu of Mactan Island, where the famous “Battle of Mactan” took place and where the celebrated sailor Ferdinand Magellan was killed on 27th April 1521. Young LapuLapu was an iconic community leader, lovingly and respectfully known as Datu (Chief) LapuLapu of Mactan island of the present day Philippines. He was born in 1490 and died at the age of 51, in 1541.

The Philippines is an archipelago made up of nearly 8000 small and big islands. Near the island of Mactan lies Cebu island, which is much bigger than Mactan. During the 16th century, Cebu island was ruled by a King, Rajah Humabon. He is credited to be the first Catholic Christian King of the Philippines. He was baptised in 1521 by a priest of the Spanish Expedition led by the celebrated Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan. Upon baptization, he adopted a new name, Carlos Valderrama. Some of his family and subjects too were baptised to catholicism. 

The islanders of Cebu have built a grand statue and memorial of Rajah Humabon who they considered to be a brave and wise king. And the islanders of Mactan have built a grand statue of their legendary warrior LapuLapu.

LapuLapu did not like the idea of his community being baptised under the force of new convert Rajah and his new accomplice, the Spanish armada. He resisted all the attempts at colonisation, subjugation and religious conversion. In a fiercely fought battle LapuLapu killed the captain of the armada, the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan. LapuLapu thwarted the Spanish and forced them to retreat. Perhaps, the defeat and unceremonious retreat of Spaniards and death of Ferdinand Magellan made Rajah Humabon reconsider continuing with friendly overtures towards fleeing Spaniards; he quickly renounced Catholicism, just within a few weeks after baptization, and returned to his own faith. The battered Spanish who had lost many soldiers and suffered the loss of some ships in the battle had to flee from the Philippines. They did not return till after five decades when they ultimately colonised the Philippines in 1565, converted the population to catholicism with vengeance and obliterated almost every sign of pre-existing culture. Spanish rule lasted for three long centuries till they were expelled by Americans in 1898. The Philippines then ended up as a United States Territory till they were ultimately granted full independence. While the Spanish were primarily focussed on economic exploitation and religious expansion, the Americans interests lie in the 

economic exploitation as well as strategic location of the islands. People of the Philippines fought and struggled for independence from America for many decades, to be ultimately granted full freedom on 4th July 1946. Interestingly, however, for the Philippines, their official independence day is not the 4th of July when Americans left but the 12th of June 1898, when they were freed from Spanish rule by the Americans. Clearly, Filipinos considered the Spanish as their real tormentors.  

The way Rajah Humabon, son of Rajah Sri Bantung, easily accepted Catholicism appears to be only a ploy to make friends with members of Spanish expedition. From whatever is known about the customs and beliefs of pre-colonized Filipinos, it can be assumed that Rajah was a pagan following some form of Indian religion. The presence of Sanskrit words like ‘Rajah’ and ‘Sri’ and a discovery of Laguna Copper-plate with inscriptions in the then prevalent Indian Pallava script supports this assumption. Perhaps it is the Indian influence that many words of Tagalog (language of Philippines) are uncannily the same or similar as what is used in Indian languages. 

As typical with most Spanish conquests, the traces of any older civilization in the colonies are usually completely and totally obliterated. That may be the reason why so little information is available today from the bygone era of the Philippines. However a chance discovery of a 2 kg, 21 Karat golden statue known as “Agusan Tara” reassures the Filipino community that their culture was rich and they were a civilized society at least older than 600 years before the first arrival of Europeans to their country. 

The fact that a deeply catholic society as Filipinos celebrates life and deeds of Lapu-Lapu, a warrior against catholicism speaks volumes of that mysterious and unfathomable human urge to have a relook and reconsider the heritage of one's forefathers. Knowingly or unknowingly it seems people gravitate towards exploring their past and even want to repossess what was stolen from their ancestors. This phenomena is in evidence also among first nations of Canada, among the pagans of Europe and Aboriginals of Australia. 

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Jadi Rana - A Kind Hindu King With Foresight

Holiest Fire Temple Temple of Parsis in India at Udvada, Gujarat.  (Photograph by Nilesh Shukla, Year 2025.)

Jadi Rana was a Hindu king of Sanjan in Gujarat. The Parsi Refugees had found safe asylum under him when they were forced to flee from their homeland, Persia (Iran) to save their life and religion from Islamic rulers in the 7th Century CE i.e. approximately 1300 years ago.

Most of us are aware of the famous milk and sugar story of Parsi refugees. True to that story, the Parsis have merged with the host society just as sugar dissolves in a cup full of milk. While their homogenous merging with host society and their successes are well  acknowledged, not many in India are aware that it was the Hindu King, Jadi Rana who had allowed the distressed and ensured their safe refuge in India. Perhaps, because it happened more than a thousand years ago and the fact that Indians are poor at history-writing and even poorer at self-praise, pretty little is known today about the king. 

However, some worthwhile information on the King is available from Parsi chronicles. The king’s knowledge of the factors that go to a successful merging of foreigners into local communities while still allowing everyone a full freedom to practice their own religion is a lesson to learn in itself. 

Parsis adopted Gujarati Language and Gujarati dress and yet maintained their unique identity complete with their religion, temples and traditions. They created successful business empires, established charities and have earned love and respect from the host society. This phenomenon of stress-free amalgamation is one of the rarest among rare phenomena in the history of the world.

When they had lost all hopes of survival under the islamic rule, a leading priest of the surviving Zoroastrians had a vision of God telling him to take the holy fire and the faithful with him to India and seek refuge there. They took a boat in the year 630 CE or thereabout and set sail for India braving unexpected sea storms on their way. When their storm-battered boat at last reached the shore of India at Port Sanjan in Gujarat, the leader of the refugees, who was a devout and knowledgeable priest, goes to meet the king Jadi Rana. The conversation between the priest and the king is described in a poetic fashion in what has become famous as “The Sixteen Sanskrit Slokas of Aka Adhyaru” and the legendary set of promises, known as “The Five Promises”. Apparently, the refugees actually did not use Sanskrit language but had used Pahlavi language (language of Iran at that time), however, the Pahlavi sloka were translated into Sanskrit by one, Neryosang Dhaval. The first fifteen verses are appeals of the leader of the refugees and the last one is by the King who accords permission for asylum, gives land and grants permission to build their temple where holy fire was installed. The “Five Promises” are the promises made by refugees to the king. (The holy fire, known as “Iran Shah” was first installed in the fire temple in Sanjan town as a temporary stop-gap arrangement and was subsequently permanently moved by the community to the nearby town of Udvada in a well-built new fire temple pictured here)

In a typical Indian tradition of oral history, this ancient conversation was passed on over generations. It was at last scripted into a document as late as in the year 1599 CE by a Parsi priest, Dorab Sanjana, under the title “Qissa-e-Sanjan”. The conversation brings out two interesting observations. Firstly, the king Jadi Rana was kind, knowledgeable and had foresight of a good ruler. Secondly, the leader of the refugees was knowledgeable, wise and a honourable man of God.

The King asked refugees to follow a few conditions to help make their life in India more stable, peaceful and conflict free. 1- Adopt local (Gujarati) dress and language (For easy amalgamation in the society) 2- Keep religious ceremonies like marriage etc after sunset (so as not to conflict with Hindu ceremonies that normally take place before sunset) 3) Do not bear Arms (So as not appear like a threat to locals) 4- Earn your own bread (by likes of farming) and take care of yourself (also known as ‘fend for yourself’) 5- Do not proselyte (Extension of point at 2: Do not lure locals into your faith by taking locals into Parsi Temples). 

Every generation of Parsis since the pioneering first wave of Parsis have remained truely honourable and have followed these conditions to the last comma and full stop. This is a major reason for the mutual goodwill, peaceful co-existence, trust and growth in a predominantly Hindu India despite their retention of religion and distinctive identity. This is a valuable and rare achievement from every standard. Some recent Parsi community leaders have expressed their own slightly differing views on those five promises, but that is understandable as each can have their own interpretation of any old text. Notwithstanding any alternative views, the Parsi community have remained steadfast exactly to the above promises, thus giving credence to the generally accepted version of “Five Promises”.

That the king Jadi Rana asked for a code of conduct from the incoming strangers by way of the five easy to follow promises, is a testimony to the wisdom and foresight, every ruler should possess in order to rule fairly and maintain peace, stability and harmony in the society they govern. Indeed, it takes two to tango, kudos also to the Parsi community. Instead of drowning in despair and complaining of victimhood, the community overcame all disadvantages and turned themselves into a successful and prosperous community. The operative formula that worked seems to be kindness with foresight of the host and  the honouring of the promises by the guests. 

King Jadi Rana and the Parsi community both deserve compliments and should be celebrated.

Udvada Town And The Holiest Parsi Fire temple of India

 

Parsis’ Holiest Fire Temple in India at Udvada	Udvada Town Entrance	Udvada Railway Station	Jadi Rana High School, Sanjan. (Picture of School-courtesy wikimapia.org)

Holiest Parsi Fire temple of India is situated in a small town of Udvada, about 185 km north of Mumbai. The last leg of my trip to India, in January 2025, took me to this small town of Gujarat on the coast of Arabian Sea. The Parsis are a tiny community in India. They are followers of an ancient faith, known as Zoroastrianism. Parsis are progressive and are generally loved and admired by Indians.

In their long history of more than a thousand years in India, the Parsi community has kept alive their distinct identity and yet have seamlessly merged with mainstream society. So much so that, never ever was any instance of quarrel between Parsi community and any other community.

Parsi are known in India for their jovial, friendly and helpful nature. They have built many successful business enterprises. Tata, Godrej, Wadia, Shapoorji, etc are some of the well known groups of Parsee owned businesses. They have also built many philanthropic organizations to undertake welfare of the society.

Some of the several Indian and International Businesses and Brands owned by Parsi Businessmen

 The holiest Parsi fire temple in Udvada is a beautiful looking building with traditional Zoroastrian imagery and architecture. The town also has a well maintained Museum showing Zoroastrian heritage and traditions. Interestingly I found small cards hung on the branches of the trees in the compound of the museum. At first glance, the hanging white cards looked like some decoration or perhaps a tiny equivalent of the Buddhist prayer banners that one finds around Buddhist shrines. However this was different. Each card had one of the following three quotes. “Good Thoughts”, “Good Words” and “Good Deeds” in English language on one side and its Avestan language equivalent (In English Script) on the other side “Humata”, “Hukhta” and “Hvarshta”.  A visitor to the museum can pluck card/s from there and retain them as souvenirs. The Zoroastrian religious books were written in the ancient Avestan language, an offshoot of Sanskrit, and are said to be built around those easy to remember, three tenets. Humata, Hukhta and Hvarshta. Tree-hanging cards, I thought, was a very good idea and a very apt souvenir. (Fun Fact: Sanskrit “S” becomes “H” in Avesta and with some distortions over a period of time and distance, it made, Sindhu-सिन्धु to Hindu, Sumati-सुमति (Good thoughts) to Humata, Sukti-सुक्ति (Good words) to Huktha and Srushti-सृष्टि (Good deed that creates good society/world) to Hvarashta).

Udvada is a typical small town of Gujarat. Most of its original Parsi inhabitants have moved to larger cities, however they maintain lively contact with their holiest shrine. Most Parsis, wherever they may be in the world, do not fail to make a pilgrimage to the Udvada Fire Temple. Indeed there does exist a sizable Parsi community in the town and serve the community by providing religious services at the Holy Fire Temple, providing lodging and boarding to the Parsi pilgrims. In their language, Parsis call the Fire Temple “Atash Behram”. As the fire at Udvada was originally brought from the original Fire Temple in Iran, the Udvada Fire Temple is also known as “Iranshah Atash Behram” (“Atash” is “Fire” in Iranian Farsi language, “Behram” has meanings like winning, victorious, etc )

In the Parsi chronicles, they have recorded their stories of flight from Persia (Iran), voyage to Sanjan and interactions with the hosts. In a remarkable poem, “Qissa-e-Sanjan”, famously known as “Sixteen Shloka”, the leader of the refugees narrates his conversation with the King, Jadi Rana. It encapsulates their discussion in Sanskrit language. The first fifteen shlokas cover submission of the visitor and the sixteenth shloka is the reply of the King, granting them asylum.

King Jadi Rana was certainly a remarkable ruler. He had that foresight, often missing in other rulers. He knew what bonds two communities without compelling them to change their religion and yet to let both communities flourish and freely keep their independent identities. He was unique. Modern day rulers can learn something from him. I was therefore curious to find if the town of Udvada had maintained any relics, edicts or memorials to commemorate King Jadi Rana, or had built any monument or memorial for the wise King. Strangely, I could not find it. May be it was not so prominent and I missed it.