WHEN A PARSI WOMAN MARRIES A NONPARSI MAN...
1991: Goolrookh Adi Contractor of Valsad, Gujarat, marries Mahipal Gupta under the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954, so as to continue to practise her Zoroastrian faith after marriage. 2009: Goolrookh’s father, Adi Contractor was a trustee of the Valsad Parsi Anjuman (VPA). Goolrookh writes angry letters to VPA on getting to know that two of her childhood friends, who had married outside the community, had been stopped from attending their mothers’ funeral ceremonies. Goolrookh says earlier Trusts had allowed her and others; that she herself had entered the Tower of Silence and the Fire Temple in Valsad in 2003 when her maternal uncle died. VPA denies this. In future, should such women enter those premises, VPA says “action” will be taken. Goolrookh’s aunt gives an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court confirming her niece’s presence at all the ceremonies. Goolrookh had been married for 13 years by then. Jan 16, 2010: Goolrookh files a case in Ahmedabad High Court to establish the right to enter the Fire Temple in Valsad and to be present at her parents’ funerals (they are in their 80s), and subsequent ceremonies.
March 18, 2010: Five members of the Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP), the apex body of the Parsi Zoroastrians in India, pass a resolution to “discontinue with immediate effect the hitherto practice of making available the Towers of Silence for the disposal of the dead to Parsi ladies who have undergone inter-caste marriage.”
March 30, 2010: Goolrookh’s sister and advocate Shiraz Patodia Contractor sends a letter to the BPP protesting its resolution and demanding Goolrookh’s right to avail of funeral ceremonies at the Tower of Silence on her death.
April 12, 2010: Shiraz sends a letter to the BPP saying Goolrookh had changed her name to Neha but remains a practising Zoroastrian. Goolrookh says she changed her name as she was unhappy with the short form ‘Golu’ people used, and she continues to be a Zoroastrian. “Priyanka and Priya are ‘Hindu names’ but many Parsis give their children these names. Does that make them less Parsi and turn them into Hindus?” she asks. 2012: Gujarat High Court rules that if a Parsi woman marries a non-Parsi, she would lose her religion. The reason, says the High Court, is that in all faiths, on marriage, a woman’s religion “shall merge into...that of the husband”. This, many legal experts say, is against the very rationale of why the SMA was brought into being.
Dec 7, 2017: According to an interim order passed by the Supreme Court, Goolrookh and her sisters can enter the Tower of Silence to participate in rituals in the event of the death of a family member. They are waiting for dates of the case’s final hearing and verdict.