Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:28:27.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evil in the Sands of Time: Theology and Identity Politics among the Zoroastrian Parsis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

T. M. Luhrmann
Get access

Extract

T the great texts of the great traditions are in some sense unchanging, but as Milton Singet pointed out, the anthropologist's task is to “find fot these ideas a local habitation and leain how they operate in the lives of ordinary people” (1972, 39). What I wish to present here are the changing meanings of texts that are thought to form the core of the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and the story of how their interpretations have altered as the South Asian community of Parsi Zoroastrian interpreters has changed. Much about this story echoes the experience of other South Asian communities: as the Btitish rose to dominance and their missionaries strove to teach Parsis that theirs was an inferior, weaker faith, Parsis began to represent their religion as similar to that of the Protestant Christians, even while steadfastly refusing (for the most part) to convett.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , August 2002 , pp. 861 - 889
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Abramson, H. 1973. Ethnic Diversity in America. New York: J. Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Appel, J. 1961. “Hansen's Third Generation ‘Law’ and the Origins of the American Jewish Historical Society. “Jewish Social Studies. 23(1):3–20.Google Scholar
Axelrod, P. 1974. “A Social and Demographic Comparison of Parsis, Saraswat Brahmins, and Jains in Bombay.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Barber, B. [1941] 1958. “Acculturation and Messianic Movements.” In Reader in Comparative Religion, edited by Lessa, W. and Vogt, E.. Reprint, Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson, and Co.Google Scholar
Bayly, S. 1989. Saints, Goddesses, and Kings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bengalee, N. S. n.d. The Life of Sorabjee Shapoorjee Bengalee, C.I.E. Bombay: Bengalee.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. 1994. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bisharat, G. 1997. “Exile to Compatriot: Transformations in the Social Identity of Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank.” In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, edited Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J.. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Bode, F. A. 1960. Man, Soul, and Immortality in Zoroastrianism. Bombay: California Zoroastrian Center.Google Scholar
Borneman, J. 1992. Belonging in the Two Berlins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, M. 1975. History of Zoroastrianism. Vol. 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyce, M. 1977. A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Boyce, M. 1979. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, Kegan, and Paul.Google Scholar
Boyce, M. 1982. History of Zoroastrianism. Vol. 2. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Boyce, M. ed. 1984. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Chiniwalla, F. S. 1942. Essential Origins of Zoroastrianism. Bombay: The Parsi Vegetarian and Temperance Society.Google Scholar
Choksy, J. 1989. Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph over Evil. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Choksy, J. 1996. “Doctrinal Variation in Zoroastrianism: The Notion of Dualism.” K. R. Cama Oriental Institute Second International Congress Proceedings. Bombay: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J., and Comaroff, J.. 1992. Ethnography and the Historical Imagination. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Danziger, M. H. 1989. Returning to Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
David, M. D. 1973. History of Bombay. Bombay: Bombay University Press.Google Scholar
Description of a View of the Island and Harbour of Bombay, Painted by R. Burford. 1831. London: T. Brettel.Google Scholar
Dhalla, M. N. [1914] 1972. Zoroastrian Theology. Reprint, New York: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Engineer, B. A. 1918. “Advancement of Religion: An Article Contributed to the Dastur Hoshung Memorial. Bombay.” Bombay: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute. Typescript.Google Scholar
Fanon, F. 1967. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove.Google Scholar
Framjee, A. 1841. The Hadie Gum Rahan: Or, a Guide to Those Who Have Lost Their Way, Being a Refutation of the Lecture Delivered by the Rev. John Wilson. Bombay: Bombay Samachar Press.Google Scholar
Frye, R. 1985. “Zoroastrian Incest.” In Orientalis losephi Tucci Memoire Dicta, edited by Gnoli, G. and Lanciotti, L.. Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.Google Scholar
Gans, H. 1979. “Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 2(1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glazer, N. 1990. “Hansen's Hypothesis and the Historical Experience of Generations.” In American Immigrants and Their Generations, edited by Kivisto, P. and Blanck, D.. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Gleason, P. 1990. “Hansen, Herberg, and American Religion.” In American Immigrants and Their Generations, edited by Kivisto, P. and Blanck, D.. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Gombrich, R., and Obeyesekere, G.. 1988. Buddhism Transformed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gupta, A., and Ferguson, J., eds. 1997. Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, M. [1938] 1968. “The Third Generation.” In Children of the Uprooted, edited by Handlin, O.. Reprint, New York: Grosset and Dunlop.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Haug, M. [1878] 1978. The Parsis. Reprint, Delhi: Cosmo.Google Scholar
Herberg, W. 1955. Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Hinnells, J. 1996. Zoroastrians in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, J. D. 2001. “Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic Revival.” Journal of Asian Studies 60(3):701–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humbach, H., and Ichaporia, P., 1994. The Heritage of Zarathustra. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.Google Scholar
Insler, S. 1975. The Gathas of Zarathustra. Acta Iranica. Vol. 8. Leiden: E. J. Brill. John Wilson and His Institution. 1975. Bombay: John Wilson Education Society.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karaka, D. F. 1884. History of the Parsis. Vols. I and II. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, M., Mehta, U., and Thakkar, U.. 1997. “The Rebirth of Shiv Sena and the Symbiosis of Discursive and Organizational Power.” Journal of South Asian Studies 56(2):371–90.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. 1991. A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality, and Countercolonial Discourse in Fiji. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kharas, H. 1984. “A Socio-economic Survey of the Priestly Class (Mobeds) of the Zoroastrian Community in Bombay Extending to Thana.” Master's thesis, Bombay University.Google Scholar
Kivisto, P., and Blanck, D., eds. 1990. American Immigrants and Their Generations. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kohli, A. 1997. “Can Democracies Accommodate Ethnic Nationalism? Rise and Decline of Self-Determination Movements in India.” Journal of South Asian Studies 56(2):325–44.Google Scholar
Kopf, D. 1979. The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kulke, E. 1974. The Parsis of India: A Minority as an Agent of Social Change. Munich: Weltforum-Verlag.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. 1970. The Ghost Dance. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Laing, S. 1887. A Modern Zoroastrian. London: White.Google Scholar
Langstaff, H. 1983. “The Impact of Western Education and Political Changes upon the Religious Changes of Indian Parsis in the Twentieth Century.” Ph.D. diss., University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Lazerwitz, E., and Rowitz, L.. 1964. “The Three Generations Hypothesis.” American Journal of Sociology 35 69(5):529–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenski, G. 1961. The Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics, and Family Life. New Yotk: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. 1996. The Good Parsi: The Postcolonial Anxieties of an Indian Colonial Elite. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mahmood, S. 1998. “Women, Piety, and the Islamic Awakening.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Malkki, L. 1995. Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and National Cosmology among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malkki, L. 1997. “National Geographic: The Uprooting of Peoples and the Territorialization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees.” In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, edited by Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J.. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Maneck, S. 1997. The Death of Ahriman: Culture, Identity, and Theological Change among the P arsis of India. Bombay: K. R. Cama Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Mannoni, O. 1956. Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonialism. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Marty, M., and Appleby, R. S., eds. 1991. Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Marty, M., and Appleby, R. S., eds. 1992. The Glory and the Power. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Masani, P. S. 1917. Zoroastrianism Ancient and Modern. Bombay: Masani.Google Scholar
Memmi, A. 1965. The Colonizer and the Colonized. New York: Orion.Google Scholar
Missionary Settlement For University Women. N.D. Papers. India Office Library.Google Scholar
Mistree, K. P. 1982. Zoroastrianism: An Ethnic Perspective. Bombay: Zoroastrian Studies.Google Scholar
Modi, J. J. 1885. The Religious System of the Parsis. Bombay: Modi.Google Scholar
Müller, M., general ed. [1880–97] 1987. “Pahlavi Texts.” Translated by West, E.W.. Sacred Books of the East. Reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Shenaz, Munshi, trans. N.d. Talim-i-Zurthoost (The doctrine of Zoroaster). N.p.Google Scholar
Niezen, R. 2000. Spirit Wars: Native American Religion in an Age of Nation-Building. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Olcott, H. S. 1882. The Spirit of the Zoroastrian Religion. Bombay: Theosophical Society.Google Scholar
Ong, A., and Nonini, D., eds. 1997. Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
The Parsi: The English Journal of the Parsis and a High Class Illustrated Monthly. 1905–6. 1(1–12). Bombay.Google Scholar
Parsiana, 1970–94. Bombay.Google Scholar
The Polytheism of the Parsis. 1851. Parsi Gujarati Series, no. 4. Bombay: Bombay Book and Tract Society.Google Scholar
Singer, M. 1972. When a Great Tradition Modernizes. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Smoak, G. 1999. “Ghost Dances and Identity: Ethnogenesis and Racial Identity and Shoshones and Bannocks in the Nineteenth Century.” Ph.D. diss., University of Utah.Google Scholar
Sohrabji, Dosabhai. 1840. Talim-i-Zurthoost (The doctrine of Zoroaster). Bombay: n.p.Google Scholar
Stoler, A. 1995. Race and the Education of Desire. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Suleri, S. 1992. The Rhetoric of English India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taraporevala, D. 1987. “The Knowledge of Religion among Parsi Zoroastrians in Bombay.” Ph.D. diss., University of Bombay.Google Scholar
Taraporewala, I. J. S. 1951. The Divine Songs of Zarathustra: A Philological Study of the Gathas of Zarathustra. Bombay: Taraporewala and Sons.Google Scholar
Tavaria, P. N. [n.d] 1971. A Manual of “Kshnoom”: The Zoroastrian Occult Knowledge. Reprint, Bombay: Masani.Google Scholar
Tindall, G. 1982. City of Gold. London: Temple Smith.Google ScholarPubMed
Torri, M. 1991. “Trapped inside the Colonial Order: the Hindu Bankers of the Surat and Their Business World during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.” Modern Asian Studies 25(2):367–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vimadalal, J. R. 1979. What a Parsee Should Know. Bombay: Vimadalal.Google Scholar
Vimadalal, J. R. 1985. Seven Discourses. Bombay: Vimadalal.Google Scholar
Wadia, R. A. 1983. The Bombay Dockyard and the Wadia Master Builders. Bombay: Wadia.Google Scholar
Wallace, A. 1969. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. [1843] 1989. The Parsi Religion as Contained in the Zend-Avesta as Propounded and Defended by the Zoroastrians of India and Persia. Unfolded, Refuted and Contrasted with Christianity. Bombay: American Mission Press. Reprint, Delhi: Vintage.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. 1847. The Doctrine of Jehovah Addressed to the Parsis: A Sermon Preached in the Occasion of the Baptism of Two Youths of the Tribe, May 1839. Edinburgh: William Whyte and Co.Google Scholar
Writer, R. 1993. Contemporary Zoroastrians: An Unstructured Nation. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Zaehner, R. C. 1961. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar