Parsi criticizes Hindu society as selfish, indirect, dishonest and corrupt - Book Review: The Good Parsi

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All it takes is one drop of poison

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From: Luhrmann, T.M. "The Good Parsi: The fate of a colonial elite in a postcolonial society". Harvard University Press, 1996

Page 144

Alongside this self-criticism of Parsis India itself is criticized on the grounds that it has changed without the British, and that Parsis cannot compete within the new India because they are people of integrity. Hindus, the argument runs, live in a less dichotomous world than the "people of the book," those of monotheistic faiths, and particularly Zoroastrians. "There are gods for everything, and the poles of right and wrong are just less far apart." As one Parsi writes, criticizing Hindu society and urging it to change: "The Hindu has a much greater capacity than most to live with ambivalence, and with the gaps between aspiration and achievement, between promise and performance, and between high moral aspiration and plain human selfishness" (Moddie 5968:77). Parsis, the argument went on, need integrity, honesty, directness, and Indian society does not have this character. Now the Hindus have taken over, the argument continued, bribery and fraud are rampant, and India is in decay. Parsis cannot succeed in a corrupted world.