ICHAPORIAS' KARACHI CAREER & ZOROASTRIAN STUDIES
Jafarey's Comments

Karachi Career

Note: The following is Dr. Pallan R. Ichaporia's "proud" account of his career in Karachi, Pakistan. It will be found very interesting to the Parsis of that city, including those who will be attending the Congress. All will, no doubt, attest it.

From: Soleman2002@aol.com
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 19:36:02 EST
Subject: Re:Between a Rock and a Hard Place
To: Soleman2002@aol.com
CC: [number of persons]
Date: 12/19/2000 6:15:50 PM Eastern Standard Time 
To: HREF=”mailto:zoroastrians@listbot.com”zoroastrians@listbot.com     

Since my father is not a member of the Zoroastrian List, I am posting this on his behalf.

 In 1959, Pallan R. Ichaporia was approached by Dr. Sohrab Anklesaria, an MBBS Doctor practicing as an Eye Surgeon in Karachi, and who was in charge of the Parsi Hospital, to assist Dr. Yusuf Kodvawala, an RMO at the ten bed Parsi Hospital in Karachi. Dr. Anklesaria was at that time fully aware of the fact that Pallan Ichaporia was still a third year Medical Student at the Grant Medical College in Bombay. In requesting Pallan Ichaporia to assist Dr.  Kodvawala, Dr. Anklesaria explained that his (Dr. Anklesaria’s) own grand children were assisting him as eye doctors, even though they were still first year Medical Students at Dow Medical College in Karachi. On Dr. Sohrab Anklesaria’s strong insistence, Pallan Ichaporia agreed to act as an assistant to Dr. Yusuf Kodvawala.

When Dr. Kodvawala left the Parsi Hospital 14 months later, Pallan Ichaporia also left ” he was neither fired nor removed” he simply stopped assisting at the hospital.

Pallan subsequently returned to Bombay and successfully completed the Licentiate Exam in Medicine and obtained an LCPS (Licentiate of College of Physicians and Surgeons) from the College of Physician and Surgeons at KEM Hospital in Bombay in 1961. He returned to Karachi and legally practiced as a fully qualified and registered Medical Licentiate for over 19 years, up to the time he immigrated to USA. Pallan Ichaporia has never presented himself as having an MBBS or any other medical qualification, other than his LCPS.

At that time it was (and still is) acceptable for LCPSs to legally practice medicine. Incidently, there were also other Parsis in Karachi, including Jehangir Malbari and Dr. Gustad Mehta’s son, who also practiced medicine as LCPSs.

Since in the USA a Licentiate in Medicine from India is not recognized, Pallan Ichaporia could not pursue a medical profession when he immigrated to the States. He subsequently returned to college and obtained his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Oklahoma University, Norman, Oklahoma, in 1989.

All these degrees are a matter of public information, and any person desiring to inquire, may feel free to contact the Universities concerned to obtain proof directly from that University. Dr. Pallan R. Ichaporia is proud of his academic achievements and has nothing to hide.

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Jafarey's Comments

(1) All know that that Pakistan and India had a violent separation and that the two countries have since 1947 fought three wars, and have been having continuous skirmishes over Kashmir.

(2) While Pakistan was flooded by Muslim refugees, India had to absorb huge number of Hindu refugees. Hardly a few of the Christians and Zoroastrians came to Pakistan as "refugees."

(3) They have never had any cordial relations that would permit the formal exchange of experts in any field, including the medical field.

(4) One, therefore, wonders, how Dr. Pallan R. Ichaporia came to Pakistan. 

(5) Did he come as a refugee? In which year? Under what circumstances? A non-Muslim could not take refuge in Pakistan definitely after1948.

(6) Was he granted Pakistani citizenship? If not, then how did he manage to live and WORK in Karachi? He simply could not as an Indian citizen. However, if he was an exceptional exception, has he any proof that he was given official permission to live and work as an Indian citizen in Pakistan?

(7) If "approached [and] requested" by the renowned physician philanthropists, Dr. Anklesaria with a "strong insistence," to assist another doctor in the Parsi Hospital, then his services must have been highly appreciated by the Hospital authorities, particularly Dr. Anklesaria. Can he produce a proof of such an appreciation? Why did the authorities not "strongly insisted" him to continue in his job?

(8) How as a Pakistan citizen of Pakistan, could he return to Bombay to obtain "an LCPS (Licentiate of College of Physicians and Surgeons) from the College of Physician and Surgeons at KEM Hospital in Bombay in 1961," exactly at the time when the two countries, with mounting border clashes, were almost at the brink of war?

(9) Did he have two passports, one Pakistani and the other India? Or if any other, does he have a legal proof?

(10) How did the Pakistani authorities concerned accept him back and recognize his new degree? Do Pakistan and India reciprocally recognize each others academic certificates?

(11) He "legally practiced as a fully qualified and registered Medical Licentiate for over 19 years." In which part of Karachi did he have his clinic? Any address and any legal proof?

(12) Reports by his neighbors in the Panchayet-wadi housing complex for low-income Parsis say that he had his 'clinic' in a locality populated by poverty-stricken, mostly illiterate Muslims who could not distinguish a genuine physician from a fake pharmacist. Is this true?

(13) What made him "migrate" to the U.S.A., a country where his LCPS was of no use? Where and how did he get his Immigration Visa?

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Ichaporia's Zoroastrian Studies

----- Original Message -----
From: kerfegar@aol.com
To: TraditionalZarathushtris@egroups.com
Cc: Kerfegar@aol.com

Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 7:53 PM

Subject: [Traditional Zs] The Status of Zoroastrianism among the American Parsi Reformists

After over 40 years of intensive study of Avesta, Pahlavi and other Iranian Languages which began at the age of 11 years at Sir J.J. at Bombay under Dhabhar and several years of joint ventures with western scholars at different European Universities and our European publications of several works on the Gathas, we still do encounter enormous difficulties in deciphering the Gathas and still we all feel that much work needs to be done If this is what we encounter, then what should laity do. 

The modern trend among the reformists of only looking at the Gathas has created a real problem for them, which they have yet to realize. These “Anglicized American” Parsi reformists who belong to a small religion in a vast country which tends to efface religious differences by submerging old values beneath a flood of modern pseudo-values, are faced with very real prospect of extinction. With the modern trend created by such reformist adults, their youth, who are interested in their religion, seek support specifically in the Gathas only. But what do they find? First they have to choose between several third rate non-scholarly translations or from the high class four scholarly 20^th century translations of the Gathas and once they found one, they can not understand it. 

Reformists trying to learn the Gathas in their religious study classes at their prayer halls have further complicated the problem, where the teaching is arbitrary and fanciful, depending on what a teacher chooses. We will not go into details of philology, syntax and grammar of the Gathas. Recently we have witnessed some Gathic words like “Asha”, and  “Vohu Manah” being randomly selected by some, politicized and used on every occasion without even understanding them. 

The traditionalists, followers of true tenets of Zoroastriansim, always look to their own culture, as their religion is the oldest one in the world, and they find there what it is that has enabled it to survive a millennium and a half of adversity and intense pressure from surrounding religions and culture (after the fall of the Sasanian Empire). The true Zoroastrian traditionalists know the fact that their religion and culture is not exclusively  based on the Gathas only, but contain beside the Gathas nearly four millennium of human contributions in form of religious thought and literary compositions.

It is this heritage embedded in what we refer to as the Avesta, as well as in the later Pahlavi, Persian and Parsi literature that constitute the fundaments of the true Zoroastrian cultural identity. Dismissing it as not being “the words of the Prophet” beside “Old and Outdated” and thus not worthy of consideration is an arrogant attitude which only courts disaster, because it leaves nothing but a set of texts, the meanings of which only few scholars agree upon and thus not going to help the survival of the faith. It is comparable to the attitude of many Christians, who dismiss everything that is not written in the Bible. It would be denying that two-millenium of European history and cultural achievements are a part of a Western identity.

Although the Gathas are the oldest Zoroastrian literature composed by the prophet and provide a good ethical fundament for Zoroastrianism, and the prophet’s concern for truth/righteousness/correctness/order/rectitude (“Asha”) in the world and the concern for family values, Zoroastrian culture is much more than the Gathas and it is important that the young true Parsi Zoroastrans should learn that they possess a wonderful literary and even philosophical legacy, quite capable to compete with those of other Western and Eastern cultures. 

Kind regards,
Dr. Pallan R. Ichaporia 

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Jafarey’s Comments:

(1) I am wondering at a person who is father of four children, three married and one over marriage age, and who has been for over 20 years in Karachi as a medicine man, and I know him to be here for over 15 years, what might have been his age when he was a third-year Medical student to immigrate to Karachi, settle and be requested by a renowned Parsis- physician to assist him in the Parsi Hospital! 

(2) “Forty years of intensive study,” and yet had no way but to cling to a giant of Prof. Helmut Humbach to beget three books. That is indeed a great achievement! 

(3) Talking about “Anglicized American Reformist Parsis,” he continues: “First they have to choose between several third rate non-scholarly translations or from the high class four scholarly 20^th century translations of the Gathas and once they found one, they can not understand it.” 

However, a look at the Zarathushtrian Assembly activities would prove that the Divine Gathas are well understood and well practiced in a modern world of progress. They are the Guide for Good Life. 

(4) “The traditionalists [are] followers of true tenets of Zoroastriansim, … embedded in what we refer to as the Avesta, as well as in the later Pahlavi, Persian and Parsi literature that constitute the fundaments of the true Zoroastrian cultural identity.” 

The question: Is this rich and vast literature available to the Traditionalist at large, including their top scholars? If not, how can they understand it? And if not, why not? Because so far, what all of the Traditionalist scholars have done, has been to cling to a Western giant and give between one to four books, a tiny fraction of the literature they boast about in empty talks and no action. And the community is “deadly” stuck with the increasing problems of birth, marriage, death and disposal of the dead in a fast changing environment.

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LINKS:

Also read
Ichaporia's Outbursts from behind the Curtain
and
Adurbad Maraspandan 

TABLE OF CONTENTS  and Their Links 

Foreword  

Introduction & the Gist of "The Plain Reality Behind The Intricate Falsity"