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14 JANUARY’19-JUNE’19
THE REVIEW
PUNE AGM 2018
this is scandalous British Protestants marrying Catholic woman! and we’ve got to stop it. However, they soon realised that they couldn’t, and they recognised the advantages to be had from the loyal services of a half-caste community. Common sense prevailed, and in 1687 they declared that a woman would be allowed a certain amount of money the day the child was christened. They added a twist and said you could marry, but the child had to be christened.
So, friends, it is clear—Mr Anthony says in his book Britain’s Betrayal of India—we are not a community that came about by chance; it was
a planned community. We have now reached a stage where if we ignore—and worse still, resist— the involvement of non-Anglo-Indian spouses
and children, we are doing ourselves a great disservice. One of the things we are trying to do is, not just embrace, but also involve the non-Anglo- Indian spouse, involve the non-Anglo-Indian child in everything that the Association does, except
of course in voting and in standing for elections. Can they can come to the National Youth Meet? Yes, absolutely! Any event! What we are doing in the new resolution is we are introducing a form that needs to be filled up by the Anglo-Indian member, who will say, ‘My husband is from so- and-so community but would like to participate actively in all the activities and projects of the Association.’ Let us embrace them and welcome them.
The Association and the Community
I will end now by quickly telling you where I feel the Association and the community are today.
In the Association today, there’s a buzz. There’s
a buzz of things happening, there’s a buzz of ‘who’s winning the Voice of the Year?’, and there’s a buzz about ‘I want to be on the committee’. People want to come forward. People want to become presidents! It’s unbelievable, it’s lovely, it’s wonderful. There was a time when people
didn’t come to the AGM, in case they were made president! But now, people want to become the secretary or president or a committee member, which is a very good thing. Get yourself elected! Don’t slip in through the back door. Get yourself elected. Only if someone expires or moves away should you co-opt somebody, or if there are not enough people on your committee. Come forward and get yourselves elected! There’s nothing wrong with having an election, even if you stand against your best friend.
So, there’s a buzz and there’s a visibility. People are seeing the Association, and literally seeing
it, thanks to social media. Social media is really helping the community. In the last 28 days, thanks to the Voice of the Year contest, our Facebook page has had a reach of 2.6 lakhs. Aldo Michael and Somnath Dasgupta (of the Head Office) and the team, well done. The point I am trying to make is you have to be visible! Many of my Parsi friends say, ‘Our community is suffering because it is
not visible anymore! The Tatas and the Modis and others like Farokh Engineer made it visible, because they were all great Parsis.’ But you don’t only need great people to make it visible. Mr