His rank and style was grandiose: Asho Dastur-an-Dastur Shams-ul-Ulema Dastur Doctor Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, High Priest of the Parsis of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Provinces, but to his flock he was just their 'Dasturjee', as he was known with affection and reverence.

He was born in Surat on September 27, 1875, and he died in Karachi on May 25, 1956. We recently commemorated his 81st death anniversary.

He never told us his word was law, for all to observe and obey, for his wisdom and learning were never challenged. He was not orthodox or dogmatic, as is the case with all truly learned scholars, so he was a tolerant man who preached tolerance.

He had studied Iranian languages at the Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy Madressah in Bombay where he met and consorted with Dadabhoy Naoroji, Sir Phirozeshah Mehta, Sir Dinshaw Watcha, Sir Dinshaw Mulla and the Tatas. He then went on to further study Avesta and his religion at the Columbia University, New York, under Professor L Jackson, where he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts in 1906 and a Ph.D. in 1908.

In 1929, his university invited him to be with them to celebrate the 175th anniversary of its founding during the reign of King George III of England as the King's College. It was an occasion on which the university honoured its outstanding alumni, those who had contributed to the furtherance of the knowledge of the arts and sciences, by awarding to them honorary degrees. Dhalla was awarded a D.Litt.

He was a voracious reader and the library at Columbia was amply equipped with volumes on the Avesta and Pahelvi languages, and on Zoroastrianism. During his lifetime he visited Columbia five times to read and to study. A man of meagre means, he had no problem with being helped and supported by members of his community who chipped in with contributions towards his travel and living expenses to and in the US.

My maternal grandmother, Dinbano Rustomjee H J Rustomjee, was loving, liberal and loveable, whereas my paternal grandmother, Aimai Fakirjee Cowasjee, in whose house we grew up was relatively orthodox and severe - she had to be strict as she ruled over a rebellious crew. Both were literate and could read and write English. Aimai used to harangue Dasturjee on the subject of smoking and insist that in his preachings to the community he inform them that Zarathustra had firmly laid it down that his followers were not to indulge in the use of tobacco. Dasturjee would patiently explain to her, 'My dear Sister, Zarathushtra lived and died long before Raleigh found and brought tobacco back to England from America.'

Tolerance is what we must have in Pakistan, and tolerance is what we must all preach. In one of Dhalla's books, 'Homage Unto Ahura Mazda' (Nemo Ahurai Mazdai), is his essay 'Let none nurse intolerance', which needs to be read and digested:

"Intolerance and bigotry and dogmatism are the bitterest enemies of religion upon earth. They make religion a tyrant, a persecutor, a veritable daeva, the demoniac perversion of angelic religion.

"All bigotry is blind and stupid and savage. Sectarian bigotry is as bad as inter-religious bigotry. Bigotry stifles reason and the bigot, in his frenzy, is out to force all to believe what he believes.

"All religions come from one and the only God, who makes himself known by many a name. From the same source, like the tributaries of a river, they flow. All religions make man equally good upon earth and with equal safety do they conduct his soul to heaven. One alone is truth and all religions teach this truth, for religion itself is truth.

"All open their hearts to the same God. All unbosom their hearts to the same God. All seek refuge in the same God. All concentrate their thoughts on the same God. All seek fellowship with the same God. All yearn to be united unto the same God. All commend their souls into the hands of the same God. Man has no right to demand that his neighbour shall address God after his pattern and shall pray in his own way and worship according to his liking and sacrifice unto God in the manner he does.

"No thinking man's own idea of God and religion, at all times and in all conditions of life, is ever the same. For everybody's views on religion, then, it is not possible ever to be alike. Monotonous would our world become, if all thought equally and in the same way without ever differing in religious beliefs and practices from one another. Nature shines in her luxuriant glory because of the wide variety of her form and colour and beauty. So do there bloom and blossom in the garden of the spirit pervading mankind, foliage and flowers of all shades and grades of devotion and religious emotions.

"Teach me, my God, to see that I have no right to impose my own way of thinking upon others. Teach me to acknowledge and honour the right of all to pray and worship and sacrifice in their own way. Let me not be a purist and regard those as irreligious who regard not formalism. Keep me free from sectarian spirit, and give me strength to root out from my heart bigotry and fanatic zeal. Teach me to discern true religion from religiosity. Fill my mind and heart, Ahura Mazda, with the spirit of toleration."

The people of India and Pakistan, in particular the leaders, all tend to be intolerant and over the last 54 years have done nothing to dampen strife. Now, both countries are at an important crossroad in their existence. India's leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee, is a democratically elected prime minister whereas our man, Pervez Musharraf, rode in on horseback. But it matters little how he came in. He enjoys the support of the people, including the obscurantists and the educated. From what one gathers in this age of technology and cyberspace, both Vajpayee and Musharraf are striving for peace, both are aware that their countries are inhabited by a vast majority of the poverty-stricken, the hungry and illiterate. It is their interests that must prevail. What is of importance is that discerning men on both sides of the border, all who have a voice of any kind, must help both leaders in their quest to reduce strife and hatred and bring in peace which only can bring in and nurture prosperity.