Francois Gautier, by stressing – I am Hindutva – has highlighted the ongoing co-ordinated attacks on Hindus, Hinduism and Hindutva.
Desk: Noted French writer and journalist Francois Gautier has written a passionate blog in defence of Hindutva and has criticised the efforts to give a bad name to Hindutva, Hinduism and Hindus.
François Gautier is a journalist based in India who served as the South Asian correspondent for multiple reputed French-language dailies. Gautier has written books on history and indology; he also runs an NGO namely Foundation for Advancement of Cultural Ties.
Amid the attempts to tar the image of Hindus and their resistance which is often known as ‘Hindutva’, Gautier has expressed pain at the attempts by motivated forces to compare Hindutva to Nazism.
In a passionate blog titled “My name is Francois Gautier & I am Hindutva”, he argued – “at a time when the planet’s two largest monotheist religions still believe that their God is the only true one, and that it is their duty to convert humanity to this true God, either by coercion or financial bait, Hinduism, has from time immemorial believed that the Divine, He or she, manifests at different times with different names and different scriptures.”
He further wrote: “Thus, a Hindu is capable of entering a mosque, a church, or a Gurudwara, without thinking that he or she is committing a sin. The reverse is not true.”
He wrote: “I have lived in this country for 40 years, and travelled extensively from the extreme South of India to the Chinese border in Arunachal Pradesh, and I have NEVER found a people who are so friendly, open, and tolerant. It is my belief that not only India will become the spiritual leader of the world, as Swami Vivekananda or Sri Aurobindo predicted, but that it will also become an economic, political, military, and geopolitical superpower, a friend and ally of the West and the democratic world, because contrary to China, it kept its spirituality alive, thanks to the people that are called the Hindus.”
Gautier’s blog has come at a time when there have been open efforts to defame Hinduism and Hindutva at the global level. On 20th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks, a group of liberals organised a conference named ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva”.
Although the conference failed in drawing attention of the people as only a few thousand attended the online event, it exposed the intentions of those who were backing the conference.
Ironically, on a day that will remain associated with Islamist terror and on a day that caused US to invade several Islamic countries one by one, including Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the Hindutva detractors were busy speaking against the need to dismantle so called ‘Global Hindutva’. Irony is that on the same day Taliban sworn in declared terrorists as ministers in Afghanistan openly mocking at entire US establishment that was in pains on 9/11.
Yet, they did not utter a word on Islamism or global evangelism. Their subject of conference remained focused on the so-called ‘dismantling of global Hindutva’.
Gautier’s blog is likely to intensity this debate and highlight the Hinduphobic forces at work at the global level, especially in academia.
