IAN Aug 09 FrancoisGautier

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Francois Gautier: Custodian of India’s Historical Heritage

By K alyani Giri

HOUSTON: Eminent journal-ist and author Francois Gautier is passionate about India. Hislove affair with that country be-gan in the ‘70s, when as a youngstudent, he left his native Franceand meandered across Europeand arrived in India. So capti-vated was he by India’s arrestingliveliness and the warmth andkindness of the people, that yearslater in the early ‘80s he returnedto India and made it his home.During the last three decades, hehas been a high-profile ambassa-dor to India through the power of his pen.

“It is a wonderful privilege to be born Indian,” said Gautier toa multigenerational gathering atthe Arya Samaj of Greater Hous-ton on August 10. “I’m a west-erner but I feel it is a privilege tolive in India.”

The renowned writer is current-ly visiting several cities withinthe US to raise funds throughhis visionary foundation FACT-India for the creation of an In-dian history museum in Pune, inthe state of Maharashtra in India.The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maha-raj Museum of Indian History,named for the Indian militaryleader Shivaji (1627 – 1680), will

cost an estimated US$40 million.Gautier is eager to begin work assoon as he returns to India andis confident that this fundraisingtour will bring in the much-need-ed initial $100, 000 to jumpstartthe project. A wall within themuseum will bear the names of donors supporting the museum  project. The museum will be  built on land donated by a pri-vate trust. Gautier believes thatwith the help of commissionedhistorians hired by the museum,visitors will be privy to accuratechronicles of India’s great his-tory. For Gautier, the epiphanycame upon him when he startedresearch on a book he was writ-ing. He found that history bookscarried outdated theories suchas the Aryan invasion that havesince found to be fictional.

Earlier in the day, he chattedinformally with Indo American  News sharing his thoughts andvision for the museum.

“India has been largely ma-ligned by distorted informationand misrepresentation. No re-cords or schoolbooks have a cor-rect account of the Hindu Kushgenocide, where millions wereslaughtered. Exactly how manywere killed isn’t known but thatwas India’s holocaust. Yet every-

Francois Gautier was in Houston to raise funds through his visionaryfoundation FACT-India. Photo: Krishna Giri

one knows about theJewish Holocaust,”said Gautier. “In-dia’s history, falsely  propagated by theBritish, Christianmissionaries, andwestern media, hasmade me realize thatwe need to showHindu civilizationin its correct andtrue context. For thesake of our childrenand the generationsto come, and theworld!”

The first exhibitto be set up willhonor the life andtimes of ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj.India’s rich culturalheritage will be por-trayed through theVedas. The museumwill document andexhibit the variousinvasions from Al-

exander the Great to the Arabs,the Goa Inquisition, the Hinduholocaust, the ongoing massacreof thousands of Kashmiri Hindus  by Muslim terrorists, the perse-cution of the Syrian Christians,Buddhism’s rise and decline, In-dia past and current. Highlightedtoo, will be India’s glorious con-tribution of yoga and Ayurvedato the world community.

“The museum will be there for our children, for them to knowthat regardless of the fact thatthe British broke the backboneof our agricultural system andcaused the deaths of millions of Indians from famine, and despitethe Muslim onslaught, India  prevailed and remains prosper-ous,” added Gautier, a practic-ing Hindu who was spirituallyinfluenced by the writings of SriAurobindo (1872-1950). He hassince joined forces with spiritualleader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, whosupports him in his quest for thetruth about India’s past. Gautier estimated that it would take sev-eral years till completion of themuseum.

“I’m thinking about 10 to 15years. Once people realize howimportant this project is, and howessential, the funds will pour in,”

confided Gautier.Speaking softly in a lilting

Indo-French accent, his mes-sages however were undoubt-edly strong as he condemnedthe slaughter and maniacal “eth-nic cleansing” of Hindus in theKashmir valley by the Muslims,an area Gautier covered as a po-litical journalist from 1987 to thelate ‘90s.

“There were over a millionHindus living peacefully inKashmir. Today there are a merehundreds. The Kashmiri Panditsmoved me with their despair, butnobody else seemed to give adamn. Indian media abroad andin India were only covering theMuslim angle,” said Gautier.

Through FACT-India, an orga-nization he founded in 2003 todraw attention to human rightsabuses in South Asia, Gautier documented the genocide inKashmir in a video called Ter-ror Unleashed – An Exhibitionon Kashmir, and presented it tothe US Congress in the desper-

Gautier met with local youth at the Arya Samaj and urged them to

remember their cultural heritage. Photo: Rajesh Thatte

ate hope that Washington wouldintervene and help resolve theissue.

“Several House Representa-tives saw it and lauded the video but nothing was really done aboutit,” said Gautier. “US presidentsthink that by pouring money intoPakistan, it will curb terrorism.That won’t work.”

Gautier said that the dissentamong Hindu community lead-ers has led to disunity.

“If there’s fighting amongourselves, how do we present aunited front to the world? After all this time that Indians have  been in the US and enjoy great

 prosperity, they still do not havea voice that is heard. Yet other communities work together andin that unity, they find a voice.Indian organizations need toshare a common agenda andwork towards that.”

He confided that it is “tragic”that the children of Indian immi-grants adopt the American wayof life and are lost to India.

“They’re hostile to spirituality.And it’s mostly the fault of the  parents who either don’t care,or don’t instill cultural pride intheir children. Families are frag-mented, values lost. Instead of  pushing children to visit the tem-  ple, engage them in other spiri-tual activities like the classicalarts and yoga. It will bring themcloser to their cultural roots,”said Gautier. “It’s such a pity thatIndia is so poor at sports, as thatcould have helped make them proud of India.”

At a private meeting with localyouth at the Arya Samaj, Gautier urged young people to be proud

of their cultural heritage.“It is a privilege and a respon-

sibility to have Indian roots andthere is no contradiction here  – you hail from the lineage of the Vedas. People are movingforward and coming to Hindu-ism for spiritual answers,” saidGautier.  All donations to FACT-India/ 

 Francois Gautier’s proposed Mu- seum of Indian History should bemailed to FACT India, 6832 Win-drock Rd, Dallas, TX 75252  Donations can also be made

online via credit card on thewebsite: www.fact-india.com