Arise 'O' INDIA By Francois Gautier

ARISE ‘O’ INDIA by Francois Gautier- K. RamakrishanThe author of book ‘Arise O India’,

Francois Gautieris a celebrated French journalist and writer and was the political correspondent in India and South Asiafor ‘Le Figaro’, France’s largest circulatednewspaper. A devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Motherhe lives in Auroville, the city of dawn, theinternational city founded by the Mother. He is anavid observer of happenings in India.

He has published his impressions in leading newspapers and magazines.The book is dedicated ‘To India who gave me so much’contains the author’s 17 thought provoking essays.

In the essay ‘who are Hindus?’ he analysis the originof Hindus and Hinduism and writes; ‘Finally, it isdifficult to understand Hinduism if you do not graspthe concept of Shakti, the divine feminine energy.

Because of the influence of British thought, it isnowadays fashionable in India to always highlight the downtrodden condition of Indian women and itsunderprivileged place in Indian society.

As a result,Western correspondents are always keen to do storieson female infanticides in Bihar, child marriages, orsati cases in Rajasthan. But who knows that no countryin the world has granted such an important place towomen in its spirituality and social ethos? Thus inIndia-and its true that it is often a paradox, as
women, because of later Muslim influences, have oftenbeen relegated to the background-the feminine conceptis a symbol of dynamic realization.

She is the eternalMother, who is all Wisdom, all Compassion, all Force,Beauty and Perfection.’Gautier argues that to understand India and Hinduism,‘one then has to go beyond the cliches of paganism andthe accusations of sects that have been applied toHindus, particularly after the coming of Christianmissionaries to India who had a vested motive to showHinduism in a light....’ He Alexandra David-Neel, theFrench explorer, writer and mystic about theremarkable role that gods play in India: “because theimages or statues are like a battery which is chargedover the ages by the adoration of the devotees, who inturn can draw energy, inspiration, or grace from thesestatues.” She continues “As battery, the energy in thestatue will not get discharged, as long as thefaithful continue to worship it by their cult andadoration.’’ And she concludes: “Gods are thus createdby the energy given out by the faith in theirexistence.”Quoting Sri Aurobindo, Gautier irrefutably places theGenius of Indian politics “There always was a strongdemocratic element in prevalent. -Muslim India, whichcertainly showed a certain similarity with Westernparliamentary forms, but these institutions wereIndian”.

And states ‘It is to be noted that these Indian Republics existed long before the Greek ones,although the world credits the Greeks with havingcreated democracy; but as usual History is recordedthrough the prism of the Western world and is veryselective indeed.
One should also add that none ofthese Indian republics developed an aggressivecolonizing spirit and they were content to defendthemselves and forge alliances amongst them.’The author states that the four masterpieces to embodyIndia’s Genius in literature are the Vedas, theUpanishads, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharatha.

Describing the Bhagawad Gita as ‘the supreme work ofspiritual revelation in the whole history of our humanplanet, fir it is the most comprehensive, the mostrevealing the highest in its intuitive reach, hewrites, ‘no religious book ever succeeded to saynearly everything that needs to be known on themystries of human life: why death, why life, whysuffering” why fighting? Why duty?’In the essay ‘Islam and the Muslim Invasions”, Gautierraises pertinent questions such as:
What is the Geniusof Islam?
What is the strength of Islam?
Why did Islamcrush Hinduism so mercilessly?
The limitation ofIslam, etc.
He cites two reasons for the decline ofIndian civilization; ‘the foremost is that in India,spirit failed matter.
At some point her yogis startedwithdrawing more and more in their caves, Her gurus intheir ashrams. Her sannyasins in their forests.
Thusslowly great tams overtook matter, an immensenegligence towards the material, an intense inertiaset in, which allowed for the gradual degradation ofthe physical, a slackening of the down to earthvalues, an indifference towards the worldly, which inturn permitted successive invasions, from Alexander tothe Muslim and finally the European, the repe of theland of the Vedas.

‘The second reason and the one which has been mostcommonly invoked, including by Muslim apologistsbecause it is so obvious, is the fossilization of thecaste system and the gradual take over of India by anarrogant Brahmin and Kshatriya society.’

About the Muslim invasions of India he categoricallystates ‘Let it be said right away: the massacresperpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled inhistory, bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by theNazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks;more extensive even than the slaughter of the SouthAmerican native population by the invading Spanish andPortuguese.’Quoting American Historian Will Durant, Gautier sumsup the incredible damage done to Indian culture,civilization, human population and environment duringthe Muslim invasions which spanned nearly tencenturies:

“The Islamic conquest of India is probablythe bloodiest story in History. It is a discouragingtale, for its evident moral is that civilization is aprecious good, whose delicate complex order andfreedom can at any moment be overthrown barbariansinvading from wothout and muliplying within”However these atrocities were ‘negated’ in a thousand ways: ‘gross, clever, outrageous, subtle so that inthe end, the minds of people are so confused and muddled, that nobody knows anymore where the truth is.’ What is Negtionism? ‘Negationism means that this whole aspect of Indian History has been totally erased not only from text books, but also from the memory,from the consciousness of Indian people.’

He argues.He wonders how Hinduism has survived the onslaught of Muslim savagery: ‘it shows how deep was her faith, how profound her karma, how deeply ingrained her soul inthe hearts of her faithfuls.

The seeds planted by theMoghuls, by Babar, Mahmud, or Aurangzeb, have matured:the 125 million Indian Muslims of today have forgottenthat they were once peaceful, loving Hindus, forciblyconverted to a religion they hated. And they sometimestake-up as theirs a cry of fanaticism which is totallyalien to their culture.’About the E uropean invasions, particularly that ofthe Missionaries, the author states, ‘Thesemissionaries indeed poisoned the minds of the peoplethey converted, making them hate their own religion,their own country sometimes, cutting the from theirown cultural roots’..........’Everywhere theChristians went, they stamped mercilessly on cultures,eradicated centuries old ways of life of the peoplethey conquered.

They were thus able to radically altercivilizations, change their patterns of thinking. Andthree generations later the children of those who hadbeen conquered, ahd forgotten their roots, adaptedChristianity and often looked upon their conquerors astheir benefactors’.Analyzing the Indian Independence movement, the authorwrites ‘Hinduism, true Hinduism was for Sri Aurobindothe basis for India’s and greatness, it was also theessence of nationaliam, the MEANS of liberating Indiaand ultimately the foundation of the future if India.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the Indian NationalCongress did not have the same vision.’ AboutGandhiji, he says ‘ultimately, it must be said thatwhatever his saintliness, his extreme and somehowgijid asceticism, Gandhi did enormous harm to Indiaand this harm has two the European element in his lifeand his Non-violence was the greatest violence to hisown body.

‘In true Christian fashion he punished hisbody to back mail others.’In the essay ‘India Today’ the author quotes SriAurobindo “India of the ages is not dead nor has Shespoken Her last creative word. And that which She mustseek now to awake, is not an anglicised orientalpeople, docile pupil of the west and doomed to repeatthe cycle of the Occident’s success and failure, butstill the ancient immemorial Shakti recovering Herdeepest self, lifting Her head higher towards thesupreme source of light and strength and turning todiscover the complete meaning and vaster for of HerDharma.” and hopes that BJP will help fulfill theprophecy of the great Maharshi.Elaborating the dangers facing India today,

Gautierwrites that India’s upper-class the cream of thisnation appear to enjoy Indeia-bashing “Theirparameters appear to be set by what the West thinksabout India, by amnesty International’s comments ontheir nation. They want to apply to India the samenorms, which are used in the Industrialised world.

And extraordinarily, many of India’s elite ridicule whatmakes this country unique in the world, what no othernation in the world possesses; Dharma, true Hinduism;the knowledge passed down by thousands of sages,saints, yogis, sadhus of the Eternal Truth, that whichpassed down by thousanda of sages, saints yogis,sadhus of the Eternal Truth, that which gives meaningto this otherwise senseless life and which the
Westhas totally lost: the Wheel of life, the endless rebirths and ultimately the evolutionary Ascension ofman towards the Ultimate Truth.’The author foresees India emerging as a spiritualleader of the world. In the 17 essays the reader hasbeen taken through all the ‘dangers, threats,aggressions, pitfalls, perils, mistakes, that the landof Bharatha went through in the aftermath of theglorious Vedic epoch.’The author appreciates the role of Hinduism, purely because of his conviction that it offers somethingeternal which no other religion can. He is, t the sametime quite critical of its current plight and exhorts Hindus to awaken and realize the glory their Motherland.Through these essays, the reader has been harpedconstantly of the fact that the Gratness that WASIndia is not something of the past, that India’sSanathana Dharma, her boundless reserves ofspirituality are infact, ready to manifest themselvesagain.‘India has to wake up to Her destiny, recoup herspiritualized outlook. stop looking at Herself and atthe world through the Western prism of understanding,which is an artificial view, out of touch with theinner reality and which has been imposed to India byits colonizers for three centuries.’ That is the finaldeam of Francois Gautier.He has done a great service to Bharat Mata through hiswritings, which deserve serious study.--
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Unite; believe you are blessed and Hindu Bipin Balakrishnan Thousands of names, idols and traditions Still deep in heart your prayers are unitedYour soul, convivial and purged of hatred O’ tolerant being you are blessed and Hindu!Your epics depict wars of truth and dharmaAnd define the meaning of earthly existenceYour Vedas guide with knowledge of ages Illuminate gloomy souls of ignorant beings My pen could never rest if on you I writeFor there you stay in this globe’s historyBut where are you? Lost in clueless world-Of mortal beliefs and selling your heritageYour glorified tolerance is now a weaknessAnd had paid enough to all those intrudersHave you not yet learned from those wounds?Deep and bleeding; on your mother’s heart They all had their fortune, your conquerorsMissionaries, comrades and now terroristsAnd for few silver coins you sold your faithWhen you could join hands and unite for good But not anymore, if you can hear these linesAnd feel your mother’s fading but sweet callChant those mantras that bond shivering handsUnite and believe you are blessed and Hindu