Francois Gautier on Conversions…
Just read this brilliant piece by Dr Francois Gautier (on Rediff’s website):
Francois Gautier writes to Dr John Dayal, member, National Integration Council, in response to the letter he wrote Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
Dear John Dayal,
I am a Westerner and a born Christian. I was mainly brought up in Catholic schools, my uncle Father Guy Gautier a gem of a man, was the parish head of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church in Paris. My father Jacques Gautier, a famous artist in France, and a truly good person if there ever was one, was a fervent Catholic all his life, went to church nearly every day and lived by his Christian values.
There are certain concepts in Christianity I am proud of: Charity for others, the equality of social systems in many Western countries, Christ’s message of love and compassion.
Yet, when I read your letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, apropos the inaugural meeting of the National Integration Council, I was a little uneasy.
First, you seem to assume that you are speaking for the entire Christian community in India. But I know many Christians in this country, and they never voice the grievances you so loudly proclaim. In fact, I have found that most Christians in India are not only happy to live in this country of traditional tolerance, but that they are also different from many Christians in the world: More multicultural and ecumenist in spirit, maybe.
Then, you speak of the marginalised Dalits. I agree that there are still unforgivable atrocities committed against Dalits, although very often they are done by backward castes themselves. I remember during the tsunami in Pondichery, how the Vanniars, an OBC caste, stopped the Dalits from a coastal hamlet from crossing the Vanniars’ part of the village to bury their dead, as the Dalits’ cremation ground had been submerged.
At the same time, my 30 years in India have taught me that nowhere in the world has there been so much effort to rectify a wrong — from 1947 onwards. This resulted in a Dalit, the late K R Narayanan, born in a poor village of Kerala, to be elected President of India, one of the highest posts in this nation.
Has a black man ever been President of the United States?
Reservations for Dalits have made it possible for them to access education and jobs regardless of their merits — and this is a unique feature of India today.
You continue by saying that ‘the agenda draftsmen of papers for NIC seem to believe that forcible and fraudulent conversions (to Christianity) are the main cause of civil unrest in tribal and other rural areas’. And you retort that ‘this is a malicious myth propagated by obscurantist and fundamentalist — and often violent — political groups’. Meaning Hindu groups, of course.
I have to disagree with you on two points.
One, I have seen with my own eyes how conversions in India are not only highly unethical — that is, using unethical means of conversion — but also that they threaten a whole way of life, erasing centuries of tradition, customs, wisdom, teaching people to despise their own religion and look Westwards to a culture which is alien to them, with disastrous results.
Look at what happened to countries like Hawaii, or to the extraordinary Aztec culture in South America, after Portuguese and Spanish missionaries took over.
Look how the biggest drug problems in India are found in the Northeast, or how Third World countries which have been totally Christianised have lost all moorings and bearing and are drifting away without nationalism and self-pride.
Second, I think people like you show very little gratitude to that Hindu ethos which has seeped into Indian Christian consciousness. It is because of that Hindu ethos, which accepts that god may manifest himself at different times in different names, that Christians were welcomed in India in the first century. Indeed, the Syrian Christians of Kerala constituted the first Christian community in the world.
It is because of this inbred tolerance in Hinduism that Christianity and many other persecuted minorities in the world flourished and practiced their religion in peace in India throughout the centuries.
But how do Christians thank the Hindus?
When the Jesuits arrived in India with Vasco de Gama, they committed terrible persecutions, particularly in Goa, crucifying Brahmins, marrying local girls forcibly to Portuguese soldiers, razing temples to build churches and splitting the Kerala Christian community in two.
And today, people like you continue ranting against Hindus and promoting unethical conversions, using the massive power of the dollars donated by ignorant Westerners, who do not know that their money is used to lure innocent tribals and Dalits, who still possess that all encompassing acceptance of all gods, towards another religion.
Furthermore, you use false statistics, saying for instance that nuns have been raped. You no doubt allude to the Jhabua rape case, when courts have shown that these nuns were not raped by Hindus, but by Christian tribals.
I know, I went there and interviewed these innocent souls.
And who has been hijacking of the educational system in India? Not the Hindus, as you accuse, but the Christians, who control much of the higher education in India and by subtle and not so subtle means, poison the minds of the students, teaching them to look down on their own culture and look up to whatever is Western — even if it has already failed in the West.
In how many schools and hospitals in India today, the Bible is read at the beginning of each day, each session? Would you approve of the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible of 850 million Hindus being read in Christian schools in the West to Christian students and nurses?
Finally, when you say: ‘God bless you, you Government, and God bless India’, which god are you talking about? Is it Jesus Christ? But the message of Christ was one of love, of respecting others’ cultures and creed — not of utilising unethical means for converting people.It is false to say that Jesus is the only ‘true’ god. As Hindus rightly believe, the Divine has manifested himself throughout the ages under different names and identities, whether it is Christ, Buddha, Krishna or Mohammad.
Let this be the motto of the National Integration Council of India.
Francois Gautier’s words should help the blind folded ‘intellectuals’ to understand the greatness of the Indian philosophy and lifestyle.
Comment by astroshiva | August 23, 2007
Good point astroshiva. Thanks for the comment.
Comment by B Shantanu | August 23, 2007
Dr Francois Gautier seems like a lost man…very confused, He neither understand Christainity, hinduism, India or the West.Alas… how sad a man like him is deceived. No one becomes a Follower Of Christ (Christian) by being born in a so called Chritian family.. and catholics themselves are whole lot of blinded peopel. Christianilty isn’t a west religious but an eastern, and it is off course not a religion, in a sense that other religion of the world’s are! Christianilty is a Life Style, Way Of Life.. A Christian live it every moment. If a so called Christian does live it then he/she is a liar - therefore not a Christian, for CHRIST JESUS does not lie, so do His true Followers!..
Comment by A_shiva | February 2, 2008
*** COMMENT DELETED BY MODERATOR ***
@ rash: You have simply copied A_shiva’s comment, so I have deleted it.
Please do not post the same comment(s) more than once using different names - It is not helpful..
@ A_shiva: I really did not understand your comment…I am letting it stay on the site this time (giving you the benefit of doubt), but please stick to the topic and please try and be clear in your responses.
Thank You.
Comment by rash | February 2, 2008
I think A_shiva is the lost man. Christianity is a religion not a way of life because, Christianity doesn’t allow if live the same way of life without preying Jesus Christ. And he has blatantly copied the definition of sanathan dharma, very similar to the kerala church priest who uses all sanskrit words and hindu practices in Church to benefit conversion. Everything is a religion except Sanathan Dharma. The simple reason is Sanathan Dharma existed when there was nothing called religion and when no religion existed.
Comment by Nanda | April 1, 2008
A_shiva is rash with adjectives he employs against Francois Gautier and Catholics as a whole. Contrasting his outburst with the way Mr.Gautier makes his points, it is clear who the confused person is.
In many parts of India, Christian conversion of Hindus is a “commercial” operation. The sponsors in America and their agents in India work like a business enterprise - how many “sales” made, photos of the converts and bio sent back to America, to get ready for more dollars. As Mr.Gautier points out, it is not merely a positive affirmation of faith in Jesus Christ [which is acceptable to me - I think of Him as a Mahaan], but many negatives soon follow.
The damage begins when the converts are told that they have to stop all “Hindu” practices or else, GOD will punish them in Hell. One convert I heard of, pulled his 14 yr old daughter out of a Bharata Natyam dance school, because the songs were on “Hindu Devatas”. It is easy for me to follow Mr.Gautier’s point about the destruction of Indian culture along with these conversions.
In a few other cases of conversions, I have heard converts picking fights with their Hindu neighbours and their own relations. One converted family, it seems, will turn off all lights in their house on Diwali day, just to show they are “different”. This sort of havoc is inflicted upon us.
People like John Dayal and other leaders of this “minority grievance industry” are misleading the govt., and media through their misrepresentations. Killing Hindu culture will come to haunt the people of India, of all communities. Hostility to Hindu culture and its achievements is short-sighted. The mindless anger towards this great culture is a misguided diversion of local politics and sheer ignorance.
Comment by Kris iyer | July 20, 2008
Dear Sir,
Why are we till bleating about Dayal and others. Ignore them and conttinue with life. If one feels so strong about this beautiful way of life LIVE IT AND SHOW IT! The Dayals can be silenced for ever.
Make a commitment to live that true way of life and you can get rid of these Dayals. You keep engaging in alter ego fights we will be losers as then one will not have the time to live this WAY OF LIFE.
Make a vow and start living the Way of Life TODAY and NOW and you can make a difference. Do not feel ashamed.
Regards,
vck
Comment by v.c.krishnan | July 22, 2008
There has been a identity crisis here. The comment no. 1 is written by me and the comment no. 3 is defintely not mine and some one has used my name to spit venom on one of the greatest writers of our time. (now fixed)
All the comments which followed that hoax comment seems to be bombarding on me. I could not keep a track of the debate after I posted the comment no.1 . I was not aware that some one was using my name to publish his vendetta.
I am quite surprised why the person who is hosting this page could not distinguish between a real identity and a hoax as we provide details such as email and website along with our comment and name.
I want to tell all the bloggers who have been participating in the debate that I have a high regard for Goutier’s writings and would always like to read more of his books. I strongly support Gautier’s writings.
The comment no.3 is a false comment which was written by some one else. I have no connection with that message or the person who wrote it.
Comment by astroshiva | August 4, 2008
@ astroshiva: You are right…It is obviously a hoax…sorry for missing it…
I will change the name of the commentator and also modify the subsequent comments..
Thanks for alerting me to this.
Comment by B Shantanu | August 4, 2008
Ihave read the Monsieur Francois Gautier ’s article on the fraud undertaken in the name of conversion. They (misssionaries) have been well exposed and hence the vehemence with which they oppose these exposures. But it is a fact that most of the Hindus who are gullible (because of their cowardice and greed )are slowly and surely will oneday understand the chicanery behind the so called mild missionaries expounding the faith more out of $ accruals than belief. They approach tribals and in course of time they hope to convert so large a population that a East Timor type operation is expected to be launched with Western countries do their dirty bit.Ultimate result of all these activities will be to put the CHristians ( all of them whether new or old converts) in the same league as Muslims who is viewed with suspcion by a majority of the population.
Comment by Rangaraj | September 24, 2008