François Gautier
Encyclopedia
François Gautier, born 1959 in Paris
, is a writer
and journalist
based in India
. He came to India at the age of 19 and spent his first eight years in the "international city" of Auroville
http://www.auroville.org/ India at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
in Pondicherry. He has been living in India since the 70's and is married to an Indian. Gautier is one of the few westeners actively defending the hindutva
movement.
near Paris
to Jacques Gautier
http://www.jacquesgautier.fr/, an artist
in France and Andree Gautier. His uncle was Father Guy Gautier, the parish head of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church
in Paris. He was brought up in a traditional Christian family. He had a strict upper-class Catholic education, but never really fitted in the system. He revolted against it quite early. He was sent to many famous boarding schools all over Europe
. His family wanted him to be a businessman. He attended an American business school
in Paris called IDRAC, but his interest was in writing. He quit to work in a small newspaper, which quickly folded. He tried his hand at script-writing and wrote the script for a film for a friend whose father, a famous film director, had given him 30,000 francs. The film was never released and soon after, he left for India when he just turned 19.
He has lived in India since 1971, and has been associated with Auroville in Pondicherry.
In 1982, at the occasion of the Asian Games
in Delhi, He chanced upon an article (on the Asian Games
) in a French newspaper. It had all the usual clichés on India: poverty
, fakirs, Mother Teresa
. So he wrote a letter of correction to the editor
; and the editor offered Francois to write an article. That was his [beginning in Journalism]http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/12rajeev.htm.
Gautier writes to the online website Rediff.com
, The New Indian Express
, Dainik Bhaskar
, Sahara Samay, Outlook
and The Sunday Indian. His columns for the "The Ferengi’s Column" in The Indian Express
and "The French Connection" column in the The Pioneer and in Rediff were some of the most waited and most read.
Among his books are Un autre Regard sur l'Inde (Editions du Tricorne, Geneva-Paris); Arise O India (Har Anand 1999), Cry O my beloved India A Western journalist on India (Har-Anand 2001), India's Self Denial (Editions Auroville Press, 2001) and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a guru of Joy (India Today Book Club, 2002).
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, is a writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
based in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He came to India at the age of 19 and spent his first eight years in the "international city" of Auroville
Auroville
Auroville is an "experimental" township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, near Pondicherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa and designed by architect Roger Anger...
http://www.auroville.org/ India at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded by Sri Aurobindo on the 24 November 1926 . At the time there were no more than 24 disciples in the Ashram...
in Pondicherry. He has been living in India since the 70's and is married to an Indian. Gautier is one of the few westeners actively defending the hindutva
Hindutva
Hindutva is the term used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. Members of the movement are called Hindutvavādis.In India, an umbrella organization called the Sangh Parivar champions the concept of Hindutva...
movement.
Childhood
Francois Joseph Georges Gautier was born on 26 July 1959 at Fontenay-sous-BoisFontenay-sous-Bois
Fontenay-sous-Bois is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:The name Fontenay was recorded in the Middle Ages as Fontanetum, meaning "the springs", from Medieval Latin fontana .The commune was known alternatively as Fontenay-les-Bois ,...
near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Jacques Gautier
Jacques Gautier
Jacques Gautier is a French politician and a member of the Senate of France. He represents the Hauts-de-Seine department and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement Party.-References:*...
http://www.jacquesgautier.fr/, an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
in France and Andree Gautier. His uncle was Father Guy Gautier, the parish head of the beautiful Saint Jean de Montmartre church
Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre
The Church of Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre is located at 19 Rue des Abbesses in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.Situated at the foot of Montmartre, it is notable as the first example of reinforced cement in church construction. Built from 1894 through 1904, it was designed by architect Anatole de...
in Paris. He was brought up in a traditional Christian family. He had a strict upper-class Catholic education, but never really fitted in the system. He revolted against it quite early. He was sent to many famous boarding schools all over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. His family wanted him to be a businessman. He attended an American business school
Business school
A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource...
in Paris called IDRAC, but his interest was in writing. He quit to work in a small newspaper, which quickly folded. He tried his hand at script-writing and wrote the script for a film for a friend whose father, a famous film director, had given him 30,000 francs. The film was never released and soon after, he left for India when he just turned 19.
He has lived in India since 1971, and has been associated with Auroville in Pondicherry.
Career
He wrote for a national daily based in Paris. Thereafter after living for a few years in the ashram at Pondicherry, he resumed writing for various national and international papers but this time about Indian affairs.In 1982, at the occasion of the Asian Games
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
in Delhi, He chanced upon an article (on the Asian Games
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
) in a French newspaper. It had all the usual clichés on India: poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, fakirs, Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
. So he wrote a letter of correction to the editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
; and the editor offered Francois to write an article. That was his [beginning in Journalism]http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/12rajeev.htm.
Gautier writes to the online website Rediff.com
Rediff.com
Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
, The New Indian Express
The New Indian Express
The New Indian Express is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as the Indian Express, under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu. In 1991, following the death of the then owner Ramnath Goenka, the Goenka...
, Dainik Bhaskar
Dainik Bhaskar
Dainik Bhaskar is an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper published by D B Corp Ltd.. It was started in year 1958 from Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh...
, Sahara Samay, Outlook
Outlook (magazine)
Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines, it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the 2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies...
and The Sunday Indian. His columns for the "The Ferengi’s Column" in The Indian Express
The Indian Express
The Indian Express is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is published in Mumbai by Indian Express Group. After Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split in 1999 among his family members into two with the southern editions taking the name The New Indian Express, while the old...
and "The French Connection" column in the The Pioneer and in Rediff were some of the most waited and most read.
Among his books are Un autre Regard sur l'Inde (Editions du Tricorne, Geneva-Paris); Arise O India (Har Anand 1999), Cry O my beloved India A Western journalist on India (Har-Anand 2001), India's Self Denial (Editions Auroville Press, 2001) and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a guru of Joy (India Today Book Club, 2002).
Books in English
- Arise O India, Har anand, 2000. ISBN 8124105189
- India's Self Denial Auroville Press, 2001
- A Western Journalist on India: The Ferengi's Columns, Har Anand, 2001. ISBN 8124107955
- The Guru of Joy: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the Art of Living, India Today Book Club, 2002. ISBN 8190565591
- Rewriting Indian History, India Research Press, 2003 ISBN 8187943270
- A New History of India, Har Anand, 2008 ISBN 9788124114308
Books in French
- Un autre regard sur l'Inde, éditions du Tricorne, 2001. ISBN 2829301897
- Swami, PDG et moine hindou, éditions J.-P. Delville, juin 2003. ISBN 2848980036
- La caravane intérieure, les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2005 ISBN 2251720006
- Femmes en Inde, Albin Michel, à paraître, 2004 ISBN 2226142266
See also
- David FrawleyDavid FrawleyDavid Frawley is an American Hindu author, publishing on topics such as Hinduism, Yoga and Ayurveda. He is the founder and director of the American Institute for Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which offers courses on Yoga philosophy, Ayurveda, and Hindu astrology...
- Koenraad ElstKoenraad ElstKoenraad Elst is a Belgian writer and orientalist .He was an editor of the New Right Flemish nationalist journal Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies from 1992 to 1995, focusing on criticism of Islam, various other conservative and Flemish separatist publications such as Nucleus, t Pallieterke,...
- Michel DaninoMichel DaninoMichel Danino , is a French‐born Indian author who has been living in Tamil Nadu, India since 1977.He participated in the translation and publication of the works of Sri Aurobindo and of The Mother...
- Alain DanielouAlain DaniélouAlain Daniélou was a French historian, intellectual, musicologist, Indologist, and a noted Western convert to and expert on Shaivite Hinduism.-Life:...
- Girilal JainGirilal JainGirilal Jain , was an Indian journalist. He served as the editor of The Times of India from 1978 till 1988. He was sympathetic to Hindu nationalism and authored books on the subject, the best known of which, The Hindu Phenomenon, was published posthumously.-Personal life:Girilal Jain was born in a...
- Stephen KnappStephen KnappStephen Knapp is an American artist best known for his use of the medium of lightpainting He has gained an international reputation for large-scale works of art held in museums, public, corporate, and private collections, which are executed in media as diverse as light, kiln-formed glass, metal,...
- Arun ShourieArun ShourieArun Shourie is an Indian journalist, author, intellectual and politician. He has been an economist with the World Bank , a consultant to the Planning Commission, India, editor of the Indian Express and Times of India and a minister in the government of India . He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay...
- Swapan DasguptaSwapan DasguptaSwapan Dasgupta is a senior conservative Indian journalist. At various points in his career, he has held senior editorial posts at The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Times of India, The Indian Express and most recently India Today, where he was Managing Editor till 2003...
- Claude ArpiClaude ArpiClaude Arpi is French-born author, journalist, historian and tibetologist born in 1949 in Angoulême who lives in Auroville, India. He is the author of The Fate of Tibet: When Big Insects Eat Small Insects , and several articles on Tibet, China, India and Indo-French relations.Claude Arpi is the...
External links
- Francois Gautier Blog
- Another noble efforts by Francois Gautier
- Interview to Tribune India
- Youtube video on FACTINDIA
- francois gautier's French articles
- Francois Gautier's homepage
- Rewriting Indian history Online Book
- India's self denial by F. Gautier
- Francois Gautier at rediff.com
- A sampling of Francois Gautier's experiences in india
- FACT homepage
- Art of Living