Is FACT website down?

I visit the FACT website often. But recently, have noticed that, ever since their exhibition in Chennai was shut down, their website has followed the same fate. It's been a couple of days now.

Wonder if the two are related or it's some technical problem.

Update (March 12): Never mind, it's back on. I'm gald.

They do it again!

Everytime they are presented with historical facts inconvenient to them, the guardians of Islam immediately discredit it, refuse to accept it & play the minority card. Something like this occurred in Chennai this time.

Francois Gautier was holding an exhibition named 'Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal records'. His organisation FACT has been doing remarkable work in bringing out facts about India & the oppression against Hindus. Now mind you, this exhibition was held on sound facts. Aurangazeb's own court records were used which show the means followed by him to propagate his faith. The records are an amazing account of him destroying Hindu temples, not repairing the damaged ones, discouraging fellow Muslims from taking interest in Hindus or Hinduism & the 'I kill if you don't agree' principle followed by him. But these facts were too inconvenient to be faced with. This exhibit, showing their Islamic forefathers in bad light, was unacceptable & they demanded it's closure. This closure was lead by local Muslim leaders of 'Makkal Urimai Kalazam' & the Nawab of Arkat. They feared this would disrupt communal harmony. Nice reason to force the police into action & cover up the facts.

Arguments from FACT suggesting that only historical records were used & not personal opinions, didn't placate the Muslim leaders. What's worse, the Chennai police arrested the exhibit organisers, when the Muslim leaders started the protest. Those exhibitors were only presenting the facts. Amazing, isn't it? It doesn't end there, the police have locked up the exhibition indefinitely & the organisers have no idea when will it be handed back. They do not have access to it. This puts important artifacts collected by FACT in jeopardy.

This is not the only occasion where Muslims have ignored facts about their history, it's been happening all along. Read this irrefutable article by Arun Shourie to know one more such occasion. Now where are all those freedom of expression crusaders? Should it be selective? Is it fair to suppress history? What's wrong with presenting the truth?

An Indian Frenchman

Francois Gautier, like most of you know, is very open about his fondness for India. He likes it so much that he married an Indian & has been living in our beloved country for the past 33 years.

I came across his works years ago when I read his columns on Rediff. Not being an Indian & not belonging to any particular Indian community helps him in being unbiased. I found his work to be that way. If you read most other Indian opinions, you'll see a certain bias/inclination at the cost of objectivity. More often than not, personal views/preferences come out through their works.

Mr. Gautier has been working to bring out the facts about India & it's history. He has started a foundation called FACT, that holds exhibitions to achieve this. Some of them can be seen here. He has taken these exhibitions around the world & has tried bringing out the truth about India's history. Some of the exhibitions were on the Kashmir situation, Shivaji the great Maratha warrior, the truth about Aurangazed & have been greatly appreciated. In the last one, he has used actual facts to bring out the truth about how Aurangazeb sought to spread his empire & faith. His own court records say so. Read this to know the truth. It's surprising, even baffling to know, in the face of all this proof, some of the Hindu bashers still continue to do so blindly. You should criticize Hindus & Hinduism for all that's bad, the Sati tradition, dowry etc. But also acknowledge the truth & see what was done to it. Not everything is bad about the Hindu faith.

It's strange to know how the fact is different from what we've learned or known through popular readings & media. The mainstream media & it's rhetorical ilk often obfuscate the truth. In their penchant for sensation & high TRPs, true journalism is the victim. His works are worth reading. Going through his columns, you'll realise that he has read extensively on India, it's history & it's traditions. Most of us have not done that. Our knowledge of history is based primarily on our school education, which we all know is not entirely fair. Like this article says, the English did it wrong. But we are blessed today with a French journalist who is undoing the injustice meted out to our glorious tradition. One of us should have done this long ago, but we should lend support to his work & help spread the facts.