Art of Looking the other Way -- Francois Gautier

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Each line in this article is worth it's weight in gold. Of course Francois Gautier has done extensive research on ancinet Indian civilization, so when he says about India it carries weight devoid of any prejudice about Indic traditions. Given so much hoo-haa about Arvind Adigas and other assorted Indian poverty sellers of todays, this old article becomes more relevant.

op-ed Pioneer Francois Gautier Those who select the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize suffer from selective amnesia about India and its ancient knowledge and traditions. Hence the winner is not an Indian In a remarkable book, L'oubli de l'Inde (Amnesia of India), French philosopher and journalist Roger-Pol Droit recounts how till the 19th century Europe's admiration for Indian philosophy and spirituality was boundless, particularly in France and Germany, both terra franca of philosophical thought. He explains how, for instance, French philosopher Pierre Sonnerat had written in the 18th century: "Ancient India gave to the world its religions and philosophies: Egypt and Greece owe India their wisdom and it is known that Pythagoras went to India to study under Brahmins, who were the most enlightened of human beings." Or how German philosophers, such as Friedrich Schlegel, have said: "There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit." Nietzsche had read the Vedas, which he admired profoundly and thought that "Buddhism and Brahmanism are a hundred times deeper and more objective than Christianity". It was not only in the realm of philosophy that Europe admired India. American mathematician A Seindenberg wrote: "Arithmetic equations were used in the observation of the triangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods, discovered by Hindus inspired Pythagorean mathematics". Seventeenth century French astronomer Jean-Claude Bailly had already noticed that "the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of the Greeks or even the Egyptians and the movement of stars which was calculated by the Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differ from those used today by even one minute". When Nietzsche died in January 1889, the India of philosophy, of the Vedas and spirituality seemed to have disappeared with him from the consciousness of Europeans. Since then, Europe (and the United States) believe in what Droit calls "Helleno-Centrism", that all philosophical systems started with Greece and there was nothing worth the name before the Greeks. The two main culprits for this amnesia of India in Europe, thinks Pol Droit, are the British colonisers and the Christian missionaries.:giggle: How could the English, they who had come to civilise the 'heathens', admit that their culture was derived from these very savages?:agree: And how could the missionaries, they who had come to bring the 'true god' to the Pagans, acknowledge that their own religion may have been influenced by the latter, as Jesus Christ is supposed to have come to India to study Hinduism and Buddhism? What has this got to do with the Nobel Peace Prize, you may ask? Well, first, one has to understand the minds of the Nobel Peace Prize committee members: When they award prizes, they are necessarily influenced by a Christian vision of the world. For, as most Europeans, they have been brought-up in the belief that democracy and philosophy started with Greece and that a humane civilisation began with Jesus Christ. And, of course, they have a covert -- or at best unconscious -- suspicion, if not of India at least of Hindus, who for them remain Pagans, which the missionaries of yesteryears, and unfortunately those of today too, have created in the minds of many Westerners. How can they then give Peace Prize to a Hindu? Among those Indians most nominated in the last few years is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Art of Living. Sri Sri is not only involved with charity in India's villages, he also promotes pesticide and fertiliser-free farming, takes orphans from Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East into his ashram, and his volunteers do relief work, both at the physical and psychological level -- whether in Bihar during the floods, in Iraq or in the US during the recent cyclone. Sri Sri is also trying to revive the ancient Vedic tradition by training young priests in a gurukul, which blends ancient knowledge with modern thought, while promoting ayurveda as the medicine of the 21st century. There is only one problem: Sri Sri is a Hindu. In the same way the Nobel judges ignored Sri Aurobindo, India's extraordinary yogi, poet, revolutionary, and philosopher and France is yet to acknowledge that one of the great figures of the 20th century was his spiritual companion, Mira Alfassa, the 'Mother'. Will Sri Sri ever get the Nobel then? Maybe his manifold work confuses the judges. For, if you analyse all recent Nobel Peace Prize recipients, you will see that they were crowned for their work which carries only one label. Sri Sri is not bothered and goes on with his work. As he gains fame in the West, he helps erase the amnesia about India and revive admiration and thirst for Sri Sri's knowledge.

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[Guest dada_rocks]

Here is eself-loather Ramchandra Guha suggesting Shri Shrui Ravi shankar must not be given nobel peace prize.. Nobel Longings After my talk, a lady comes up and introduces herself as a doctor, and an advisor to the Peace Institute. The names I had mentioned were all very good, she said, but surely it was time that the peace prize went to an Indian? She mentions the name of a fellow townsman of mine, a man who has grown long hair, given himself four fancy initials (HH/SS), and whose name is also that of a very great exponent of the sitar. The Norwegian doctor had heard that this man had brought peace to Kashmir, and had promoted organic agriculture in thousands of Indian villages. She had been asked to promote his candidacy for the prize, and indeed the man himself had been to Oslo several times recently. She asked me if I would give my opinion on the matter. I answered that so far as I knew, there was no peace in Kashmir. I observed that what the West refers to as ‘organic farming’ we knew as rain-fed agriculture—and that it is nothing new. Where there was no canal water and where they had little capital, millions of Indian farmers had, for the past thousands of years, grown crops without the use of any chemicals (and without any spiritual counselling) whatsoever. somebody should ask this idiot Gandhiji didn't invent non-violence either.. it has been there in hindu scriptures since ages.. so it's not about new invention after all nbel comiittee is not awarding patents. It's about popularizing somethign which we all consider so obvious yet ignore it.. Guha continues Finally, I suggested to the doctor that if not giving Gandhi the prize was a scandal, awarding it to my fellow townsman would be an even bigger scandal