Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
My name is François Gautier I’m a Frenchman, catholic born and raised, and I’m a supporter of Hindutva.
What is Hindutva? It could be said it is the political idealism of the Hindus, one of the most tolerant and persecuted people in the world. I defend Hindus as a writer and a journalist, because behind Hinduism there is an eternal spirituality that is universal in nature: vasudhaiva kutumbhakam, “the world is one family”.
Today, when the planet’s two largest monotheist religions still believe that their God is the only true one, and that it is their duty to convert humanity to this true God, either by coercion or financial bait, Hinduism, has from time immemorial, believed that the Divine, He or She, manifests at different times, with different names, and different scriptures.
Thus, a Hindu is capable of entering a mosque, or a church, without thinking that he or she is committing a sin. The reverse is not true.
This is why every persecuted religious minority in the world found refuge in India: from the Christian Syrians, the first Christian community that fled Arabia, to the Armenians running away from the Turkish genocide, the Parsis butted out from Iran, the Jews who found in India the only country in the world where they were not persecuted, to the Tibetans today, who have recreated a mini Tibet in India around their leader, the Dalai Lama, after fleeing the persecution of the Chinese.
I, as a white man, a journalist, a foreigner, have always experienced total freedom in India: I have never been mugged, as it can happen to you in the suburbs of Washington, my papers have never been asked in the street by policemen, as it can occur to the non-Caucasian in the metro in Paris, and I have been able to write freely, even criticising the government.
Thus, it breaks my heart and makes me angry when I see conferences such as the one that just happened in the United States, comparing Hindutva to Nazism, Narendra Modi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of India, to Hitler, or Hindu organisations to the Taliban.
There is absolutely no comparison: anybody who lives in India can vouch for it. The fact that this conference was timed to happen on the anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks of 2001 is also absolutely scandalous.
I have lived in this country for 40 years, and travelled extensively from the extreme South of India to the Chinese border in Arunachal Pradesh, and I have NEVER found a people who are so friendly, open, and tolerant.
It is my belief that not only India will become the spiritual leader of the world, as Swami Vivekananda or Sri Aurobindo predicted, but that it will also become an economic, political, military, and geopolitical superpower, a friend and ally of the West and the democratic world, because contrary to China, it kept its spirituality alive, thanks to the people that are called the Hindus.
Thus, you can call me a soldier of Hindutva - if you wish.
