Francois Gautier
François Gautier was born in Paris. In the early eighties, he began freelancing in India for different publications and finally ended-up being the correspondent in South Asia, for the Geneva-based « Journal de Geneve », then one of the best international newspapers in Europe. In 1993, he switched to Figaro, one of France’s leading newspapers for which he worked exclusively for eight years. He also started writing regular columns for Indian newspapers, first in Blitz Bombay, then in the Hindustan Times, later came the ‘Ferengi’s column” in the Indian Express, then the “French Connection” column in the Pioneer, as well as regular contributions for Rediff., New Indian Express, Dainik Jagran, etc.
François has written several books: Un autre Regard sur l’Inde” (Editions du Tricorne, Geneva-Paris), which has been reprinted thrice and for which he was invited in May 2000 to ‘Bouillon de Culture’, France’s most prestigious TV literary programme; “Arise O India” (Har Anand) 1999, “A Western journalist on India” (Har-Anand 2001), “India’s Self Denial (Editions Auroville Press, 2001), “Swami, moine hindou et PDG (Editions Delville, Paris, 2003, 8000 copies sold) “Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a guru of Joy” (India Today Book Club, 2003; 11 reprints, 60.000 copies sold). La Caravane Intérieure (Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2005). A New History of India (Har Anand, 2008).
Francois is now the editor in chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l’Inde (lesbelleslettres.com) and a director of a book collection on India with the same publisher. Francois is married to an Indian from Delhi, Namrita and shuttles between Pondichery, Bangalore and Delhi.
Francois, along with his wife Namrita, is also the trustee founder of FACT-India, which does exhibitions and commissions films documenting Human Rights abuse in South Asia. Amongst them: an exhibition on the persecuted minorities of Bangladesh, another one on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits (which was shown to the US Congress in 2005), a film on the trauma of 1947 and another one on the testimonies of the Mumbai train bombings of 2006.
