Soccer secularism

quot;Vive la Francequot; long live France. The French did it: they won both the World Cup and the European Championship, which no coun...

quot;Vive la Francequot; long live France. The French did it: they won both the World Cup and the European Championship, which no country had done before. And what is remarkable is that it was done by a team whose players are of vastly different origins: French, but also African, Algerian, Armenian? However, what united them beyond all is that they were playing for their country: France. And truly, France may be one of the first nations to succeed in the integration of their mostly Muslim minorities.

Players like Thierry Henry, the most outstanding player of the French team 8212; and indeed of the whole tournament 8212; is of African origin. And the brilliance of his game, the calm manner he had when he was fouled at every moment, his lucidity in post-games interviews and his gentleness, have impressed everybody and made the French proud. Like him, singers, writers, poets, sportsmen of Algerian, Tunisian or Moroccan origin, but who have today adopted France as their country, are giving a new impetus to the French language and to its culture. This is true secularism: to put your country above your religion and to accept that there is but one God.

It was also great to see how much support there was in India for France 8212; before and after the final: quot;You are French? Hope your team will winquot;? Delhiites know about Zidane, President Chirac and good wine? One would hope that the reverse be true, that the French knew about ragas, Prime Minister Vajpayee, or Tendulkar? Unfortunately, the knowledge of the French about India is abysmal: Mother Teresa, the City of Joy, poverty, corruption, the untouchables? Ah, the untouchables, which is French journalists8217; favourite subject! Remember when President K.R. Narayanan went to France, the French Press only highlighted the fact that he was an untouchable, instead of remarking that it was a tribute to India8217;s social system that an untouchable had reached one of the most prestigious posts in the country.

And who is responsible for this ignorance of India 8212; nay, one should say for this deliberate will of keeping Frenchmen in ignorance of India 8212; but the quot;India specialistsquot; in France? It is they who constantly highlight, in long and tedious articles in French newspapers, or in official history books, the quot;despicable plight of untouchables in India at the hands of Brahminsquot;, or quot;the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in Indiaquot;.

Do you think that they influence only the thinking of the French public, or even the French media, which is mostly preoccupied with negative aspects of India like emphasising at the moment the plight of the quot;goodquot; Kashmirisquot; and the atrocities of the quot;badquot; Indian Army? Not at all, because in many ways they also shape the policy of the French Government, which happens to be socialist. Left-leaning institutions, such as the CNRS, National Center of Social Research, which has a very important and influential Indian section and like the JNU, is mostly subsidised by the state, have been known to advise the French Government that the BJP is quot;a fascist outfit and that France should avoid doing business with itquot;. As a result, France8217;s Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has not yet paid an official visit to India, as he should have done long ago.

How short-sighted on the part of those who are advising him! France not only lags behind the Americans, whose President visited the quot;rising giantquot; in Asia, but it may also miss on the unique opportunity to do good business in a country which is vastly more sympathetic to the French than to the Americans. Nevertheless, we8217;ll say it again, quot;Vive la Francequot; and hope that soon enough, the French will be able to say,quot;Vive l8217;Indequot;!?.