The swastika: A story of perversion and misuse

Recently, a friend from college, who is poised to enter the hallowed corridors of post-MBA greatness and sell his soul to corporate giants,  suddenly came up with the confession that he wanted to get a swastika tattoo. This unexpected choice led to a pregnant pause, followed by questions of 'why' and whether he was aware of its implications in this age of travel bans.

Clearly, he had not anticipated such responses from us and was silent for a bit and then exclaimed: "It's not like I am a neo-Nazi!"

This discussion turned out to be the perfect lead to research on the juxtaposition of the swastika that Indians have grown up seeing worshipped around us to the international hatred that a mere mention of it evokes.

Growing up, I have seen the swastika everywhere. My grandmother drew it in the puja ghar every day while chanting mantras from the Vedas, the Durga mandap uses it every year as a decoration motif, and newly-wed bahus draw it on the walls of her sasuraal upon her first arrival. So, when I first studied about Adolf Hitler and the symbol of his nationalist party in school, I was shocked.

In Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, he wrote: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle."

Very soon, the swastika became the Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party's symbol that went on to become the face of anti-Semitism in Europe.

US graphic designer Steven Heller, in his book Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption wrote, "Coca-Cola used it. Carlsberg used it on their beer bottles. The Boy Scouts adopted it and the Girls' Club of America called their magazine Swastika."

As a precocious kid and an indignant teen, I remember feeling this strange anger towards Hitler, particularly because he stole the swastika. The swastika was not his to use, misuse and then defile!

A Masters student at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, who did not wish to be named, said, "The world knows very little of the swastika's Indian roots. It is a very important motif within Hindu culture and from temples to shops to houses to roadside shrines, the swastika can be spotted everywhere in India and in Nepal. In fact, it is synonymous with Hindu culture."

Then what prompted Hitler to use the symbol? German scholars, for centuries, have traced back their Aryan roots to the Indian subcontinent. This, however, held special significance to Hitler. His obsession with the purity of races and insistence that Germans were descendants of the Aryans made the swastika a favourable choice for his party.

"It was a time of growing nationalism in Germany. Incomes were running low and so was self-confidence and faith in the Reich. A generation of people lacking leadership and motivation quickly latched onto the growing tide of nationalism and Hitler's version of racism and thus began the perversion of the swastika," said Tuhina Sen, a PhD student of History.

It is interesting to note here that the swastika had uses in Indian nationalism as well. During the British Raj, Indian freedom fighters often used the swastika and the 'om' symbols to instil faith and courage among people to stand up against the firangs.

However, between 1939 and 1945, at least six million European Jews were killed by Hitler's Nazi soldiers and the whole world began to hate the swastika after it became synonymous with the genocide. People still get offended even if it's a brown skin using vermillion to draw a swastika for religious purposes.

Abhinanda Bhattacharya, a student of History at the Oxford University, said, "As students of History, my classmates and I are aware of the various interpretations of the swastika. However, when a friend saw a framed swastika in my very Indian, very religious house, she was taken aback. The look of shock was quite obvious. No kidding."

Unfortunately, there is very little that can be done to reclaim the swastika, apart from proudly using it as a symbol of faith, strength and unity and hoping for a spiritual victory some day when the embers of Hitler's hatred finally cools off.

(The writer is a freelance journalist vacillating between happy and blah)