Swastika is not Hitler’s chosen symbol, so why should Hindus take blame for it?

The Indian swastika absolutely had nothing to do with the German Nazis and their crimes whatsoever

There is a constant attempt by the Western media to malign the Indian swastika symbol, auspicious to the Indics (Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains), by associating it with Hitler and the Nazis. Such is the impact of this constant maligning that we get to read regular news of the symbol’s removal from various institutions, flags, artwork, etc.

Here there are two aspects at work — first one being the “white man’s burden” of relegating all so-called evil things to the only surviving ancient pagan and polytheistic form of religion, Hinduism. The Western world’s belief is that Christianity being a ‘white man’s religion’ is superior, hence can do no wrong. The second aspect of this constant association of Hitler/Nazi with the Hindu symbol swastika is an attempt at breaking down the friendly ties between Israel and India. The first aspect being the more dominant reason, this article will explore why Hitler’s hakenkreuz is not swastika, why the symbol was chosen by Hitler, and how the Sanskrit term swastika was forcibly imposed on the hooked cross and Western swastika like designs.

Swastika in ancient India

The antiquity of swastika goes long back into history where it started its journey from the prehistoric era. It is a universal symbol seen in all ancient civilisation-cultures across the world and still remains as a living tradition across many nations in various forms, and especially in India among the Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists as part of their religious rituals. Owing to its widespread presence across the ancient civilisations, and later modifications to suit the new religious orders, swastika has a variety of meanings associated with it.

The Vedas by itself have associated various meanings to the swastika where we find that in the Rig Veda 10.35 swastika is associated with Agni, and with the Sun’s movement upholding the law of Dharma or righteousness. In ancient Indian architectural sciences known as Vastusashtra, two swastikas facing each other create a square, which forms the square mandala of the Vastu Purusha. Similarly, swastika is also associated with a crossed vajra (sign of thunderbolt–in RV 3.30.16 and 3.58) seen in the hands of deities; the symbol is also related to the four cardinal directions; is linked with the lunar power, female principle and new life; associated with astronomy; Vishnu pada; etc.

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that swastika is most likely man created first graphic symbol representing an idea, which holds a clear intention and meaning, transcends all barriers of languages, and the knowledge of which was passed across generations following ancient oral traditions while maintaining continuity within changes across the world. Thus, swastika is a symbolic manifestation of existence, which is entwined with cosmic natural forces and is based on the theory of dynamism.

The Sanskrit word swastika has its root in ‘As’, forming the word Asti, which means existing, being, or the essence of existence. The other word ‘Su means good, well-being, or benign; and the two together gives us Swasti, which means a valued existence, or the essential self-sustaining dharma or righteousness.

Hindu Swastika. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

This enigmatic symbol, as Edward Thomas tells us in his ‘The Indian Swastika and Its Western Counterparts’ (1880) paper, points to the primitive notions of a symbolic representation of the sun’s movements, associated with wheel like projections of the sun rays and its rolling movements (swastika motif started its journey as a crossbar inside a circle denoting sun’s movements). Interestingly, Vishnu Purana (ref: Wilson’s translation, v. ii, pp. 246-7) also compares the sun’s movements to that of a wheel. Rig Veda too refers to the sun’s movements as a wheel, “He the impeller, the chief of charioteers (Pushan), ever urges on that golden wheel for the sun” and “the twelve wheeled spoke of the true sun revolves around the heavens and never decays …” (ref: Rig Veda–Wilson’s translation ii p. 130).

Verse 10.35 in Rig Veda portrays the cyclic movement of Agni (Swastagni), and the entire sutra goes on describing the Sun’s movement holding the “wheel” of dharma (Cosmic causation and law) standing for what is right and auspicious for all living beings. While the oldest ever found swastika is said to have been found in the Ukraine and is believed to have been dated sometime between 10,000 and 13,000 BCE, it is India that first used swastika as a religious symbol.

Swastika seals from the Harappan culture. Image courtesy Monidpa Bose Dey

It is interesting to note here that in Rig Veda 3.30.16 and 3.58, the swastika is shown to stand for the crossed double vajra or vi?vavajra, symbolising thunderbolt, which was later copied to create the Greek cross Fleury.

Western form of Swastika and pseudo-science of Europe

With the swastika having a wide range of distribution it is difficult to pinpoint any one particular point of origin, and swastika-like designs were found across many ancient cultures spread globally. The oldest ones found were from Ukraine, where swastika-like patterns were seen carved on mammoth ivory tusks found in the Mezine Village. Dating back to the Ice Age, these are believed to be roughly twenty thousand years BP (before present). The ancient Chaldeans, who were initially located in the southeastern corner of Mesopotamia (9th to mid-6th centuries BCE–the proto Celtic phase in Europe), in their studies of what is now termed as the astronomical sciences, started drawing the sun as a circular outline, which soon had a four wheel or a cross inserted within it. This crossbar later evolved and elaborated to form the new swastika like designs that we are more familiar with now.

Triskelion of the Chaldeons- another form of Swastika denoting the cosmic movements. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

From ancient America to ancient Greece the swastika like symbol was present, and referred to by various names. As for example, the Greek one was known as gammadion, because its arms were of the same shape as the letter gamma, and it was seen on the chest of Apollo, where a theory is held that the symbol could be “a monogram of Zeus, the figure consisting of two Z’s placed cross-wise.”

Before the cross became the only symbol of the Christ in Christianity, the swastika like symbol was in wide use among Christians, and was known as the Gamma Cross or Crux Gammata/ Gammadion. In fact, the Gamma Cross was frequently found on tombs of saints/ martyrs, on cups and utensils until the 2nd -3rd century CE; and it is believed by archaeologists that the Gamma Cross most likely stood for the monogram of Jesus, where Christ’s name was spelled Zesus, which was abbreviated into two crossed Z’s.

Various types of the Christian crosses. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

Various types of the Christian crosses. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

Four Swastika like symbols around a cross in the Church of Jesus, Denmark. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

The Swastika-like symbol in the Western world with its variety of names and meanings was an auspicious symbol from prehistoric times, which unfortunately got associated with racial bias and genocidal crimes from 19th-20th century. This was owing to the focused efforts of racial scholars and anthropologists, when they made it into a symbol of racial purity by linking it with the mythical Aryan race. Thus a link was derived between the “ancient pureblooded conquerors” and modern white Europeans, and soon the term swastika became a part of the propaganda, even though Hitler never used the term swastika himself. However, in the hands of the social racial scientists the swastika symbol and term took on a very sinister meaning- the pure Aryan German community.

When in 1871 archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the epic city of Troy on the Aegean coast of Turkey, he also found innumerable forms and designs of the swastika among the ruins; and soon the symbol became famous and was used in various commercial ads and military uniforms as a good luck sign. However, as its fame spread, the swastika symbol unfortunately also got associated with the mythical Aryan race, and this is clear from what British linguist Archibald Sayce had said in 1896, “The antiquities unearthed by Dr. Schliemann at Troy acquire for us a double interest… They carry us back to the later stone ages of the Aryan race.

At first the term “Aryan” was not racial, and was used to denote the Indo-European language group, by a group of linguistics who felt they were similarities among the Latin, Greek, German, and Sanskrit languages. Language study was then still a relatively new field, and when eugenics and racial hygiene theories (also new ideas back then) were integrated into it, it led to the corrupt and mythical theory of connecting ancient pure Aryans to the contemporary Germans. As the Washington Post had reported in an article about the Nazis prior to the World War II, “[Aryanism]… was an intellectual dispute between bewhiskered scholars as to the existence of a pure and undefiled Aryan race at one stage of the earth’s history.” (Ref: Smithsonian magazine, “The Man who brought the Swastika to Germany”).

In the 19th century, French nobleman Arthur de Gobineau along with others connected the mythical Aryans with the Germans, wherein the latter was said to be descendants of the superior pureblooded ancient Aryans; hence destined to lead the world to a better future by conquering other nations. This mythical social theory soon coloured the archaeological findings of Schliemann’s dig in Turkey, and the swastika symbol was arbitrarily turned into a “purely Aryan symbol” associated with German superiority. Thus, the artifacts from the Turkey dig were seen as “evidence for racial continuity and proof that the inhabitants of the site had been Aryan all along,” as Gwendolyn Leick, an anthropologist, tells us.

Furthermore, as Leick adds, “The link between the swastika and Indo-European origin, once forged was impossible to discard. It allowed the projection of nationalist feelings and associations onto a universal symbol, which hence served as a distinguishing boundary marker between non-Aryan, or rather non-German, and German identity.”

Soon German nationalist groups like the Reichshammerbund (a 1912 anti-Semitic group) and the Bavarian Freikorps (paramilitarists and an anti-establishment group aiming to remove the Weimar Republic in Germany) used the symbol swastika to show themselves as a master race. Thus, a symbol traditionally seen in the ancient world as a symbol of good fortune, was usurped for dark purposes, thanks to fake social ‘scientists.’

Indian swastika and swastika like motifs from across the world (the Western swastikas each had their own names), as for example, in Great Britain the common name for the Swastika like symbol in the Anglo-Saxon times was Fylfot; the French called it as Croix gamm?e or Gammadion, Croix cramponn?e, Croix patt?e, Croix ? crochet; in Scandinavia it was sometimes referred to as the hammer of Thor. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

Sanskrit being the new language in fashion in Europe in those days (18th-19th centuries), the so called “social scientists,” latched the Sanskrit term swastika onto the symbol, despite complaints from Heinrich Schliemann himself, who had visualized the future problem and said, “I do not like the use of the word svastika outside of India. It is a word of Indian origin and has its history and definite meaning in India…The occurrence of such crosses in different parts of the world may or may not point to a common origin, but if they are once called Svastika the vulgus profanum will at once jump to the conclusion that they all come from India, and it will take some time to weed out such prejudice.”

The Hooked cross as chosen by Hitler

When the Western form of “swastika” was being turned into an integral part of German nationalism, Adolf Hitler came into the limelight of German politics. In 1920, he decided to adopt a similar symbol, known as hakenkruez or the hooked cross, as the Nazi party symbol. As Steven Heller tells us in his book The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption? And Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State, “He was attracted to it because it was already being used in other nationalist, racialist groups.” Hitler instinctively understood the need for a powerful image (like the communist hammer and sickle) for capturing public eyes and minds.

As Hitler says in his book, Mein Kamp, After innumerable trials, I settled upon a final form: a flag having a red background, with a white disc in it, bearing on its centre a black hooked cross. After much searching, I decided upon the proper proportions between the size of the flag and that of the white disc, and the form and thickness of the cross; and it has remained so ever since. Armbands, also of the same, were at once ordered for the men of the bodies for keeping order — red with a white disc and a hooked cross in it. The new flag first appeared in public in the middle of the summer of 1920″ (Translated by E.T.S. Dugdale, 1931).

To make this hooked cross a prominent symbol of Nazi power, Joseph Goebbels (minister in charge of Nazi propaganda) passed a law in May 1933 that made unauthorized use of the hooked cross symbol illegal; and soon propaganda films were made that featured the symbol prominently and made it synonymous with Hitler, as a form of brainwashing. The Church lent its support to the use of the Hakenkreuz, and drew its similarities with the Christian cross, wherein Hahn (a powerful leader of the Lutheran Church of Hanover), said: “The cross of Christ and the [Hakenkreuz] do not need to oppose each other, and must not do so, but rather they can and should stand together. One should not dominate the other, but rather each should maintain its own meaning and significance…Both together, however, the cross of Christ and the [Hakenkreuz], admonish us: Remember that you are German Christian people and should become ever more whole German Christian people, and remain so!”

This support by the Church for the Nazi Germany was made official during the 1933 Reich Concordat, a treaty negotiated and signed by the Vatican and the rising German Nazis, which gave the latter official support of the Church, a legitimacy to carry on with its activities, and the much needed credibility.

Hakenkreuz or hooked cross at the Benedictine monastery, Lambach Austria. It is here Hitler had studied as a child and had first seen the cross, which he later adopted as his symbol. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

Swastika like symbols termed as Crux Gammata were very much part of Christianity. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

Here the main point is that Hitler was aware of the pseudo social scientists and their fake Aryan racial theory and approved it, yet he did not use the term the swastika, and referred to the symbol he used as the hooked cross, clearly linking it to Christ, the Church, and German Christians.

Now enters a British hand in the intentional mistranslation of hooked cross to swastika. It was in the translation of Hilter’s book Mein Kampf by the British translator James Murphy (1939), where the writer delinked the Christian symbol and mischievously put in the term Swastika for hooked cross, thus linking it to the Indian swastika and turning it into a symbol of perpetual hate towards the auspicious Indic symbol. Thus, the 19th century pseudo social scientists with their mythical theory of Aryan racial superiority, and the later translation by James Murphy made irreparable damages to an auspicious Indic symbol that in reality had nothing to do with Hitler, Nazis, or any of their heinous crimes.

So the question here is why should Hindus-Indics face this continual hatred for their beloved symbol, just because few fake European scholars had created some mythical theory out of the blue, or an English translator deliberately mistranslated Hitler’s Mein Kampf? It is high time the western world acknowledges their own mistakes and crimes and takes the blame for those, instead of passing it on to the Indians. It is also high time the western world study history, learn about their own forms of swastika like symbols which were a part of their ancient cultures that existed before Christianity was born (from where the symbol was appropriated by Christians later on), before randomly removing swastika like symbols without any rhyme or reason and adding the tag Indian/Hindu/ Buddhist swastika before the name.

The Germans were very much aware of the Hakenkreuz used by Hitler as evident from these books. The second image is of a 2001 German scholarly work that discusses the Third Reich in Germany during the 1920s. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

The Germans were very much aware of the Hakenkreuz used by Hitler as evident from these books. The second image is of a 2001 German scholarly work that discusses the Third Reich in Germany during the 1920s. Image courtesy Monidipa Bose Dey

The Indian swastika was always different from the Western swastika-like symbols in its meanings and religious uses, and it did not have any links with the Christian hooked cross, which was chosen by Hitler as his symbol. The Indian swastika absolutely had nothing to do with the German Nazis and their crimes whatsoever.

The author is a well-known travel and heritage writer. Views expressed are personal.

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