Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Be Mature, Save ‘Swastika’

Posted : January 23, 2005 at 12:00 pm [IST]

Swastika -one of the most popular religious symbols of fortunes used in all Hindu religious rituals in India- has become these days a subject of controversy in EU and UK. The European Union has called for a Europe-wide ban of the symbol. Europeans are afraid because of its association with Nazis. Thousand of years of positive Hindu association with Swastika, the most famous irregular icosagon or 29-sided polygon, is of no significance to the Europeans. They are so much afraid of Hilter’s ghost and Swastika’s 70- year old link with him. No one in the West is ready to associate the symbol with Hindu ideology and as a positive symbol of cosmos. Hindus in Britain have launched a campaign to reclaim the Swastika from its Nazi-past. All these years, I kept arguing with my friends about its origin in abstract geometric art of our intelligent ancient seers. It might have evolved to represent Ganesh, the elephant god or ‘Om’.

Derived from the Sanskrit ’swast’, denoting wellness or health, the swastika is an auspicious sign, found in books of accounts as well as on the threshold of homes and on signboards of pharmacies, symbolizing physical, social and economic well-being. Ancient Mesopotamian coins also bear the imprints of swastika.

The right-hand or clockwise, swastika represents the seeming passage of the sun across the sky in the northern hemisphere from east to west. In Jainism, it also stands for the seventh Tirthankar, as well as being a reminder of the four possibilities of rebirth, in hell, on Earth, or in the realm of the spirit. The left-hand swastika is emblematic of night, occult forces and he goddess Kali.

The swastika, known as the ‘cruxgammata’, occurs in early Christianity iconography. The Mayan civilization of Central America had its own version of swastika, as did North American peoples like the Navajo.

In 1910, a German nationalist proposed it a logo for anti-Semitism, a suggestion taken up by the National Socialists when they formed their party a decade later. The symbol was incorporated in the flag of Nazi Germany in 1935.And that has made it a ghost for European and a bad sign.

I have a different opinion. Europeans, particularly Germans had been the pioneers in providing the immense knowledge about the rich ancient literary and philosophical works of India to the West. Some of them must have influenced Hitler to use ‘Swastika’.

Why can’t the Europeans understand the deep rooted attachment of Hindus with this symbol? They can visit India and its remote villages. They can find it being used during rituals of all kinds.
Why can’t the Government of India take up the issue with EUgovernment? Is it our great secular policy that stops us from talking about it on government level? Is Swastika not linked with our culture and history?

How does a national pride react to such an issue?

- Indra

Category: Religious/Social issues |