Why is Adolf Hitler popular in India?

[GBCW 397]

It doesn’t take long to realize that Hitler’s legacy in India greatly differs from that in the West. More removed from the traumas associated with World War II and the Holocaust, Indians approach Hitler from a distance not possible in societies where war veterans, Holocaust survivors and education about the war and its legacy are part of the national psyche.

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Indian education pays little attention to global events that aren’t focused on nationalism or freedom struggles. World War II is given only cursory treatment in schools. When she [Dr. Dasgupta, professor of European Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University, a private Indian university north of Delhi] decided to pursue studies on Eastern European Jewry, where the Holocaust figures prominently, she realized she lacked any foundation in the subject from her schooling in India.

“I had to start from scratch,” she said, adding that as a result there is a gap, “an ignorance of history.”

This ignorance, according to Jael Silliman, a member of Calcutta’s once-sizeable and prominent Jewish community, is what allows Indians to limit their opinion of Hitler to what they see as his positive attributes and discuss them without any of the stigma that surrounds Hitler in the West. Silliman believes that those Indians who admire Hitler do so because they view him as a post- World War I patriot who tried to rebuild his nation.

“Those who like Hitler, I know it has nothing to do with me and other Jews. It doesn’t bother me. I just think, oh God, you’re so ignorant.”

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Philipp Franz is a German exchange student from Munich studying law at O.P. Jindal Global University for the fall semester. Since leaving Germany – where Mein Kampf is banned and where he was raised and educated about the horrors of Nazism, he estimates he has had conversations with 25 different people, Indians of all ages from across the country, that invariably wind up being about Hitler. After discussing the recent World Cup, he says it’s the next subject to come up, and one he certainly wasn’t expecting to have come up in the way it has.

“They say ‘I like his kind of leadership.’ And the older people who say this, they know what happened. The 17-year-old in my hostel in his first year of university, okay, he might not know.”

Philipp’s impression, which Dr. Dasgupta confirms, is that there is a willingness to overlook Hitler’s most heinous acts, and be impressed by his “strength” as a leader.

“They are fascinated by the pomp and circumstances – the celebrity image of Hitler.”

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One of Philipp’s greatest challenges has been to try and dispel the notion that any good came from those displays of force and power. Instead, it is a struggle to impress upon Indians the fact that one should not weigh the pros and cons of Hitler – “it’s not appropriate.”

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Bahrisons bookstore, according to Singh, is confident that Mein Kampf’s message is not being taken to heart by those who read it. When asked if reading Mein Kampf might instil in readers negative attitudes toward Jews, Narayanan asked if I was kidding.

Stillman agrees. Anti-Semitism, she says, isn’t a factor at all in Hitler’s Indian popularity. She has never seen or experienced any form of it in India.

“I feel supremely secure in my Indian-Jewish identity. I feel beloved as a Jewish person in Calcutta.” She added, “Even when the Left here is being critical of Israel, there’s no element of anti-Semitism to it.”

In fact, her biggest concern over Mein Kampf’s popularity has nothing to do with anti-Semitism or Jewish identity.

Instead, she fears the book’s message can be abused by India’s rising Hindu nationalist movement. “[Mein Kampf] can be used to support a purist Hindu India where Muslims are persecuted.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Why-is-Adolf-Hitler-popular-in-India-376622

[Curmudgeon 227]

I don't know, why is Adolph Hitler popular in India? Is it because a lot of them believe their current father/brother/nephew/husband is his reincarnation?

[MyLittlePony 340]

Obama is the Adolf Hitler of our time.

[GandD 5,966]