[book excerpt]
Dear Hitler
Why
does 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 ( An extract from ‘Hindutva’s Second Coming’
by Subhash Gatade, www.mediahouse.online)
…………………………………………………………………….
..An innocent question
sometimes comes up with very troubling answer(s).
J'admire ( I admire)... a simple exercise
given to students to know from them whom they appreciate as a great historical
figure or a hero, became a great learning experience for a teacher who taught
French at a private school.
Writer and Journalist Dileep D'souza, who
has authored many books, and writes on social-political causes shared the
experience of his wife who posed the said question before them during a
discussion. What she was expecting that they would mention Gandhi or Bhagat
Singh or other luminaries of India's struggle for freedom and progress but none
of her predictions came true. There was a lone student whose choice was Mahatma
Gandhi but nine out of 25 students in her class admired Hitler as hero or as a
great historical figure.
Explaining his choice the 10 th grader
talked of Hitler's 'fantastic oratory', how he loved his country, how he was a
'great patriot' and how he helped restore 'a sense of pride' to Germany which
it had lost after the defeat in the first world war. He had not much sympathy
for the millions he slaughtered, his response to it seemed to rationalise it,
that 'some of them were traitors'.
Definitely it was not possible for her to
raise questions over this portrayal where an individual was being euologised as
a great ''patriot" who had led his country to a devastating war which led
to millions of deaths of his own country wo/men. How can his struggle be
construed as 'lifting the country from humiliation' when the deadly war
culminated in division of the country and required help from two big super
powers - namely USA and the erstwhile USSR - to rebuild it ? What is this 'self
esteem' which needs ethnic cleansing of millions of Jews - mostly legal
citizens of the same or neighbouring countries ?
There are n number of reports which tell
you that this particular school was no exception.
'Hitler's Cross' that was the name of a
new restaraunt which had come up in Navi Mumbai. It had caused a tremendous
uproar then which sort of forced the owner to change it . Commenting on this
episode late Praful Bidwai, the left wing journalist and anti-nuclear activist
had shared how Hitler's admirers can be spotted among the modern urban elite as
well which dominates corporate jobs, the professions and the administration.
And what he said about youth's opinion about Hitler is worth quoting in toto :
..[F]or
instance, applicants for admission to India’s top-rated college, St Stephen’s
College in Delhi, are asked at the final interview who’s their hero or
role-model. “A shocking 60 percent of the candidates say it’s Hitler”, college
principal Anil Wilson told IPS.
The
figure is astounding. The reason most students cite for their choice is
Hitler’s fierce nationalism: he gave Germany “self-esteem”, lifting it from the
humiliation heaped on it by the Versailles treaty; his butchery of six million
Jews was so much “collateral damage”...
A decade and half ago a poll by a leading
newspaper in elite educational institutions across the country had similarly
revealed how 17 per cent among them favoured Hitler as the kind of leader India
should have. The only saving grace was that Gandhi came first with 23 per cent
supporters, Atal Bihari Vajpayee - the then Prime Minister - came second with
22 per cent supporters.
In his writeup 'Hitler's Hindus : The
Rise and Rise of India's Nazi loving Nationalists' the author a digital
enterpreneur discusses how in present day India, Hitler’s brand of fascism has
taken on a distinctly Indian flavour, authenticated with a combination of
ethnic hatred and Hindu nationalism, in stark contrast to the principles of ahimsa
(non-violence) that accompanied India's freedom struggle. 8 Digging into social
media he says how it
..[r]eveals
that there is a large and growing community of Indian Hindu Nazis, who are
digitally connected to neo-Nazi counterparts across the world.
Other
social media sites and online platforms too had their share of strange, yet
fanatical admiration for Hitler, reframed with Hindu nationalism. "Hitler
was great," said "Hindu Hitler" on rediff.com, a popular Indian
web portal. "I too love Hitler and am one of his biggest fans! Hail
Hitler!" said one comment on a YouTube channel run by NewsX, a 24-hour
English-language news television channel in India. I also found India-based
WhatsApp groups discussing Hitler’s "positive contributions." They
portrayed him as Germany’s great leader, a "patriotic nationalist,"
who "punished the "traitors."
It could be argued that Indians are not
the only people who admire Hitler.
In a speech Philippines President Rodrigo
Duterte had likened himself to Hitler and said that he would "be
happy"" to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the
country. Remember within two months of assuming office more than 3,100 people
mostly alleged drug users and dealers, were killed in police operations and in
vigilante killings.9
It was only last year that the Japanese
Cabinet led by the Prime Minister Shizo Abe decided that 'Mein Kampf' is of
great educational value and can be used in nation's classrooms.10 What educational value it could figure out in its racist
diatribe can be a theme for investigation, a sample of which can be shared here
(quoting from Chapter 11, 'Race and People'
All
the great civilizations of the past became decadent because the originally
creative race died out, as a result of contamination of the blood.”
Or…
It
is certain that the first stages of human civilization were not based so much
on the use of tame animals as on the employment of human beings who were
members of an inferior race.”
When concerns were raised about this
controversial step it was revealed how in 2013 a deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso
had refused to resign when he was forced to withdraw his comments asking the
country to follow Nazi example in changing the constitution. Suggesting that
Japan needs to learn from Nazi party which had changed Germany’s constitution
before WWII before opposition was organized to prevent them. 10
"Foreign Policy' a journal from USA
had published a story detailing 'positive perspective on Hitler' in non-western
world. As opposed to his image of a mass
murderer and a racist bigot who yearned for world domination prevalent in the
western world, he is also seen as an “anti-imperialist rebel” due to his
nationalistic struggle against “Anglo-French-American-Zionist domination.” It
quotes the then President Mugabe who then happened to be Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old
strongman, comparing himself not only to Christ but to Hitler in a speech in
2003
“I
am still the Hitler of [this] time. This Hitler has only one objective: justice
for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of
his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let
me be Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for,”
No doubt Indian's love for Hitler is
uncomparable to the rest of the world.
Around ten years back attention of the West
was first drawn to this phenomenon when London’s Daily Telegraph, published an
article with a headline: “Indian
business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf”(20 April 2009)
Question arises why Hitler is so
'popular' in India - especially among middle and upper middle class youth,
professionals, etc ? And this despite the
fact that in his best seller book he specifically says that Indians are not
capable of self-rule and he would rather see them under British rule than
anyone else.
In his only visit to Hitler - during his
around two year stay in Germany - when he was trying to cobble up an army to
fight Britishers, the legendary freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose is
reported to have asked him to revise this portion from his book which sort of
denigrated Indians and glorified Britishers.
It is
a different matter that Hitler did not pay any heed to it…..
(Media House, 2019
Pages 272
(http://www.mediahouse.online/product/hindutvas-second-coming/)
