Posted on 03/29/2009 1:52:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In The National, Pankaj Mishra is dyspeptic about partition, which has led both India and Israel into a "moral wilderness" of nationalism. (I do wish he'd pointed out that the Pakistanis got a state, the Palestinians didn't.) He says in spite of "fierce PR," India's democracy has a scary underbelly, a long tradition of Hindu nationalism, now ascendant:
Reverence for Adolf Hitler – who is hailed as a hero in textbooks in the Hindu nationalist-ruled state of Gujarat, while Mein Kampf remains popular at bookstores – is one of the many sinister aspects of “rising” India today. This cult of Hitler as a great “patriot” and “strategist” grew early among middle-class Hindus. MS Golwalkar, the much-revered Hindu leader and ideologue, wrote in 1938 that Nazi Germany had manifested “race pride at its highest” by purging itself of the “Semitic races” – and yet Golwalkar was also an admirer of Zionism.
This simultaneous veneration of Hitler and Israel may appear a monstrous moral contradiction to Europeans or Americans who see Israel as the homeland of Jewish victims of Nazi crimes. However, such distinctions are lost on the Hindu nationalists, who esteem Nazi Germany and Israel for their patriotic effort to cleanse their states of alien and potentially disloyal elements, and for their militaristic ethos. Many Indians and other colonised peoples hoped for Nazi Germany and Japan to at least undermine, if not defeat, the British Empire. My grandfather was among the Indians with a misplaced faith in Germany’s military capacity. He would have been horrified by the facts of the Holocaust if he had encountered them. But like so many Hindu nationalists, his main political anxiety during those years after the Second World War was whether Mother India would be partitioned into two countries; the subsequent creation of Pakistan as a separate state for Indian Muslims pushed all other historical traumas, especially those of distant Europe, out of view.
All the crimes hitler committed, he appeared to commit for the sake of his own country(in his mind at least). So I can see how people far removed from europe would see hitler as some kind of fatalistic hero.
Hitler had a special affection for Hinduism. His vegetarianism was an outgrowth of his fascination with all things Hindu.
And ancient India was the only place that Jews never faced anti-Semitism when they settled there.
Not exactly, “(Hindu’s) individuality always impressed me as gabbling pomposities without any realistic background.” AH
In WWII there were many Indians who fought with the British, in Asia, North Africa, and Italy, and with their blood and sweat they helped make India independent. However, many people in India looked down on them because they are too shortsighted.
Destruction Of Hindu Temples By Muslims http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html ISLAM NAZI TIES http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/amin_en.html#part1
Many years ago I had occasion to travel in India, on business, for the first and only time. It was a very pleasant but eye-opening experience.
Imagine my surprise at seeing these signs on trucks and other places. Finally I asked about it, and was assured just as you say. This symbol means something much different to Indians than it does to us!
arabs got eastern Israel-Jordan
This is a lie perpetuated by the anti-Hindu press in India (most of the MSM). The said text-book was introduced under the previous Congress government and happened to be edited by a Muslim. The BJP had nothing to do with it. This statement does not appear frequently in Gujarat itself once the facts came out, but nationally is trotted out every election, to obtain funds from gullible "charities". The MSM doen not see the need to correct itself.For the record, there is a text-book "board" which is composed of educatioinists and not pols.
And a reading of the said paragraph doen not give the impression that "Hitler was a hero for killing Jews". It merely states the fact that Hitler ordered their extermination.
The whole aim of this statement is to demonise the current CM of Gujarat who is immensely popular with the people for his efficiency and his incorruptibility. And has no time for liberals. And he actually admires Israel and is a frequent visitor, applying Israeli drip-irrigation techniques to turn Gujarat's deserts green. In fact it is the "Hindu nationalists" aka BJP which first invited Moshe Dayan to India in 1978 and then officially invited the Israeli PM on a state visit when they came to power a decade ago.
Consider the source and you will understand their motives.
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