01-20-2007, 09:08 PM
Rajaram's press release on banning the swastika
Statement to the media
LEAVE SWASTIKA, BAN RACE THEORIES
German initiative to ban the swastika is a meaningless
gesture that leaves untouched the greater evil of Nazi
era academic race theories.
N.S. Rajaram
In a fit of self-righteousness, Germany, which holds
the rotating presidency of the European Union, has
announced that it will make Holocaust denial
punishable in the member states of the EU, including a
ban on Nazi symbols like the swastika. Unfortunately,
the Honorable Justice Minister, who has come out with
the proposal has got both his history and his
priorities wrong. If he is serious about banning the
evil of racism, he should leave the Indian sacred
symbol alone and ban the teaching of Nazi era race
theories that continue to flourish in Western academia
in various guises.
It is important to note that Hitler and the Nazis
appropriated their ideas and symbols from European
mythology, not India. Hitler's Aryans worshipped
Apollo and Odin, not Vedic deities like Indra and
Varuna. His so-called swastika was not really the
swastika, but 'Hakenkreuz' or the hooked cross, which
has no counterpart in India. It appeared in Germany
for the first time when General von Luttwitz's
notorious Erhardt Brigade marched into Berlin from
Lithuania in support of the abortive Kapp Putsch of
1920. The Erhardt Brigade was one of several
freebooting private armies during the chaotic years
following Germany's defeat in World War I. They had
the covert support of the Wehrmacht (Army
headquarters).
The Honorable Minister should also note that that the
notion of the Aryan race was nowhere as important in
India as it came to be in Europe. In the whole the Rig
Veda, in all of its ten books, the word Arya appears
only about forty times. In contrast, Hitler's Mein
Kampf uses the term Arya and Aryan many times more.
Hitler did not invent it. The idea of Aryans as a
superior race was already in the airâ in Europe, not
India. Swastika had nothing to do with it, but racism
did.
But far more serious is the Honorable Minister's
ignorance of the persistence of Nazi era race theories
in Western academia. The fall of the Third Reich did
not put an end to academic race theories that formed
the core of its ideology. While avoiding overtly
racial terms, scholars in disciplines like
Indo-European Studies continue to uphold
scientifically discredited and historically disgraced
theories built around the Aryan myth.
Some academics have resorted to media campaigns and
political lobbying to save their theories and the
discipline from natural extinctionâ a tactic that came
to the fore when California education authorities
attempted to remove these theories from their school
curriculum. <span style='color:red'>A singular feature of this neo-racist
scholarship is the replacement of anti-Semitism by
anti-Hinduism.
</span>
Of particular concern to the German Government should
be the lead being taken by some scholars of German
origin in perpetuating these justly disgraced Nazi era
ideas. In this context, I would like to draw the
Honorable Minister's attention to the activities of
the Harvard based German linguist Michael Witzel, who
led the lobbying campaign to save the Aryan theories
from being axed from California schools. If Germany
and the EU are serious about correcting historical
wrongs, they should eradicate the ideas that gave rise
to this hateful ideology and not engage in cosmetics
like banning a harmless symbol.
Statement to the media
LEAVE SWASTIKA, BAN RACE THEORIES
German initiative to ban the swastika is a meaningless
gesture that leaves untouched the greater evil of Nazi
era academic race theories.
N.S. Rajaram
In a fit of self-righteousness, Germany, which holds
the rotating presidency of the European Union, has
announced that it will make Holocaust denial
punishable in the member states of the EU, including a
ban on Nazi symbols like the swastika. Unfortunately,
the Honorable Justice Minister, who has come out with
the proposal has got both his history and his
priorities wrong. If he is serious about banning the
evil of racism, he should leave the Indian sacred
symbol alone and ban the teaching of Nazi era race
theories that continue to flourish in Western academia
in various guises.
It is important to note that Hitler and the Nazis
appropriated their ideas and symbols from European
mythology, not India. Hitler's Aryans worshipped
Apollo and Odin, not Vedic deities like Indra and
Varuna. His so-called swastika was not really the
swastika, but 'Hakenkreuz' or the hooked cross, which
has no counterpart in India. It appeared in Germany
for the first time when General von Luttwitz's
notorious Erhardt Brigade marched into Berlin from
Lithuania in support of the abortive Kapp Putsch of
1920. The Erhardt Brigade was one of several
freebooting private armies during the chaotic years
following Germany's defeat in World War I. They had
the covert support of the Wehrmacht (Army
headquarters).
The Honorable Minister should also note that that the
notion of the Aryan race was nowhere as important in
India as it came to be in Europe. In the whole the Rig
Veda, in all of its ten books, the word Arya appears
only about forty times. In contrast, Hitler's Mein
Kampf uses the term Arya and Aryan many times more.
Hitler did not invent it. The idea of Aryans as a
superior race was already in the airâ in Europe, not
India. Swastika had nothing to do with it, but racism
did.
But far more serious is the Honorable Minister's
ignorance of the persistence of Nazi era race theories
in Western academia. The fall of the Third Reich did
not put an end to academic race theories that formed
the core of its ideology. While avoiding overtly
racial terms, scholars in disciplines like
Indo-European Studies continue to uphold
scientifically discredited and historically disgraced
theories built around the Aryan myth.
Some academics have resorted to media campaigns and
political lobbying to save their theories and the
discipline from natural extinctionâ a tactic that came
to the fore when California education authorities
attempted to remove these theories from their school
curriculum. <span style='color:red'>A singular feature of this neo-racist
scholarship is the replacement of anti-Semitism by
anti-Hinduism.
</span>
Of particular concern to the German Government should
be the lead being taken by some scholars of German
origin in perpetuating these justly disgraced Nazi era
ideas. In this context, I would like to draw the
Honorable Minister's attention to the activities of
the Harvard based German linguist Michael Witzel, who
led the lobbying campaign to save the Aryan theories
from being axed from California schools. If Germany
and the EU are serious about correcting historical
wrongs, they should eradicate the ideas that gave rise
to this hateful ideology and not engage in cosmetics
like banning a harmless symbol.