Hitler memorabilia 'attracts young Indians'
I found this interesting that youngsters of a nation whose leader espoused passive reistance should be fascinated by a despot....
......
Books by and about Hitler are in demand in India
Slowly but steadily, a decade-old business around the dead and universally despised dictator Adolf Hitler is emerging as a small-scale industry in India.
Books and memorabilia on the German leader's life have found a steady market in some sections of Indian society where he is idolised and admired, mostly by the young.
The numbers are small but seem to be growing.
Latest reports say Bollywood is now planning to cash in. A film - Dear Friend Hitler - is due to be released by the end of the year, focusing on the dictator's relationship with his mistress Eva Braun.
It's hard to narrow down what makes the dictator popular in India, but some young people say they are attracted by his "discipline and patriotism".
Most of them are, however, quick to add that they do not approve of his racial prejudices and the Holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed.
But the truth is that books, T-shirts, bags and key-rings with his photo or name on do sell in India. And his autobiography, Mein Kampf, sells the most.
'Bestseller'
Jaico, the largest publisher and distributor of Mein Kampf in India, has sold more than a 100,000 copies in the last 10 years.
Crossword, an India-wide chain of book stores, has sold more than 25,000 copies since 2000 and marketing head Sivaram Balakrishnan says: "It's been a consistent bestseller for us."
The dictator is admired by some for his 'discipline and patriotism'
And demand seems to be growing. Jaico's chief editor RH Sharma says: "There has been a steady rise of 10% to 15% in the book's sale."
Until two years ago, a typical Mumbai (Bombay) bookstore sold 40-50 copies of Mein Kampf a year. Now the figure is more like several hundred copies annually.
A shop in Pune, called Teens, says it sells nearly 100 T-shirts a month with Hitler's image on them.
Prayag Thakkar, a 19-year-old student in Gujarat state, is one of them: "I have idolised Hitler ever since I have had a sense of history. I admire his leadership qualities and his discipline."
The Holocaust was bad, he says, but that is not his concern. "He mesmerised the whole nation with his leadership and iron discipline. India needs his discipline."
Dimple Kumari, a research associate in Pune, has not read Mein Kampf but she would wear the Hitler T-shirt out of admiration for him. She calls him "a legend" and tries to put her admiration for him in perspective: "The killing of Jews was not good, but everybody has a positive and negative side."
Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8660064.stm
I have Gaddafi's green book Britexpat, after literally 4 pages you will get bored of reading it, most of it is useless propaganda and all he does is use existing criticisms of democracies, nothing new or thought provoking. Can you send me this link on the eunuchs?
PM's you the link .... Enjoy..
lol ok, will check it out.
There is a great story about Eunuchs in today's paper, but I will not risk posting it .. You read it for yourself :O)
brit bring out The Sun ;-)
Welcome back.. I used to have a Che T-Shirt and even tried to get Gaddafi's Green Book once :O)
All I will say is "Friends , Expats, Countrymen, lend me your ears... I apologise for any offense given. I will switch to posting inanae topics from now on"
To begin with, (and at the risk of being pedantic) India is not a few hundred people, It is a country of about a 1.3 billion people. You will find all sorts of people who idolise all sorts of things. It is a market where you an easily find a few thousand buyers for almost anything. To call it a small scale industry is stretching things a bit too far.
Reading 'Mein Kampf' doesnt necessarily mean one is a fan of Hitler. It could simply be another student/academic of world history/politics trying to get a perspective from the shoes of a famous dictator, wondering why a whole country followed an individual who was so maniacal. If I was a student trying to make sense of world politics of the times, I would definitely read it to get an insight into the mind of one of the key players in the political scene of that era. Linking it to fanfare and political inclination is just plain sensationalism.
How many people who wear Che shirts and caps even know the first thing about his life? His is one of the most common faces in t-shirts caps etc. Fought against capitalists; ended up being a best seller!! ;)
About Swastika.
It was there centuries before the first Nazi was born. and its symmetry stood for harmony and balance in life. It still stands for the same things for a people who follow the age old religion. Just coz a fanatic group USED it for their purposes in the last century, those people should abandon their practices of yore? Then every religion should be devoid of followers coz there has been people who used the symbols for their own ends.
About the article
I would definitely question the spirit of journalism in this article. Let us see some of the phrases..."a small-scale industry(??)", "numbers are small but 'seem' to be growing", "some young people say",
"has sold more than 25,000 copies since 2000 and marketing head Sivaram Balakrishnan says: "It's been a consistent bestseller for us."(2500 copies a year for an India wide chain is a 'bestseller'? wow!!)
Brit: Why does ur posts (that appears to offer rationale for what happens in India and the western world) remind me of "Brutus is an honorable man" ?? :-p
Pretty stupid.
I really don't like the political correctness of today's world, it has reached such excessive levels that it borderlines stupidity.
As john of arc has stated the laws on banning holocaust deniers is just ridiculous and goes against the fundamentals of freedom of expression, let them expose their stupidity, so long as they aren't insulting people directly on the streets or personally harassing them at their homes, they should be entitled to produce books and maintain websites with their silly beliefs.
Nobody should be forced to be silent despite how deplorable their beliefs may be, it is only when they act on them and actually harm others should the law step in in my opinion.
It can 'face' in both directions. The NAZIs turned it on one of its tips.
Aren't the Swastika used by Hindus and that used by Hitler different. Hindus use swastika drawn anti-clockwise while that used by Hitler was clockwise. I am not so sure though.
Not a Hitler....but a strong leader who will give positive direction
Hail Hitler!
India needs a Hitler minus the holocaust and now.
till now, they were 60 million lost Jews, just wonder with legal calculation, how daringly he reduced the numbers.
???
Mods..will you???
To get rid of big mouth Americans is equally difficult legal pad.
wow legal pad, you're sugar high today!
NAZIS KILLED 5 MILLION Jews during WW2 and it is called Genocide.
To get rid of 5 million Indians it will be just nothing but a drop of blood, since they multiply like fly maggots in a bucket of feces.
The misuse of religious symbols by the terrorist groups makes long standing symbols suspect in the eyes of the common man.
Sadly, in today's society, many young people are feeling disenfranchised. There is definitely a need for a strong role model. However, I personaly would draw the line at Hitler or Mussolini :O)
lol
may be the west need to send their women to india for production, as i heard that in few decades the decreasing number of population will be a big issue for them , than terrorism :P
Yeah, it's a Tibetanian symbol for happiness and fertility. Should be used more.
Swastika is used in Hindu marriages too.
what????
flor you trying to make a point :-/
religiously! I see now!
Dot.com we have 8 Swastika signs in our home :)
Yes my mom is reallllllllllly religious, not offensive to me...
once i got warning from MOD on QL, to change my AVATAR of Swastika, as it was offensive for many users.
Was it really offensive?
stealth are you really so ignorant????
Swastika has been used for centuries in India, it's a holy thing. Hitler abused the sign but it doesn't mean the sign is bad.
Did your Allah become bad because Osama keeps referring to him to justify killing innocent human beings????
RSS has anyway been using the swastika for long. So it is not much of a surprise.
@ britexpat,WK summed it up perfectly,there's no doubting India is the recognized power(apart from China but that's further north) in the region,hence the 'Indian sub-continent' tag but the respect isn't always forthcoming probably due to inherently passive nature of Indians...
& yes,it makes perfect logical sense that young Indians would be looking for a figure to fear & hence obey to instill some discipline & order into what can be summed up as 'organized chaos' that is currently prevalant...
My view is that young Indians realize that we as a nation are,to a large extent currently respected & recognized on a global level rather than just on an Asian continent level despite the existing chaos/corruption/lack of accountability etc...so surely we'd be a an even greater force to reckon with if some mass nationwide sense of organization & discipline were instilled & the only way to do that would be through an authoritarian figure who would be feared & in that respect Hitler fits the bill perfectly...
While i understand that logic as an Indian,as a human being, i'm unwilling to overlook the mass genocide he personally authorized & don't get me wrong here,the fact that it was Jews that were killed is secondary, innocent human lives were taken,many of them,their race is but a secondary issue,but to each his/her own eh?...
To be respected...
Racism pisses us off though we are obsessed with white skin ourselves :)
India needs a Bismarck
So, is it the need to be "recognised" as a major power ?
Hitler was Aryan so am I :)
Brit the nationalism among majority of Indians isn't fuelled by religion. To be Indian is greater than any religion.
What rubbish???how can you like someone for a reason when they or thier parents weren't even close to that era.
These so called teens with money to spend wouldn't even last a second with the horrific stories of his "discipline" to be enacted out.
mojo1981
the newfound love for a particular personality is not "nationalism"...it is more related to the frustration with the current system and weak leaders at the top...Maybe Hitler ignites their fantasies of how to turn around a country single handedly. As young teenagers, it doesnt really matter whether the turn is for good or bad. Constitutionally India is Secular so no point talking about a particular religion. However, you maybe right in saying that young indians want a strong india.
Does this mean "nationalism" in the sense that Indians want a strong India flexing its muscles in the region or nationalism from the point of view of promoting Hinduism ?
The Roma did originate from India , so young Indians shouldn't admire such an evil individual.
Yes the absence of a strong national leader and petty coalition politics might be the reason...
The Swastike did originate from India, so perhaps the young Indians are looking for a leader to drive their country forward with a large pinch of nationalism.
Well said.. Our new leader, David Cameron has appointed Sir Andrew Burns as the United Kingdom's first Envoy for post-Holocaust Issues :O)
By the way, we are digressing from the original discussion ...........
Only in a free countries is holocaust denial acrime. Denying god is a crime in many more.
Holocaust denial is a crime in the "free society" .
But the focus is on god's "chosen people"
Yes the maniac killed a lot of Roma gypsies and homosexuals as well!
I think people who admire him should be locked inside a foul smelling (non-fatal) gas chamber.
He killed more Roma than Jews, but no one cares about them.
History to me is strange sometimes, every successful uprising is termed as revolutin and a failed one is condemned as revolt.
Does this mean that the young generation feels that the country needs a more inspired leader who will instill discipline and order into their lives ?
Raise the number to 50 million, Mandi, and you'd be more accurate.
Oh, yeah, except for the killing of 12 million people (actively) and the deaths of about 20 million more (in the war) he was a great guy! Loved dogs, I hear. Did really well by his mistress - oh, that's right, he married her about 10 minutes before killing her, too!
Mandi