(Swast)-ika
Semantics of the swastika
By Jug Suraiya
Who’s swastika is it anyway? Harry the Heil-raiser’s unfortunate choice of fancy dress at a party has raised a political controversy in Europe where the swastika symbol (also known as a ‘fylfot’, a 15th century medieval decorative motif) has been seared into consciousness as an odious emblem of the Nazi Holocaust. However in India, and in several other parts of the world, the symbol has many shades of more salubrious meaning. Derived from the Sanskrit ‘swast’, denoting wellness or health, the swastika is an auspicious sign, found in books of accounts as well as on the threshold of homes and on the signboards of pharmacies, symbolising physical, social and economic well-being. Ancient Mesopotamian coins also bear the imprint of the swastika.
The right-hand, or clockwise, swastika represents the seeming passage of the sun across the sky in the northern hemisphere from east to west. In Jainism, it also stands for the seventh Tirthankar, as well as being a reminder of the four possibilities of rebirth: in the animal or plant domain, in hell, on Earth, or in the realm of the spirit.
The left-hand swastika, is emblematic of night, occult forces and the goddess Kali. The swastika, known as the ‘crux gammata’, occurs in early Christian iconography. The Mayan civilisation of central America had its own version of the swastika, as did north American peoples like the Navajo. How did the Nazis appropriate this universal and benign symbol and turn it into a badge of murderous ideology? In 1910, a German nationalist proposed it as a logo for anti-Semitism, a suggestion taken up by the National Socialists when they formed their party a decade later. The symbol was incorporated in the flag of Nazi Germany in 1935. Interestingly, the word ‘heil’ (as in ‘Heil Hitler’) means both ‘hail’ and ‘heal’. Was Hitler seen as someone who would ‘heal’ Germany of the ‘disease’ of Jews and other ‘undesirables’ who had subverted the health of the body politic? When I visited it last summer, a German guide at Berlin’s Bundestag suggested this possibility.
Blissful in his ignorance, Harry didn’t realise what a bitter pill of cross-cultural polemics he was about to swallow when he blithely donned his armband to go partying.
By Jug Suraiya
Who’s swastika is it anyway? Harry the Heil-raiser’s unfortunate choice of fancy dress at a party has raised a political controversy in Europe where the swastika symbol (also known as a ‘fylfot’, a 15th century medieval decorative motif) has been seared into consciousness as an odious emblem of the Nazi Holocaust. However in India, and in several other parts of the world, the symbol has many shades of more salubrious meaning. Derived from the Sanskrit ‘swast’, denoting wellness or health, the swastika is an auspicious sign, found in books of accounts as well as on the threshold of homes and on the signboards of pharmacies, symbolising physical, social and economic well-being. Ancient Mesopotamian coins also bear the imprint of the swastika.
The right-hand, or clockwise, swastika represents the seeming passage of the sun across the sky in the northern hemisphere from east to west. In Jainism, it also stands for the seventh Tirthankar, as well as being a reminder of the four possibilities of rebirth: in the animal or plant domain, in hell, on Earth, or in the realm of the spirit.
The left-hand swastika, is emblematic of night, occult forces and the goddess Kali. The swastika, known as the ‘crux gammata’, occurs in early Christian iconography. The Mayan civilisation of central America had its own version of the swastika, as did north American peoples like the Navajo. How did the Nazis appropriate this universal and benign symbol and turn it into a badge of murderous ideology? In 1910, a German nationalist proposed it as a logo for anti-Semitism, a suggestion taken up by the National Socialists when they formed their party a decade later. The symbol was incorporated in the flag of Nazi Germany in 1935. Interestingly, the word ‘heil’ (as in ‘Heil Hitler’) means both ‘hail’ and ‘heal’. Was Hitler seen as someone who would ‘heal’ Germany of the ‘disease’ of Jews and other ‘undesirables’ who had subverted the health of the body politic? When I visited it last summer, a German guide at Berlin’s Bundestag suggested this possibility.
Blissful in his ignorance, Harry didn’t realise what a bitter pill of cross-cultural polemics he was about to swallow when he blithely donned his armband to go partying.
posted by Badri | 3:07 PM
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