Introduction

In a Hindu household, a new car, irrespective of the model, sports this symbol of prosperity with pride.

New houses, apartments, places of residence are anointed with this symbol of prosperity and abundance.

Any auspicious ritual of Hindus, across the world, does not begin without drawing this symbol.

So how has such a benedictory symbol as Swastika come to be associated with Hitler, Nazis and genocide?

If no one else, this question must have at least bothered millions of Hindus who would have definitely, at one point of time or another, had to defensively, almost apologetically, clarify the difference between their beloved Swastika and Hitler’s symbol.

Nobody seems to have questioned as to how could Hinduism, that accepts myriad ways of worship and spiritual goals, that emphasises connectedness to the extent of proclaiming that the entire world is our family, be even associated with such a Nazi symbol. Not only did anybody question it, but it is apparent that the world has been all too eager to promote this blatant ignorance.

In a recent instance, a News agency removed a picture of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley with a Swastika seen behind her at a Hindu temple in Delhi because, in their very words, ‘it was also used as a symbol by Nazi Germany’.

This post is an attempt to make people realise how such an incorrect and/ or motivated interpretation of the past can be a bane for billions in the present.

We begin with few questions that need to be answered at the very outset.

Why is Swastika considered a racist and detestable symbol in today’s western world?

It is because many people mistakenly think that Nazis used this symbol.

What was so bad about Nazis?

Nazis were anti-Semites who conducted genocide of 6 million Jews.

Where are the origins of Nazi antisemitism?

Of course, in the Bible!

Has anyone ever told you that? Read on.

Roots of Nazi Antisemitism: The Bible

Jews as God Killers

The New Testament, as we know it, is composed of 4 canonical Gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

According to the Gospel of Mark, which is the oldest Gospel, Jesus Christ was crucified by Roman Governor Pontius Pilate at the instigation of a group of High-Priests who are called Sanhedrin [1].

But nowhere within the gospel of Mark are “all jews” seen as an outside group.

Nowhere in the gospel of Mark are Jews held responsible as a group for the “murder” of Christ.

In fact, it becomes clear in the earliest gospel that Christians were not yet differentiated from Jews as a group/religion. We can still see the entire episode as an intra Jewish struggle.

Now, let us see what later gospels have to say about “deicide” or murder of God.

In the Gospel of John, the word “Jews” as a group occurs in 63 instances [2]. In 38 of them, the connation is negative and derogatory[3]. In one instance, the Jewish scripture was referred to as “your Torah”’(John 8.17).

This clearly indicates that by the time of the Gospel of John, the separation between Christianity and Judaism has been complete(at least in the region where the author lived).

In the Gospel of John, the Jews are referred to as Children of Devil (John 8.44) and are collectively held responsible for deicide or “Murder of God”.

In the Gospel of Matthew (27.25), the Jews collectively say “his blood be upon us and our children”.

We can safely mark these passages as the origin of antisemitism.

This was the scriptural warrant for denunciation of Jews for centuries as “God killers”. This had far reaching consequences for centuries. Already in the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa denounced Jews as “Murderers of God and ...Confederates of Devil”.

Pope Saint Gregory I famously referred to Jews as “A Sanhedrin of Satans, criminals, enemies of God and of all that is decent and beautiful[4].

Violent Church antisemitism: Proto-Nazism in medieval Christendom

Hitler was not the first self-proclaimed Christian(*) who violently persecuted Jews. It was no surprise that the antisemitism assumed violent forms in the medieval age. Institutional persecution of Jews was the norm in Christian countries. The Medieval saint St. Louis encouraged Christians to thrust a good sword into the Jewish belly as far as the sword will go[5]. Although this was applicable to Jews who ridiculed Christian beliefs, it was put into practice indiscriminately

Here are a few instances to illustrate this phenomenon.

During the Crusades, beginning in the 11th century, when Christian religious zeal reached epic levels, thousands of Jews on the Rhine and the Danube were massacred. Jews were accused of Kidnapping Christian Children (blood libel) and lynched by Christian mobs. In 1349, Jews in Strasbourg were accused of poisoning wells and 2000 Jews were burnt to death. Jews were often forcibly expelled from their countries by pious Christian rulers.

Here is a Christian painting depicting the burning of Jews.