Newspaper surveys have found that significant numbers of Indian college students rate Hitler as an ideal model for an Indian leader. A 2002 survey by the Times of India, an English-language daily, noted that Hitler signified discipline, efficiency and nationalism to the students. Hitler also holds appeal for some Hindu nationalists who dream of a more assertive, conquering India cleansed of its Muslim population.

Last year, the government of Gujarat state, controlled by Hindu nationalists, introduced a new textbook for high- school history students that raised alarms around the world. "Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing a strong administrative set up," the textbook wrote, according to press accounts at the time. "He created the vast state of Greater Germany. He adopted the policy of opposition towards the Jewish people."

Prem Shankar Jha, one of the country's most influential political columnists, said the "romanticizing of Hitler" by a small group of Indians derived from a lack of indigenous examples of swashbuckling leaders who can make change happen.

Jha said he did not believe it had to do with the Holocaust. "It has to do with power, might, the man for whom the ordinary rules of mortality don't apply."

Then there is the swastika. Before it was Hitler's symbol, it belonged to ancient Hindu tradition. Many Indians believe that Hitler was endorsing their culture when he co-opted the symbol. So common is the perception that it prompted Deutsche Welle, Germany's international media outlet, to publish an essay last year entitled "The Indian View on Hitler - A Deep Misunderstanding."

"The fact that he used the term Aryan or the symbol of the Swastika does not mean that Hitler liked India," it wrote.

Ordinarily, India is prickly about allowing any sensibility to be offended. This is a nation that is likely to ban a movie or book because someone, somewhere, is hurt. So it is more likely to be a reflection of how absent knowledge of the Holocaust is from the Indian consciousness that this café came to be.