Tough Nazi love?

I was recently reading a debate based upon the premise that India has perhaps an inordinately large number of Nazi and more specifically Hitler admirers. Godwin's law theorists excuse! This is my first post and the only person probably even reading this is my mother, so I think I'm going to be ok.

There were the people who said it was ludicrous to suggest that such was the state of modern India. The other side argued that India had a historical affinity to Hitler and his Aryan theory and that details of the holocaust and for that matter Indian troop participaton in WWII for example are woefully underrepresented in the average Indian's conciousness.

This was my response to their debate:

"Both sides make very potent and persuasive points and I am torn, in perfect halves, stretched at my toes until I go pop in the middle and the process repeats itself 16 times over. Much like it would in a black hole.

The one point I would like to make which both sides seem to walk through like Casper in the museum of walls, is that the deaths which took place in the second world war aren't team tallies on brightly lit scoreboards at the football world cup to be counted against each other. Lives lost on both sides do not cancel each other out, but end up in the same rather large pot of warmongerers malaise.

What I have experienced of India and young people in India tally with the authors conclusions about an inordinate number of Hitler admirers and the reason for this is an eclipsed view of WWII and hardly any indepth study of the Holocaust.

Lets not run after labels by trying to equate human tragedies under British rule in India to anything else around the world. The figures are staggering, yes, but I ask you, who knows about these either?! Our education system fails to deal with history in a balanced and objective manner and there lies requirement for reform.

I remember my lessons from school and while I may not have been paying attention most of the time, I believe the murder of 12million people would have brought me back from daydreams of naps in the school dorm, which is ironic when you think about it.

Much less the fact that over 10million Indians died in from 1877-1899(http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5516) from famine while Punjab the wheat bowl experienced bumper harvests and government godowns overflowed Lord Curzon tightened the screws as the Boer War distracted the British public away from India's driest years on record. He made millions ineligeble for food aid and worked others in hard labour camps with recorded death rates of 94%.

It would serve us well to insert a paragraph or two about such historical fact in between the bits where some guy (Syed someone) was busy labelling "Hindus and Muslims the two eyes of the beautiful bride that is India" and Sarojni Naidu singing in Parliament.

Eventually though it is important today, for us to construct a mature state where opinions can be shared openly. Today I can stand outside the rather large gate at 10 Downing Street and scream "Tony Blair is an idiot" at the top of my lungs and probably won't be touched, not even by an overly ambitious policeman.

Heck if I were it would probably get me on the evening news and a spot facing Jeremy Paxman on one side and the PM on the other! Do the same in Mumbai in front of whatever Mr.Thackreys address is and I can probably guarantee myself an expedient disembowelment, and another guaranteed TV spot; on the "gumshuda talash kendra"'s "agyaat laash section" on DD.

I don't agree that this nature of a comparison between cultures is unfair. Perhaps it is time for us to live up to that "largest democracy in the world" tag which we are so happy to flaunt at every opportunity."


I'd like to take this opportunity to plug Maus by Art Spiegelman. Are you listening Ma?!