![]() When I first saw a swastika on an Indian card, I was taken aback: "Why is this offensive Nazi symbol displayed on a wedding invitation?" I knew that the Nazis stole the symbol from the ancient cultures, particularly India. The pain I feel when looking at it is as strong as if I had lived through the war myself. Its sight alone arouses such strong feelings in me that I naturally want to look away. As a Jewish person raised in Europe, I had associated the swastika with the Nazi heritage - extermination of millions of people, destruction of countries and a racist ideology. My great-grandparents were murdered by the Nazis. The swastika is such a ubiquitous symbol of goodness throughout the East that many less-educated Asians are themselves unaware that it could signify any evil. Hindu temples have been vandalized, religious ceremonies displaying swastikas interrupted and devotees accused of neo-Nazism. Many Americans do not know the history or the importance of the symbol to Hindus. In America, like in the rest of the Western world, this most cherished and holy symbol of the East is viewed only as a legacy of the atrocities and murders committed under the black swastika of the Nazis. Asians who immigrate to the West encounter obstacles when trying to incorporate the swastika into their lives. When a symbol represents diametrically opposite concepts to different groups, a natural conflict arises. The swastika is as holy to the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists as it is evil to people from the West. ![]()
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