“History teaches, but has no pupils,”
- Antonio Gramsci 1
J’admire
.....
An innocent question
sometimes comes up with very troubling answer(s).
J’admire( I
admire)... a simple exercise given to students to know from them whom they
appreciate as a great historical figure or a hero, became a great learning
experience for a teacher who taught French at a private school.
Writer and Journalist
Dileep D’souza, who has authored many books, and writes on social-political
causes shared the experience of his wife who posed the said question before
them during a discussion. What she was expecting that they would mention Gandhi
or Bhagat Singh or other luminaries of India’s struggle for freedom and
progress but none of her predictions came true. There was a lone student whose
choice was Mahatma Gandhi but nine out of 25 students in her class admired
Hitler as hero or as a great historical figure.
Explaining his choice
the 10 th grader talked of Hitler’s ‘fantastic oratory’, how he loved his
country, how he was a ‘great patriot’ and how he helped restore ‘a sense of
pride’ to Germany which it had lost after the defeat in the first world war. He
had not much sympathy for the millions he slaughtered, his response to it
seemed to rationalise it, that ‘some of them were traitors’. 2
There are n number of reports which tell you that this particular school is no exception.
‘Hitler’s Cross’ that
was the name of a new restaurant which had come up in Navi Mumbai. It had
caused a tremendous uproar then which sort of forced the owner to change it .
Commenting on this episode late Praful Bidwai, the left wing journalist and
anti-nuclear activist had shared how Hitler’s admirers can be spotted among the
modern urban elite as well which dominates corporate jobs, the professions and
the administration. And what he said about youth’s opinion about Hitler is
worth quoting in toto :
..[F]or instance, applicants for admission to India’s top-rated
college, St Stephen’s College in Delhi, are asked at the final interview who’s
their hero or role-model. “A shocking 60 percent of the candidates say it’s
Hitler”, college principal Anil Wilson told IPS.
The figure is astounding. The reason most students cite for their
choice is Hitler’s fierce nationalism: he gave Germany “self-esteem”, lifting
it from the humiliation heaped on it by the Versailles treaty; his butchery of
six million Jews was so much “collateral damage”...3
A decade and half ago
a poll by a leading newspaper in elite educational institutions across the
country had similarly revealed how 17 per cent among them favoured Hitler as
the kind of leader India should have. The only saving grace was that Gandhi
came first with 23 per cent supporters 4
I.
At the beginning of
the Great War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these
Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to
poison-gas…then the millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have
been in vain.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Campf (My
Struggle)
Hitler keeps popping
up in India from time to time more than seventy five years of his death.
Right from Hitler
movies, Hitler cafe, a Hitler fashion store and to even Hitler ice cream cones
have cropped up around his image.2 Consciously or
inadvertently or so one can spot attempts to humanise him by presenting a
rather sweet version of him. And Bollywood is not far behind in these efforts.
Hitler’s presence can
be observed even in daily conversations of people as well where the word Hitler
is equated with being a strict person. Few years back a soap opera in Hindi,
which remained mildly popular for quite sometime, was on air whose title
‘Hitler didi’ ( literally Hitler Sister but figuratively Auntie Hitler) did not
lead to any objection from any quarter then.
And if you happen to
be a frequent traveller or a book lover you can easily spot Hitler at most of
the bookshops. Right from the ones which are on the pavement or even at traffic
signals - which ( mostly) sell pirated versions of books - to the upmarket bookshops, you can find him everywhere. A Spanish film
maker who worked in India for a while had even written/published a photo essay
of sorts (with very little text) about Hitler’s ‘presence’ in India at very
many places.5
There can be
occasions when Hitler’s magnum opus - which he had written from his jail
- Mein Kampf which is partly autobiographical, part manifesto, filled
with lot of anti-semitic diatribe but basically provides instructions on how to
gain power, can be found giving company to ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ - the young
Jewish girl who had become a victim of Hitler’s anti-Jewish policies.
Interestingly, many publishers have published ‘Mein Kampf’ here. A rough idea
of the business they may be making can be had from the fact that this book has
been a bestseller even on Amazon’s Indian website - where people have no qualms
in paying tributes to him or his style etc. An old report tells us that a
leading Indian publishing company had sold over 1,00,000 copies between 2000
and 2010.
Forget the fact that
Hitler has made many disparaging remarks about Indians and did not support
India’s freedom struggle. Commenting upon the film ‘Dear Hitler’ a writer had
expressed surprise and dismay over its portrayal of Hitler which supposedly
claimed that ‘Hitler was friend of India’ :
....Hitler never supported Indian self-rule. He advised British
politicians to shoot Gandhi and hundreds of other leaders of the freedom
struggle. Repeatedly, he expressed support for British imperialism. He only
regretted that it was not harsh enough. “If we took India,” he once threatened,
the Indian people would soon long for “the good old days of English rule”.6
Yes, there are occasions
when such trivialisation or glorification of Hitler comes under scanner, but
not because of some internal soul searching among Indians. The relatively
popular serial Hitler Didi - which went on for around two years without any
hassles - became an issue, when it provoked ‘Anti Defamation League’ - an
international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States -
to issue a strong statement when it was dubbed in Arabic and relayed in the
Arabic world.
It could be argued
that Indians are not the only people who admire Hitler.
“Foreign Policy’ a
journal from USA had published a story detailing ‘positive perspective on
Hitler’ in non-western world. As opposed
to his image of a mass murderer and a racist bigot who yearned for world domination
prevalent in the western world, he is also seen as an “anti-imperialist rebel”
due to his nationalistic struggle against “Anglo-French-American-Zionist
domination.” It quotes the then President Mugabe who then happened to be
Zimbabwe’s 92-year-old strongman, comparing himself not only to Christ but to
Hitler in a speech in 2003
“I am still the Hitler of [this] time. This Hitler has only one
objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of
the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that
is Hitler, then let me be Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand
for,” 7
No doubt Indian’s
love for Hitler is uncomparable to the rest of the world.
More than ten years
back attention of the West was first drawn to this phenomenon when London’s
Daily Telegraph, published an article with a
headline: “Indian business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf”(20
April 2009)
Question arises why
Hitler is so ‘popular’ in India - especially among middle and upper middle
class youth, professionals, etc ? And
this despite the fact that in his best seller book he specifically says that
Indians are not capable of self-rule and he would rather see them under British
rule than anyone else.
In his only visit to
Hitler - during his around two year stay in Germany - when he was trying to
cobble up an army to fight Britishers, the legendary freedom fighter Subhash
Chandra Bose is reported to have asked him to revise this portion from his book
which sort of denigrated Indians and glorified Britishers.
It is a different
matter that Hitler did not pay any heed to it.
II
Could it be argued that the
emergence of Hitler as a ‘role model’ or
humanisation of his image, has its roots in the way we are taught history, the
way social sciences textbooks are unable to inculcate a analytical attitude
among students.
Everyone can remember from one’s
own childhood or adolescent days how the textbooks themselves inadvertently or
so served us with communal, gender, racial or even caste stereotypes. And not
only textbooks, the material which was presented before us as ‘children’s
literature’ was also loaded with different types of biases. For example, a
painstaking research on the four decade journey of a very popular comic series ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ which was instrumental in
influencing at least two generations of people reveals how it :
“...fed
into the idea of nation as religion in the sense that the nation transcended
any specific identity based on region, locality, class, gender, caste, sect or
religious group, it also contributed to the idea of an all-encompassing
national religion. Yet the use of a religious vocabulary to convey a sense of
the nation as sacred coincided bizarrely with a critique of the so called
obscurantist and dogmatic aspects of religions. In a complementary move, the
religion of the majority, Hinduism, then needed to be identified with the
nation.” 8
Mere browsing of textbooks would
make one thing absolutely clear why for the students it is bit difficult to
take a stand if they are asked say pros and cons of dictatorship or say caste
system. If they are not told about crimes against humanity perpetrated earlier
and the perpetrators behind them, if textbooks end up in glossing over all such
inconvenient details how can they comprehend that history is no mere collection
of facts put chronologically but much more.
Coming to second
world war one can hardly find suitable textbook having detailed information
about the killings of innocents during those dark period, about the organising
of concentration camps and how Hitler had prophesised all these things in his
book magnum opus Mein Kampf. For example how many students have heard about
Aushwitz concentration camp, remembered as the site of largest mass murder in a
single location in human history, where a majority of the victims were just put
inside a gas chamber where they died immediate death after inhaling a poisonous
gas like cyanide.
A less discussed
aspect of these textbooks as well as other popular and even to some extent
scholarly literature seems to be the aversion to look at the past critically
regarding fascination of a section of
people, mainly leaders - especially of the right wing - towards Mussolini
as well as Hitler in precolonial times.
In her exhaustive writeup
‘Hindutva’s Foreign Tie ups in 30s’ 9MarziaKasolaritells
:
..To them fascism appeared to be an example of conservative
revolution. This concept was discussed at length by the Marathi press right
from the early phase of the Italian regime. From 1924 to 1935 Kesri regularly
publicised editorials and articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini. What
impressed the Marathi journalists was the socialist origin of fascism and the
fact that the new regime seemed to have transformed Italy from a backward country
to a first class power. Indians could not know then that behind the demagogic
rhetoric of the regime there was very little substance....
In the same article she revisits the issue :
Apart from the militants of the main Hindu organisations there is
reason to think that the Indian and particularly Marathi public opinion also
was exposed to the views of some newspapers which echoed Savarkar’s
declarations or published articles in favour of the dictators. In 1939 The
Mahratta published a series of articles in favour of the international policy
of Italy and Germany whileKesri of
December 8 and 15, 1939 published an article bearing the title failure of
democracy and rise of fascism. There the same interpretation already expressed
during the 1920s was repeated according to which fascism arose from the crisis
of democracy. Fascism of obviously considered superior to democracy.
In fact India has on
record many leaders - especially of the right wing - who have been unashamed
supporters of Mussolini, Hitler and their policies.
A question can be posed which
aspects of Fascism appealed to the HindutvaSupremacists ?
One,
militarisation of society
Second,
transformation of society exemplified by shift from chaos to order.
For Marzia Kosolari :
The
appreciation of anti-democratic system
as a positive alternative to democracy had it ‘s basis in the understanding
that democracy was seen as a typically British value.
A key leader of the right wing
happened to be Dr Munje, who was associated with Hindu Mahasabha and was also
one of the founders of RSS, had even toured Italy, met Mussolini and visited
different institutions built by the Fascist regime to inculcate feeling of nationalism and
discipline among youth and was much impressed by them and even decided to
replicate it here - the most prominent among them were the Balilla institutions
an idea conceived by Mussolini for the ‘military regeneration of Italy’ and
Munje resolved to to develop similar
institutions here.
Whether the
popularity of Hitler has its roots in the popularity of the ‘common Aryan links
between Indians and Germans’ which was popularised by Sir William Jones, in
late 18 th century, who was an English Judge in Bengal and a scholar in his own
right. Looking at his scholarship he was asked to look into scriptures of
Hindus and Muslims - with due help from interpreters but which he himself
looked into to go to ‘the fountainhead himself’.
“The Aryan race is tall,
long legged, slim. The race is narrow-faced, with a narrow forehead, a narrow
high built nose and a lower jaw and prominent chin, the skin is rosy bright and
the blood shines through …. the hair is smooth, straight or wavy – possibly
curly in childhood. The colour is blonde” 10
Or can it be seen as
the reflection of fondness of Indians towards the theory of the superiority of
Aryan race put forward by Hitler. Remember Indians - especially Hindus consider
themselves descendants of Aryans. For Hitler the ‘Aryan race’ had a duty to
control the world which had the most “pure blood” of all the people on earth.
In his schemata of things non-Aryans were seen as impure and even evil. The
‘superiority’ of Aryans was threatened by the ‘inferior’ people - the likes of
Jews, Gypsies and black people. We are told that Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) a
leading Nazi theorist, - who was executed after the Nuremburg trials - author
of a seminal work of Nazi ideology, The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930),
even viewed India as the ancestral home of the Aryans.
Post independence
period also there is no dearth of leaders who have no qualms in praising
Hitler.
In the end, whether this quest
for a Hitler - which could be considered a synonym for a strong leader - has
also arisen because of the uncertain times we live in and a prevalent (false)
notion that such leaders are the ‘most successful and admirable.’
III
Strong Leaders,
Uncertain Times ?
The
central misconception, which I set out to expose, is the notion that strong
leaders in the conventional sense of leaders who get their way, dominate their
colleagues, and concentrate decision-making in their hands, are the most
successful and admirable. While some leaders who come into that category emerge
more positively than negatively, in general, huge power amassed by an
individual leader paves the way for important errors at best and disaster and
massive bloodshed at worst.” 11
Why do people prefer strong
leaders ?
The worldwide rise of
authoritarian or strong leaders is for everyone to see. From Trump in USA to
Erdogan in Turkey, from Modi in India to Duterte in Philippines, these
uncertain times have thrown up leaders which seem to allay voters’ worries about
uncertainty and lack of control. In an interesting paper published in Harvard
Business Review, two researchers - Hemant Kakkar and Niro Sivanathan - tried to
analyse this emergent phenomenon. 12
Drawing on research from
“evolutionary and social psychology, which distinguishes between dominance and
prestige as two alternative pathways to leadership” it first tried to
differentiate between both types of leaderships like how leaders ‘associated
with dominance are assertive, confident, controlling, decisive, dominating, and
intimidating’ whereas the ‘prestige pathway’ is associated with individuals who
are respected, admired, and held in high esteem by others. According to them a
“dominant leader becomes more appealing than a prestige leader when the
socioeconomic environment is riddled with uncertainty. When it’s unclear what
the future holds, people experience a lack of personal control and a sense that
they cannot influence an outcome.” According to them endorsement of a dominant
leader in uncertain times thus becomes a
response to restore one’s sense of personal control - which is ‘consistent with
other research finding that a perceived lack of personal control leads
individuals to support external entities — such as governments, gods, and
hierarchies — that appear to possess greater agency.’
Of course, they did not forget to
add a caveat that despite having the authority to enact economic regulations
and political policies the possibility always exists that their reign can lead
to further chaos and uncertainty which can further strengthen their appeal as
well as hold on power.
There is a merit in what the
researchers put forward but one can as well see that this fascination for a
strong leader can also be related to modern man’s freedom from medieval ties
where it is easier for him to submit to a great leader as Erich Fromm discusses
in his book.
“In
the book ‘Fear of Freedom” I tried to show that the totalitarian movements
appealed to a deep-seated craving to escape from the freedom man had achieved
in the modern world ; that modern man, free from medieval ties, was not free to
build a meaningful life based on reason and love, hence sought new security in
submission to a leader, race or a state” 13
The quest for a strong leader can
also be seen as a reflection of the attempts at finding a new refuge by a
atomised individual - who seems to be at the mercy of forces which are beyond
his/her control - which make her/him feel powerless and insignificant. The
growing sense of alienation fostered by such system coupled with a growing loss
of sense of community or social/political institutions leads her/him to submit
oneself before a great leader who supposedly can deliver.
Coming to India this fascination
for a strong leader, a dictator has always been there - especially among the
upper classes - even when times were not so ‘uncertain’, even when the newly
independent nation was taking baby steps towards a life of self reliance and
progress for all.
In a country where many Indians want to believe a strong leader
can transform a society for the better, images of tens of thousands of Germans
standing at attention before their Fuhrer seems to speak to them, despite the
evil that those rallies gave birth to.”(‘Why Adolf Hitler is Popular in India’ 14
One can as well revisit the piece penned down by late
Praful Bidwai which finds mention earlier. Quoting noted political theorist
Rajeev Bhargava it said that this praise for Hitler “[b]ears testimony to an
authoritarian streak with the Indian elite, or at least its fascination with and
admiration for strong-arm undemocratic methods of rule” It also talked about
how “..[M]any upper class Indians believe that a dictator alone can solve the
country’s myriad problems.” Discerning this authoritaria streak in India,
it shares how sociologists
“..[r]elate this streak to the elite’s roots in India’s
super-hierarchical caste system. Many upper-caste, upper-class Indians have not
fully reconciled themselves to democracy, including the idea that their
chauffeurs and cooks should have the same individual vote as them.”
Question of
neo-liberal economic policies also comes up in the analysis where it quotes
Kamal Mitra Chenoy as saying that how this “..[t]emptation to cynically use all
and any symbols to make money” is growing under these policies and it means
“spreading fascist forms of callousness towards the public good.”
Couched in the rather
sophisticated language of efficiency or agonising over delay in arriving at
decision, which any democratic mechanism necessary entails, they have talked of
a Hitler.
For all such people the imagery
of Hitler whose vision for future was based on the simple binary of ‘master
race’ and the ‘’others” and who himself appears ‘decisive’, ‘strong’ and
‘patriotic’ suits the bill.
Notes and references :
1. Letter from Prison (21 June
1919), translated by Hamish Henderson, Edinburgh University Student
Publications
2.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hitlers-strange-afterlife-in-india
3.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2006/08/culture-hitlers-cafe-serves-up-indias-ugly-side
4. Times of India, Dec 26, 2002
5.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/india-loves-hitler
6.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/jun/11/bollywood-film-hitler
7. https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/05/the-developing-world-thinks-hitler-is-underrated-duterte-world-war-ii-nazi-politics
8. Page vii, Chandra Nandini,
‘The Classic Popular, Amar Chitra Katha, 1967-2007,Yoda Press, 2008
9.
http://www.epw.in/journal/2000/04/special-articles/hindutvas-foreign-tie-1930s.html
10. Leaflet from Nazi Propaganda,
1929
11. Brown, The Myth of a Strong
Leader (2014)
12.
.(https://hbr.org/2017/08/why-we-prefer-dominant-leaders-in-uncertain-times
13. Page X, The Sane Society,
Erich Fromm
14.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Why-is-Adolf-Hitler-popular-in-India-376622
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Must read to understand our times
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