[INDOLOGY] Mein Kampf in India/Popularity of Hitler Stories!

Fri Feb 14 04:41:09 UTC 2014

Dear
All,I
have been stirred by Dr. Stella Sandahl to say something about the popularity
of Hitler in West Bengal, India. I
remember very well that in the sixties a very learned writer of Bengal, a
polyglot, who spent a considerable time studying in Europe, particularly in
Germany, was writing a series for the Bengali literary magazine Desh and
his writings were being admired on all hands. The writer was Syed Muztaba Ali,
publishing a series of belle’s letters on the Nazi violence in Europe, not so
much like setting the grass aflame, but generating his tongue in cheek to shake
the utmost depths of men’s hearts with horror. The Europe of that time had not
been able to steer clear of the ashes of the Second World War and passive
watchers of the war, as we Indians were, we were moved to read Ali’s numerous
stories, which one did not write in a book of history. We read thus innumerable
stories of Hitler’s invasions into the other European countries, along with
Ali’s sweet and sour anecdotes; we learnt about different political and
military strategies and tragedies, the condemned life of the Jews, the
toothless life of a teenager called Anne Franck, who died in the
Bergen-Belsen Camp in 1945, and we could more than ever take a look at
numerous concentration camps of Europe with horror. I remember spending many a
sleepless nights with the issues of the magazine.The
inclusion of the series of writings gave a considerable hike to the sale of the
magazine.

During
the last fifteen years I have tried to visit concentration camps in Germany,
Czech Republic and Poland whenever I had the opportunity to attend seminars in
the nearby places, though the experiences were nonetheless heart-breaking.RegardsDebabrata Chakrabarti

“This body
is like a musical instrument; what you hear depends upon how you play it.” –
Anandamayi Ma 

“Inside
every human being there exists a special heaven, whole and unbroken.” -
Paracelsus

From: ssandahl at sympatico.ca
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 15:54:35 -0500
To: CoseruC at cofc.edu; INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Mein Kampf in India

A friend sent me this distressing information: "Actually, in a survey of “strong” leaders conducted among Delhi University students some years ago, Hitler came out ahead of Gandhi."However, I wonder how much Delhi students actually know about Hitler. BestStella 
--Stella Sandahlssandahl at sympatico.ca

On 2014-02-12, at 4:42 PM, Coseru, Cristian wrote:

This is digressing from the main point of this thread, but let me just add that once he became aware of Hitler's ulterior motives (after the invasion of Russia), Bose jumped from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, by turning to the Japanese for
 the same sort of help (while fully aware of Japan's own imperial ambitions in SE Asia).

Best,
Christian

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 12, 2014, at 4:14 PM, "Bijlert, V.A. van" <v.a.van.bijlert at vu.nl> wrote:

Here I have to object. Bose was not really an admirer of the darkest sides of Hitler and Bose was quite well aware of the intensely racist nature of national socialism. But Bose was an Indian nationalist and vehemently anti-British. Thus trying to get
 Hitler's help was based on the principle 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Hitler, incidentally, saw nothing in Indian independence. 

Victor van Bijlert

Op 12 feb. 2014 om 20:09 heeft "Coseru, Cristian" <CoseruC at cofc.edu> het volgende geschreven:

And let’s not forget also that "Netaji" Subhas Chandra Bose was also a great admirer of it (after all, he helped organize the Indian Legion in Berlin from Indian subjects that had been formerly enlisted by the British forces, and subsequently captured
 by the Axis powers in Africa; they sore allegiance to both Hitler and Bose). 

Best,
Christian

Christian Coseru

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Department of Philosophy

College of Charleston

66 George Street

Charleston, SC 29424

Office:

Phone: 843 953-1935

Facsimile: 843 953-6388

Email: coseruc at cofc.edu

Web: http://coseruc.people.cofc.edu/

On Feb 12, 2014, at 1:14 PM, Stella Sandahl <ssandahl at sympatico.ca> wrote:

About time to invoke it. But Golwalkar was a great admirer of Mein Kampf, so banning it might upset Hindu feelings. Who knows.
Best
Stella

--
Professor Stella Sandahl
Department of East Asian Studies
130 St. George St. room 14087
Toronto, ON M5S 3H1
ssandahl at sympatico.ca
stella.sandahl at utoronto.ca

Fax. (416) 978-5711

On 2014-02-12, at 11:18 AM, Matthew Kapstein wrote:

Of course, Hitler's Mein Kampf is readily available in almost any Indian bookstall.

I imagine that the small Bene Israel community never mobilized itself

to invoke Section 295-A.....

Matthew
 Kapstein

Directeur
 d'études, 

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,

The University of Chicago

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