Thank you for your kind words, Robert.

On 21 May 2014 14:55, Robert Zydenbos <zydenbos@uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

I am concerned about the condescending, really very eurocentric
displays of emotionalism in this thread which are unlikely to generate
any real understanding in India, but resentment instead. (I remember a
soft-mannered Indian diplomat (!) here in Munich who once innocently
asked me: “Why is everybody here so upset by the use of a good word like
‘Aryan’?”)

There is a view held amongst some Indian citizens that nobody who isn't Indian (or a Hindu) has the right to say anything challenging or interpretative about Indian history and culture. "If you're not Indian, you have no right to a voice." Similarly, can an atheist be allowed to write about Christianity, or a Jew about Islamic history, etc. etc.? I do not agree with that view. I don't think you do either. But I think we teeter towards that false view when we start worrying about our serious views being interpreted as condescension. In my letter, I was speaking to the adults at MLBD as an adult myself. I *do* suspect that they may be inadequately informed about the horrors of Nazism in Europe, but that is not the same as condescension. I admire and care about MLBD, I've had lunch with members of the family at their homes, visited the doctor with them when they were sick, etc. It is because of my positive feelings to the MLBD family and business that I consider it worthwhile to engage with them about this topic. (I do not care enough to engage with Biblia Impex, for example, who are far more reprehensible, in my view.)

Anybody whose view or judgement is being challenged is likely to feel resentment. It's a psychological fact. That's no reason to refrain from making the challenge or for calling such a challenge "condescension." Sometimes people in India, like people anywhere, make mistakes or act inappropriately. If such people resent this being discussed, then I'm sorry but, like everyone, they must suck it up.

Your point about the film by Joachim Fest is quite strong, I think. In the MLBD Newsletter and the first version of the web advertisement, there was no mention of Fest's film being part of the item offered for sale. Now the web advert has changed, and it seems that the book, MK, is accompanied by the film. If it is really MLBD's intention to frame the book as part of a narrative about the evils of Nazism, then that needs to be very explicit, and present in all the locations that they advertise. Up to now, this was not so. But perhaps that is a way they could go.

However, I would point out that Fest's "Eine Karriere" film was not received without criticism. According to the English WP article linked from the source you cite, the film,

which was intended to explain why ordinary people in Germany loved Hitler, created some controversy among some critics such as the American historian Deborah Lipstadt who wrote that, by featuring extensive clips of Hitler from propaganda films while totally ignoring the Holocaust, Fest had engaged in a glorification of the Führer.^[3]

In the Indian context, and when shown to audiences innocent of Fest's other work and of the historical context of German Vergangenheitsbewältigung, it seems to me that MLBD could have made a better choice if they wished to accompany their Mein Kampf with materials providing critical contextualization. I do not see Fest's controversial film as adequately sanitizing MK for safe consumption in contemporary India. Fest's use of extensive film archive showing that Hitler was lionized by the German population could be taken in exactly the wrong way if not contextualized. It's like asserting that Mein Kampf is a harmless book because it's terribly boring. Well, yes, but no. Similarly with Fest's film. It's meant one way, but could be taken another.

If MLBD seriously wants to get into Nazi studies, then they might be better advised to publish books like those of Bullock and Trevor-Roper, the film Der Untergang, and many other books and media that make the case unequivocally.

“What effectively is being said is ‘Americans and Israelis should read the book, but it is too dangerous for you foolish Indians to have it’.”

This is a straw man. It's not what I think or what I said. Nor is it implied in what I said. I don't think any of us in this discussion is so naive or misguided.

What I *do* think is that with a book like MK it is critical to consider reception. The way MK may be read by an average reader in Israel or America is quite different from the way it would be read in Bavaria, or indeed in a BJP-led India. Cultural context determines reception. The presuppositions, historical background, educational presuppositions, and present politics all mean that distributing MK in India is a semiotically entirely different act than distributing it in, say, Israel. It's not about foolishness or otherwise, it's about meaning.

"Publicitywise counter-productive"? We don't yet know, do we? MLBD
has removed the advertisement from their website's front page
already, within 24 hours.

(Without your petition, mind you. Think about that.)

but a day after I sent them my letter. They may still be unaware of the petition - I personally have not drawn it to their attention. It only goes to them formally when the petition closes. Think about that.

And I would like to repeat my question: has anybody seen this MLBD
edition? (No, of course not.) Does it have (like the translation which I
have) an explanatory preface that says people have a right to see this
classical text about a criminal mentality, so that they can recognize it
when it crops up again? And how many of us have seen that DVD with the
Fest film?

None of this matters, since people will buy MLBD's Mein Kampf on the basis of their advertisements, and the advertisements have not been unequivocal about what is being sold.

If any reader here wishes to join the petition, thinking that this will give him / her a nice, warm feeling, then of course I cannot stop them.

Nor can I prevent any smug, ill-informed, knee-jerk politically correct, patronizing, see-how-good-I-am statements from being made. But in view of everything that I have said here and in my previous posting, let it be understood that I cannot join.

It doesn't help a serious conversation to insult your opponents or belittle their views.

You return several times to characterizing the views of others in this debate as emotionalism. It isn't obvious to me that the people who hold views different from yours are all suffering from excess emotion. It also isn't the case that emotion is the opposite of reason.

Best,
Dominik