DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Religious Dick on June 20, 2010, 11:01:14 AM
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Hitler memorabilia 'attracts young Indians'
By Zubair Ahmed
BBC News, Mumbai
Slowly but steadily, a decade-old business around the dead and universally despised dictator Adolf Hitler is emerging as a small-scale industry in India.
Books and memorabilia on the German leader's life have found a steady market in some sections of Indian society where he is idolised and admired, mostly by the young.
The numbers are small but seem to be growing.
Latest reports say Bollywood is now planning to cash in. A film - Dear Friend Hitler - is due to be released by the end of the year, focusing on the dictator's relationship with his mistress Eva Braun.
It's hard to narrow down what makes the dictator popular in India, but some young people say they are attracted by his "discipline and patriotism".
Most of them are, however, quick to add that they do not approve of his racial prejudices and the Holocaust in which millions of Jews were killed.
But the truth is that books, T-shirts, bags and key-rings with his photo or name on do sell in India. And his autobiography, Mein Kampf, sells the most.
'Bestseller'
Jaico, the largest publisher and distributor of Mein Kampf in India, has sold more than a 100,000 copies in the last 10 years.
Crossword, an India-wide chain of book stores, has sold more than 25,000 copies since 2000 and marketing head Sivaram Balakrishnan says: "It's been a consistent bestseller for us."
And demand seems to be growing. Jaico's chief editor RH Sharma says: "There has been a steady rise of 10% to 15% in the book's sale."
Until two years ago, a typical Mumbai (Bombay) bookstore sold 40-50 copies of Mein Kampf a year. Now the figure is more like several hundred copies annually.
The more well-heeled the area, the higher the sales. For example, the Crossword outlet in Mumbai's affluent Bandra district sells, on average, three copies a day.
The book has several editions and is available in vernacular Indian languages too. Mannyes Booksellers in the western city of Pune keeps at least four editions. There are at least seven publishers now competing with Jaico.
Global sales figures for Mein Kampf are hard to come by, but the book sells well in other parts of the world too.
In the US, it sold 26,000 copies last year 2009. In 2005 it sold 100,000 copies in Turkey in just a few months. The Arabic imprint is popular in the Palestinian territories.
Mein Kampf is published by Random House in the UK but the company would not give sales figures to the BBC.
'Positive and negative'
Nearly all the booksellers and publishers contacted in India say it is mainly young people who read Mein Kampf.
? [Hitler] mesmerised the whole nation with his leadership and iron discipline - India needs his discipline ?
Student Prayag Thakkar
It's not just the autobiography - books on the Nazi leader, T-shirts, bags, bandanas and key-rings are also in demand.
A shop in Pune, called Teens, says it sells nearly 100 T-shirts a month with Hitler's image on them.
Prayag Thakkar, a 19-year-old student in Gujarat state, is one of them: "I have idolised Hitler ever since I have had a sense of history. I admire his leadership qualities and his discipline."
The Holocaust was bad, he says, but that is not his concern. "He mesmerised the whole nation with his leadership and iron discipline. India needs his discipline."
Dimple Kumari, a research associate in Pune, has not read Mein Kampf but she would wear the Hitler T-shirt out of admiration for him. She calls him "a legend" and tries to put her admiration for him in perspective: "The killing of Jews was not good, but everybody has a positive and negative side."
? Young people have no sense of history - [Mein Kampf] is not easy to understand unless you know the history of Germany ?
Academic Govind Kulkarni
Shilpi Guha says she started reading the book but could not finish it and she wouldn't like to dwell on the dictator's negative side.
In the past, a couple of right-wing Hindu leaders have also expressed their admiration for Hitler.
But young Indians' fascination for him has been explained succinctly by academic Govind Kulkarni: "The youth look for a hero, a patriot, and Hitler was a committed patriot. He is seen as someone who can solve problems. The young people here are faced with a lot of problems."
Mr Kulkarni says he believes the young are gullible and fail to see the sinister side of Hitler.
"Young people have no sense of history. The book is thick and not easy to understand unless you know the history of Germany," he says.
Amit Tripathi, a Mumbai-based scholar, read the book a long time ago but just out of curiosity.
"I didn't find the book inspiring at all. It was interesting to read how he coped with his days of struggle, but his ideology of racial purity smacked of racism."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8660064.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8660064.stm)
Published: 2010/06/15 06:08:57 GMT
? BBC MMX
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Hitlers biggest problem was looseing utterly.
Even Napolion, when he lost , was not as stripped of dignity .
Ghingus Kahn , Peter the Great , Napolion , Attaturk , Stalin , Che Gurveria , Mao, etc...
...all have a following , and do they deserve one?
Hitler belongs in this company, let those who will admire heavy handed despots admire him too.
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From the thread title I thought you were going to this story.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399564/posts (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399564/posts)
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how about vlad the impaler?
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how about vlad the impaler?
Good example , he was harsh , but Rumainians still have admireation.
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Romanians like Vlad these days because he turned a depressed part of their country into a tourist destination.
In Santiago, in the Dominican Republic, there used to be, and maybe still is, a Driving School called " Escuela de manejo "Hitler".
It was my understanding that Hitler never learned to drive a car. When he was young, he lacked money, when he became famous, having a chauffeur made him look more important.
I have no idea why they chose this name. Maybe there was another Hitler who founded it.
It has to be hard on people who are named Hitler these days.
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I can't remember if Hitler himself dealt with the issue, but Nazi racist ideology had a lot to say about India and the Indian caste system.
The general theory was that the Aryan race first appeared in India, so that anyone interested in the history of the Aryans had to start there. Also, the Aryans in India had the longest continuous experience of the struggle to maintain racial purity, which in their case unfortunately ended in total failure. The caste system, for an example, was an attempt to protect the racial purity of the Aryans from "blood pollution" by the darker Dravidians who lived in southern India at the time of the Aryan invasion, and its evident failure was seen in the darker skin colour of all the 20th Century inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, regardless of caste. Despite the most rigid prohibitions, race mixing had taken place, resulting in the downfall and humiliation of a once-great civilization.
I could see where religious Hindu youth of the two highest castes (Brahmin and Kshatriya, i.e., priests and warriors, respectively) would be interested in Nazi ideology defending the caste system on racist grounds, but at the same time the whole theory would be highly insulting to them because it defines them as debased mongrels whose "pure Aryan blood" had been "defiled" when the caste system failed to protect it.
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I could see where religious Hindu youth of the two highest castes (Brahmin and Kshatriya, i.e., priests and warriors, respectively) would be interested in Nazi ideology defending the caste system on racist grounds, but at the same time the whole theory would be highly insulting to them because it defines them as debased mongrels whose "pure Aryan blood" had been "defiled" when the caste system failed to protect it.
That may be - but it still seems to be gaining some unlikely fans...
Mongolia for Mongolians (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdV-wJyE3xE#)
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dude is right manchuria is gone and nobody care and when mongolia fades the same will happen.
The same is happening with the confedracy.I believe the confedracy today is nothing like the original.I read the original had jewish general,but today is highly anti-semetic.
I`ve notice ALL cases of people trying to preserve traditions ,tend to make something quite different then thier intent and rarely keep any positive aspects.
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Mongolia is huge and empty. China is very densely populated, and all those Chinese have to go somewhere. I don't think that Nazism will save Mongolia from Chinese expansion.
The Confederacy does not exist. Technically, it existed for about five years. Swastika scribblings and other signs of anti-Semitism are rare. There are a number of Jews elected as representatives from the old Confederacy, so I do not think that there has been a growth in anti-semitism in the Deep South. The usual mention of of Judah Benjamin, who occupied several high offices in the Jefferson Davis Administration. Jewish immigration to the US was mostly after the Civil War, but there were always some Jews in the US, notably NYC and Boston.
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dude is right manchuria is gone and nobody care and when mongolia fades the same will happen.
The same is happening with the confedracy.I believe the confedracy today is nothing like the original.I read the original had jewish general,but today is highly anti-semetic.
I`ve notice ALL cases of people trying to preserve traditions ,tend to make something quite different then thier intent and rarely keep any positive aspects.
Not really.
Where did you read this calumny?
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my mistake if I`m wrong could of swore quite afew synagogue gots burned in the south. may of been a presumed overlap of confedarate supporters to the simple anti-semites
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my mistake if I`m wrong could of swore quite afew synagogue gots burned in the south. may of been a presumed overlap of confedarate supporters to the simple anti-semites
It is complicated , there is a communication between white supremicists and neo natzis , but both are unwelcome minorities here .
Racism isn't caused by hot humid weather nor cured by snow.
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in my time it was 2 distict groups the klan and the neo-nazi`s(not sure the name is right)
I got no idea who the white supremicist are.
they used to not like each other,today I just don`t know. I think they`re all semi-active
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KKK and Natzi are distinct and do not agree entirely , but both count as W Supremeisist , they are able to make common cause now and then on that basis.
They have "earned" a negative respect with most of us Nation wide.
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The Nazis were surely more anti-Semitic. They were willing to include the Italians and the Japanese as worthy allies and disregard their non-Aryan traits. The Nazis hated the Poles and the Russians because they were Slavic and therefore inferior. The KKK hated them too, but because they were Catholics and Communists. The Nazis had uniforms that looked best on fit individuals. The KKK robes permitted the kluxers to really pig out.
The Kluxers did not favor exterminating the Blacks, just the ones that were uppity. They were happy with Blacks being sharecroppers and slaves. The Nazis wanted to exterminate the Jews and of course take all their money. The Kluxers wewre not after the Blacks' money, because they had none.
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what i find interesting is how different the klan is now. they were so powerful they had a headquarters in oakland. Ironicly what did them in was not the government or minorities, simple petty greed which caused fighting amoungst themselves and still is.nothing at all about race.
neo-nazi i haven`t a clue about them , but don`t even recall any news on them at all
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what i find interesting is how different the klan is now. they were so powerful they had a headquarters in oakland. Ironicly what did them in was not the government or minorities, simple petty greed which caused fighting amoungst themselves and still is.nothing at all about race.
neo-nazi i haven`t a clue about them , but don`t even recall any news on them at all
The government hurt them , arresting key persons , spreading the roumor that they had a lot more informants than they really did.
The SCLC hurt them , they looked a lot more civil and reasonable made the defenders of Christiandom and White virtue seem like thugs and stooges.
And as you say they hurt themselves , some notorious rape and murder cases cost them their reputation as defenders of the right.
The origional KKK was supposed to be Robin Hoods Merry men, they wern't really , but neither were Robins guys probly if we knew all.
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Presumably, Robin Hood's Merry Men were deposed Anglo Saxon nobility fighting a losing guerrilla war with the Norman French conquerers. I doubt that they were all that merry in Sherwood Forest when they had to catch and eat wild animals in the dead of winter. They had no microwave ovens, and lived in caves and such. Decent tarps had yet to be invented. Merriness was not a feature of the XI Century.
Today's Klan was a reincarnation of the original Klan founded by Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, which mostly vanished in the 1880's and was resurrected by DW Griffith's film Birth of a Nation as a poorboy racist version of the Elks and Eagles and other lodges, a fraternity for the illiterate who dropped out of the seventh grade. They were not all that merry, either, but they were not hunted by any Sheriff of Nottingham. Some of them managed to get elected as Sheriff of Chattalahootchie County, even. I am sure they were somewhat merrier in those days. But all those Kluxers are gone by now, and what we have is their grandsons, guys who seethe with resentment because they were not hired by Jiffy-Lube or Roto-Rooter.