“The Nazi symbol is called the Hakenkreuz (“Hooked cross”), and should never be confused with Swastika.”
The rights of Hindus to display a Swastika were recently preserved and protected by a significant piece of legislation that was passed in the NSW Parliament.
The NSW legislation deals with the banning of Nazi symbols which the Hindu community unequivocally welcomes. Similar legislation has been passed in Victoria and a bill has been introduced in the Queensland Parliament for the same.
The Hindu Council of Australia and several prominent members of the Hindu community across state lines worked with the Jewish community and Governments to ensure that the state legislations do not ban the display of the sacred Hindu symbol Swastika (also considered sacred by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs).
The Nazi symbol Hakenkreuz is often referred to as the Swastika in several western countries even though there seems to be no record of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler himself ever using the word Swastika in his speeches or in writing. Neither does there seem to be any mention of the word Swastika in Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf while the word Hakenkreuz is mentioned several times in the book.
On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that the Hakenkreuz was mistranslated to Swastika when Mein Kampf was translated from German to English. However, the continued usage of the word Swastika to refer to the Nazi symbol Hakenkreuz is a matter of serious concern for many in the Hindu community.
Read the article by Pallavi Jain in The Australia Today.