Asian faiths in America try to save sacred swastika corrupted by Hitler
- Asian diaspora and Native Americans are trying to rehabilitate the swastika as a sacred religious symbol
- Some Jewish leaders empathise with the campaign; others say the swastika is beyond redemption
Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a doctor, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.
The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a centuries-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune. Indigenous people worldwide used it similarly.
But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross – a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.
Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora grew in North America, calls to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol became louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native Americans whose ancestors used it in healing rituals.
Deo believes she and people of other faiths shouldn’t have to sacrifice or apologise for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.