Why does the hindu swastika resemble the Nazi swastika?

Question

If i could paste an image I would have but sorry couldn't do it.For those who dont know please look up hindu swastika on google.I do not ask this to isult hindus as i'm a hindu myself but i could never figure out the similarities.It's very strange.

Answer 1

The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit svastika meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck. It is composed of su meaning "good, well" and asti a verbal abstract to the root as "to be"; svasti thus means "well-being". The suffix -ka forms a diminutive, and svastika might thus (andre) be translated literally as "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm", or "thing that is auspicious".

This word first appears in the Classical Sanskrit (in the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics) when hitlers great grandfather was also not born.

The original Hindu version is often decorated with a dot in each quadrant, However, in the Western world, it is most widely known and used as a symbol of Nazism (the Hakenkreuz, "hook-cross") and this political association has eclipsed its historical status as the fylfot.

Swastika was subverted in the early twentieth century after it was adopted as the emblem of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). This association occurred because Nazism stated that the historical Aryans were the forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed that, because of this, the subjugation of the world by Germany was desirable, and even predestined. The swastika was used as a conveniently geometrical and eye-catching symbol to emphasize the so-called Aryan-German correspondence and instill racial pride. Since World War II, most Westerners know the swastika as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to incorrect assumptions about its pre-Nazi use in the West and confusion about its sacred religious and historical status in other cultures.

Answer 2

The swastika is an ancient symbol used by many cultures over the centuries.

The Nazis adopted a large number of symbols from other cultures as a part of creating their own. Essentially they took the best and co-opted them.

The swastika, the eagle, even concentration camps (Hitler preferred term reservation - admired what America had done to the Native Americans)... all were borrowed.

There is actually very little that the Nazis did that had any originality - they simply did it all with more style... and the world suffered the results.

-dh

Answer 3

Come on - get your act together - its the other way round - why does the Nazi swastika resemble the Hindu swastika!

Answer 4

Hitler wanted to prove that the Germans were descendants of the Aryans, which populated what is modern day India.

According to the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryans

The Aryan race was a term used in the early 20th century by European racial theorists who believed strongly in the division of humanity into biologically distinct races with differing characteristics. Such writers took the view that the Proto-Indo-Europeans constituted a specific race that had expanded across Europe, Iran and India. This meaning was, and still is, common in theories of racial superiority which were embraced by Nazi Germany. This usage tends to merge the Avestan/Sanskrit meaning of "noble" or "elevated" with the idea of distinctive behavioral and ancestral ethnicity marked by language distribution. In this interpretation, the Aryan Race is both the highest representative of mankind and the purest descendent of the Proto-Indo-European population.



In other words, the Nazis adopted symbols from the ancient Aryan culture to try and bolster the myth of German descent from this group of people.

Answer 5

Actually, the swastika was originally representative of joy and fertility in women before Hitler and the Nazis ganked it to be their symbol.

Have you ever heard the David Bowie song, "China Girl"? There's a line where he says, "I stumble into town, just like a sacred cow, visions of swastikas in my head, plans for everyone..."

I always thought that was interesting that he'd tie the major symbol of the Hindu religion to one that is lesser known.

Hope that helped!

Answer 6

Nazi swastika is reverse of Hindu Swastika .That is the reason for the defeat of Hitler.

Answer 7

Certain American Indians had similar symbols. Carvings of them can be found along the bases of older streetlights in Glendale, CA. The symbol was common to many cultures as a sign of the four directions, and spiritual power, until Hitler turned it on it's side to make the Swastika.

Answer 8

Because it was originally a hindu sign, before Hitler decided to borrow it for the new organization he was starting up, which later became the nazi's.

Answer 9

Hitler basically just ripped off, and bastardized the swastika. Since the Nazis remain well-known in modern history, it's almost always attributed to them, despite it's origin. It's kind of like the pentagram and it's association with Satanism, despite the fact it's origin represents something completely different.

Answer 10

Actually hindu swastik is exactly inverse of the nazy one. However the similarity could be due to both the cultures originating from the same ARYAN TRADITION.