Tag: diwali

India Outside India

Swastika again …

devayanitirthaliLeave a comment
It was Diwali week last week. A lot of people from home updated their facebook profile photos with images related to their Diwali celebrations. One of it was of a rangoli in the doorway with swastika in the center. I was wondering what people outside of India (Western countries) will associate it with.
I wrote a couple of blog posts some time (years?) back about Indian Swastika and Hitler’s Hakenkreuz, after the swastika controversy in TC. I talked with people wherever I went, about the Indian Swastika and the meaning of the word itself (Swasti = wellbeing). I tried to unpack my feelings about how I feel when it is misrepresented as a symbol of hate. Talked with the office of diversity in Teachers College and told them I will help with the lecture they were planning about symbols and their meanings in different cultures, in the hope that I can talk about the difference between the Indian Swastika, the meaning of the word and how it differs from Hitler’s symbol of SS.

Nothing much has changed after that. In the Diwali packet I got a sticker imitating Rangoli design. At both ends of the colorful strip are two swastikas. Rangoli designs are drawn for various reasons. The ones in the doorway like my sister sent, are to bring happiness, prosperity and feeling of festivity. The ausipicious symbol of a swastika, the name of which itself means ‘wellbeing’ is generally a given in such drawings. I obviously would not be putting it in my doorway in US for the fear that people will label me fascist, anti-Semite. I don’t know how I feel about this. I am not a big fan of Rangoli stickers (I rather draw whatever I feel like everyday) but the matter of am I free to draw or stick a swastika on my door (in the context of a rangoli) without being labeled anti-Semite still remains.

As I said nothing has changed.