Hindu cultural organisations and religious groups have tried to explain that the Nazis did not use the swastika, but a hooked cross. For the Navajo people in the US, the right-facing swastika was a symbol of friendship, which they gave up after World War Two. It was used as a symbol by the Scouts in Britain until 1935 – like Kipling, Robert Baden Powell may have picked it up in India.
Rudyard Kipling featured the symbol on many of his book covers because of his association with India. Until recently, the Finnish Air Force used a swastika as an insignia on its badges.
The Danish brewing company Carlsberg, headquartered in Copenhagen, used the symbol as its logo from 1881 to the 1930s, and then discontinued it because of its Nazi association. In the early 20th Century, the swastika was used as a symbol of good luck in advertising, architecture and jewellery. A sign of good fortune, fertility, happiness, Sun, and it was given spiritual import as well as commercial value when it was used with or as a brand or logo," says Heller. "The sign was used in many ways before Hitler adapted it. Interlocked swastikas were used in textiles and architecture. In the early 20th Century, the swastika was widely used in Europe as a symbol of good luck. It is displayed at weddings and other festive occasions, to consecrate a new home, and while opening account books at the beginning of the financial year, or starting a new venture. In India, it's a symbol of the sun god with a clockwise orientation, and the auspicious symbol can be seen, often smeared in turmeric, drawn on thresholds and shop doors as a sign of welcome, or on vehicles, religious scriptures and letterheads. In Buddhism, known as the manji in Japanese, the emblem signifies the Buddha's footsteps. Swastika is even a girl's name in certain parts of India. In Hindu philosophy it is said to represent various things that come in fours – the four yugas or cyclical times, the four aims or objectives of life, four stages of life, the four Vedas. The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit roots su (good) and asti (to prevail), meaning wellbeing, prosperity or good fortune, and has been used in the prayers of the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu scriptures. "The motif appears to have first been used in Eurasia, as early as 7,000 years ago, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky… as a symbol of wellbeing in ancient societies," says the Holocaust Encyclopedia. The emblem was a sign of well-being and long life, and was found everywhere, from the tombs of early Christians to the catacombs of Rome and the Lalibela Rock Churches, to the Cathedral of Cordoba. The swastika has a long, complex history – much older than its association with Nazi Germany – dating back to prehistoric times. The symbol of Nazism, it is associated with genocide and racial hatred after the atrocities of the Holocaust. And, of course, the swastika (or the similar-looking hakenkreuz or hooked cross) is also a symbol of hate, embodying painful and traumatic memories of the Third Reich. The equilateral cross with legs bent at right angles – that looks like swirling arms or a pattern of L shapes – has been a holy symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism for centuries.
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