Chandra Arya, an Indian origin member of the Canadian Parliament issued a speech calling upon the members of the house and all Canadians to distinguish between the Hindu religious sacred symbol Swastika and the Nazi symbol Hakenkreuz. He shared a video of the speech on Twitter.
My statement in Canadian parliament today calling to distinguish between the Hindu religious sacred symbol Swastika and the Nazi symbol of hatred called Hakenkreuz in German or the hooked cross in English pic.twitter.com/1Os0rFTedm
— Chandra Arya (@AryaCanada) February 28, 2022
He said, “On behalf of over one million Canadians of several religious faiths and in particular Hindu-Canadians and as a Hindu-Canadian myself, I call upon members of this house and all Canadians to distinguish between the Hindu religious sacred symbol Swastika and the Nazi symbol of hatred called Hakenkreuz in German or the hooked cross in English.”
“In the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, Swastika means that which brings good luck and well-being,” he added. He reiterated that Swastika should not be equated with the German symbol of hatred Hakenkreuz.
He went on to say, “Please stop calling the Nazi symbol of hatred as Swastika. We support the ban of the Nazi symbol of hatred Hakenkreuz or the hooked cross. Calling it Swastika is to deny us Hindu-Canadians our religious right and freedom to use our sacred symbol Swastika in our daily life.” Later on, he also issued a written statement on his speech in the parliament.
Arya is an MP from the Nepean constituency of Ontario province. He was elected to represent the Nepean seat in the House of Commons in the 2015 Canadian federal election, and he was re-elected in the 2019 election.
Swastika and the Hakenkreuz debate
There is a lot of fuss around the Swastika and the Hakenkreuz debate. Many people and groups have stood to equate the Hindu religious symbol with the Nazi symbol. However, both these signs are entirely different. The Swastika, a Hindu sacred emblem, was originally mentioned in the Vedas. The swastika is made out of the words ‘su’, which means “good,” and ‘asti,’ which means “to be.” In other terms, bliss. It can be traced back 6,000 years to rock and cave drawings.
Furthermore, the American Jewish Committee, one of the country’s oldest Jewish advocacy organizations, released a leaflet clarifying the distinction between the Swastika used for millennia by Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cultures and the deformed Nazi version of it.
