Opinion |

Hitler’s Hindus: The Rise and Rise of India’s Nazi-loving Nationalists

The ‘Hitler’s Den’ pool parlor that shocked me on a round-India trip 10 years ago was no outlier. Admiration for Nazism – often reframed with a genocidal hatred for Muslims – is rampant in the Hindu nationalist camp, which has never been as mainstream as it is now

Shrenik Rao
Shrenik Rao
Send in e-mailSend in e-mail
Send in e-mailSend in e-mail
Shrenik Rao
Shrenik Rao

July 2008. I was on a cycling expedition, from the southernmost tip of India to its most northern state. Along the way, I took a pit stop at Nagpur, the geographic center of India and the epicenter of Hindu nationalism. There, I saw a building with a bizarre name: "Hitlers Den." A pool parlor, its walls were emblazoned with tacky Nazi insignia, and on its shopfront – a swastika on full public display.

Comments

ICYMI

'We Give Them 48 Hours to Leave': Israel's Plans to Transfer Gazans Go Back 60 Years

In a Rare Break From Self-censorship, Israelis Got to Watch Gaza Horrors on Their Screens

From Mount Hermon's Peaks, Netanyahu Plots His Vision of a Greater Israel

Why Europe Has Gone Cold on Israel's Blitz and 'Temporary' Occupation in Syria

Expulsion and Talk of Depopulating Gaza? That's Exactly What Ethnic Cleansing Looks Like

Turkey to Tehran via Tel Aviv: The Biggest Winners, and Losers, From Assad's Fall