Give swastika back its real meaning

THE furore over Britain’s Prince Harry wearing a Nazi armband brought hypocrisy, tendentious social commentary, political doublethink and historical myopia to new levels of absurdity.

The swastika is an ancient good luck symbol associated with Hinduism, Buddhism and a multitude of oriental traditions. It is more than 5,000 years old, but its misappropriation by the Nazis obscured its true meaning, turning it into a symbol of hatred and racial prejudice... the exact opposite of what it stood for throughout the ages.

In Britain, Hindus are campaigning to have its original benign symbolism restored. In the meantime, of course, it continues to evoke horrific memories of the Holocaust. Understandably. But this should not impede its eventual rehabilitation by those religious and ethnic groupings to which it denotes the opposite of evil and hatred.