Native American basketball team with swastika as emblem

I came across this picture on the internet the other day and I found the image so striking but it was just in a collection of WTF photos without an explanation. I think it deserves one so I am writing this post. I am not going to quote the original source as the website doesn’t explain anything, it’s just a bunch of random pictures from the past.

I can’t remember when exactly, I must have been older than 6 but younger than 10 when I first became aware that the swastika (or ‘srivatsa’ as it’s known in Sanskrit which is also the origin of my name) was not originally a Nazi symbol. It happened when I picked up a brass tray my parents brought back from the middle-east. It was decorated with beautifully etched ethnic patterns with swastika’s integrated into the design. I was old enough to be aware of the Nazi regime and somehow I had the presence of mind to know that this brass tray wasn’t part of that evil.

I was curious so I asked my mother about it and she explained that the srivatsa (as I prefer to call it) was actually a symbol of peace and good fortune and that the Nazi regime had hijacked it as a symbol of power. The explanation was short and sweet and enough for me. I am not going to write an essay about the origins of this symbol as there are plenty of websites that already do a great job such as the wikipedia entry to be honest you don’t really need to go any further than that.

From that day on, as I have travelled the world, I have been astounded at how proliferated this symbol is in the world and that one evil regime could hijack it and change it’s meaning for over a half-a-century. One group that openly uses it in its original spirit is Falun Gong as part of their main emblem ‘the Falun’. In 2004 they won a court ruling in Germany that allowed it to be used in public places.

Falun Gong main emblem

There is a movement out there now with some media like The Epoch Times making a concerted effort to reclaim the symbol back with articles such as the one on the German court ruling and this one.

I have also included a link to this Facebook group in case you feel like joining. I think it’s enough to spread awareness of its original meaning to change the world’s consciousness, I hope you do too.

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