The Swastika, the most stigmatised symbol in the world right now I’d bet. It’s a
symbol that for many represent pain, genocide, war, tragedy, and grief. It’s ingrained
in many of us that this symbol stands for the ideology that caused the deadliest war
in human history. That being said, it means a different thing to a Hindu or a Buddhist.
It might be difficult, but it is important. Let’s explore the swastika.
Hi, I’m Tristan Johnson, and this is Step Back History. Be sure to click the subscribe
button as well as the bell notification to never miss a new Step Back video or live stream.
So first I need to thank my Patrons for this video. I knew it was an interesting and important
video to discuss on this channel, but that the demonetisation fairies were going to knock
it down to the stone age. Because of my patrons, we crossed a threshold that I could take the
hit and feel good. So thanks, folks, now, let’s take a look.
Content warning, we’re gonna talk about the Nazis at some point.
The earliest known symbol of the Swastika dates to a figurine of a bird found in Ukraine.
The fact that it’s carved out of mammoth ivory might give you a clue as to its age.
The current estimate is that it is around 15,000 years old. Some figure that it is a
depiction of a bird, while others claim it’s a fertility symbol. They’ve appeared in
ancient carvings in England, and Bulgaria as far back as 8,000 years ago.
In the Indus valley civilisation, the swastikas first show up between 3.3 and 5.3 thousand
years ago. In the ancient Sanskrit Vedas we find references to swastikas that back this
up. Archaeologists suspect that it’s old enough that the symbol came from ancient peoples
of central Asia, where it not only went to India, but to Europe, Africa, China, and even
the Americas. The first prominent place the Swastika has
significance is in the big three dharmic religions. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and even their very
distant cousins the Zoroastrians. Travel to India, and you’ll still see the swastika
in a lot of places. The word swastika even comes from ancient Sanskrit.
Hindus consider it a marker of goodness or well being. People would put them over their
doorways or on temples. They still frequently use the symbol to celebrate those big crazy
desi weddings or to celebrate new babies. It is meant to represent karma, motion, or
the lotus flower. Whether its clockwise or counterclockwise is important in this case.
The reverse clockwise version is actually called sauvastika. The Swastika represents
the sun, while the sauvastika represents the terrifying goddess, Kali.
Buddhists see the swastika as the footprint of the Buddha. It can represent a lot of things
to Buddhists. Sometimes it's a stand-in for the Buddha, or samsara, the concept of eternal
reincarnating lifetimes for the soul. Some groups even think it has healing properties
when placed over chakra points on the body. The Jains have a selection of eight auspicious
symbols that are very significant to their faith, and the swastika is one of them. They
feature on every single Jainist book, temple, and they even draw them before and after every
religious service. Jains believe in four different planes of existence for rebirth, and to the
Jains, that’s what the swastika represents. Zoroastrians used it as a symbol of the sun.
It seems they don’t do that anymore, but worth mentioning. Oh, what’s this? A video
I made about Zoroastrianism? Hm, better watch that one if you haven’t yet.
In China, both the swastika and the mirrored version since about the 10th century functioned
as just letters of their alphabet. This extended to Korea and Vietnam. It typically means ‘all’
or ‘eternal’. It shows up a lot in Buddhist writings from East Asia. It could also represent
the word ‘everything’, the number 10,000, the sun, or just as a symbol for a lot of
things. It still finds itself in Buddhist buildings, objects, and the like. There is
also a red swastika society that is trying to unify Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism
into one religion. They have one school in Singapore, and another in Hong Kong.
Also in the middle-ages, this symbol passed into the Japanese alphabet. They called it
maji and became the symbol of some influential Japanese clans. On their maps, it would mark
the location of a temple. They still do that today.
Now let’s go across the world to North America. The Swastika actually popped up in some native
American work. Around the Ohio and Mississippi rivers some objects have swastikas on them.
In the American southwest, the Navajo see it as a symbol of healing, and the Hopi use
it to represent a specific clan. A group in Panama called the Kuna people also use the
symbol, and used it as a flag in their rebellion against the Panamanian government. It is today
still the symbol of their people and the city of Kuna Yala.
And of course, I would be a bad Canadian if I didn’t mention the tiny town of Swastika
Ontario. It’s a mining town way up in the desolate reaches of northern Ontario. It’s
still there today. And finally, we get to… sigh… Europe.
The Swastika shows up a lot in ancient Greek and Roman art. It was on the shields and Ogham
stones of ancient Celts. It often represented the sun in a lot of pagan European cultures
in Slavic, Nordic, and Finnish regions. Some even think it was a symbol of Thor.
Man, would that not fly in the modern MCU, but it would better symbolise Disney’s founder…
a video for a different time. Christians began to use it as well. They used
to consider it a symbol of Christ’s immortality, and his conquering of the cross. You can still
find them in some old Christian churches in Europe today, usually as a holdover from the
Roman style. Things got gross, however, when nationalism
entered the scene. BUT OF COURSE. In the late 19th century, archaeologists digging in ancient
Troy found a swastika and decided that it came from a migration of Proto-Indo-Europeans,
which you can also call Aryans. A German romanticist, folklorist, populist (read: racist) movement
called völkisch decided to make the swastika the symbol of the Aryan race. I imagine you
can guess where this is going… In the early 20th century the Swastika had
many uses in different countries and in a variety of contexts. Most of the time it was
just a good luck symbol. As part of their racist ideology, I mentioned earlier, and
their want to rebrand themselves, the Nazis adopted the symbol in 1920. That’s where
you get this, the evil looking thing you’ve seen in a million movies, documentaries, and
museums. The symbol has never really come back from
this association. Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Brazil, and Hungary made the swastikas
as well as a bunch of other symbols associated with the Nazi regime illegal, except for scholarly
use, and for Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist temples. Oh, and don’t forget the Raelians. They
use it as a symbol too! Again, you can find out more in my video on the Raelians.
We then come to today. It’s a sticky symbol, and at an uncomfortable place between sacred
holy symbol for over a billion people, and a symbol of hate, death and genocide for entirely
different reasons. Safe to say, if you see a swastika anywhere, you’re gonna have some
reaction no matter what. Well, we made it! If you want to ask me a
question or pitch a video idea, I have a curious cat account at curiouscat.me/TristanPEJ. I
hope to hear from you. We’re in December now of 2017, and I am
getting tantalisingly close to 30,000 subscribers. If you folks wanna help out, this is the time
to show Step Back to friends or family who might not have seen the channel. If you beautiful
history fans can get Step Back to 30k by the end of 2017 it would be amazing!
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