My Best Argument Against Cultural Appropriation

 What is cultural appropriation? Unfortunately, I don't believe most people can answer this question with much confidence. For starters, in today's globalized world, it is more difficult to draw lines between cultures and therefore more difficult to separate mixing from appropriation. Secondly, most of us (myself included) mostly know about cultural appropriation through our knowledge of controversies related to it on social media. While social media is great at introducing us to new topics, it is not always good at letting us delve deep into them. In short, it is better at "breadth" than "depth," and therefore increases our exposure while limiting our understanding. 

I can't say I am an expert on cultural appropriation. However, in recent years, I have had an experience that has given me a personalized perspective on it. Today, I would like to share it with you. In order to do that, first take a look at the following images:

If you're Indian, especially if you're Hindu. there is probably nothing that jumps out to you in these pictures. Nothing jumped out to me at least. These are the homes of working-class people living in very small homes in Mumbai. Most of these people, regardless of what one might think, are actually very open and accepting of other kinds of people. During my site visits, it was very common for me to see Hindus, Muslims, and Christians living together harmoniously as neighbors in the same chawl, slum, fishing village or gaothan. I don't know my research subjects personally, but I'd hesitate to suspect them of any bigotry.

When I presented these images to faculty members, I was taken aback by their dumstruck reaction. As it happened, some of them were Jewish. In case you are Indian, you probably did not notice the swastikas in these images. My Jewish professors did. They had to stop me in the middle of my presentation to question me on the significance of the symbol, and I was forced to explain how this swastika is different from that used by Nazis. 

I have presented these images many times now. I have always had the option of blurring out the swastikas in the images for the sake of cultural sensitivity. However, I haven't done that because I feel this is a good opportunity for me to both reflect on and talk about cultural appropriation. 

The swastika was originally a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. There was no malice associated with the symbol. Neither was it a divisive symbol, its connotations linked more to the spiritual aspect of religion than to the group identity that religion creates. Today, however, most people in the Western world link the symbol with the Holocaust.  The Western world undoubtedly has a cultural dominance internationally (think international media),  and therefore, many other cultures also associate the swastika with the Holocaust. Recently, I came across a post made by a friend on social media. This friend is a Jewish high-school student in State College, Pennsylvania. She wrote in response to piece of Jewelry by Shein with a swastika locket: "After the suffering that was experienced by millions, the swastika can never again be a symbol of peace and spirituality."

My question is: Why?

I don't think India is perfect. As we can clearly see in the current political climate, there is a great deal of religious and communal divides present there. However, India is thought to be the only country with no history of persecuting Jews (some Jewish friends of mine have contested that Japan holds this title as well). Isn't it ironic then that the country which has never persecuted Jews is also the country which uses the swastika symbol everywhere? And I mean, everywhere. I actually did not realize how widespread this symbol was until my Jewish professors pointed it out to me because it was literally in every one of my fieldwork images! As an Indian and a Hindu, I have normalized it to that extent! Isn't it also ironic that the people who would suffer the most if the swastika was to be culturally banned would be the people who never persecuted Jews? As an additional tidbit, I'd also like to mention that a significant percentage of people who perished in the Holocaust were Romas, a fact that is forgotten due to the focus being mainly on Jews. Romas have descended from Northern India, and their cultural practices can be traced back to the same cultural practices that gave rise to the swastika symbol! The irony!

We can keep arguing back and forth about the swastika and what it means, but the point I'm trying to make here is about how cultural appropriation can affect the perception of groups other than its own. In the case of the swastika, a group that considered itself to be superior adopted a symbol it didn't have much to do with and gave it a new, sinister meaning. The symbolism of the swastika was corrupted not by the actions of the people who originated it, but by those who adopted it with complete entitlement based on its own belief of superiority. Since European history tends to take centre stage in our educations, once again due to the dominance of certain groups, there are many people who will never know the true meaning of the swastika. They might also presume negatively about the originators of the symbol, a perception that would be completely unfair.

This is the risk of cultural appropriation. When cultures are appreciated, they retain their original meanings. When they are appropriated, their meanings are lost and at risk of corruption. I hope my personal experience has helped you get some insight into the cultural appropriation issue, or at least more than whatever you thought after reading about the latest controversy about some popstar's headgear in a music video.

(As a silver lining to this article, I just want to mention that after my presentations are over my Jewish professor's and I usually have a good laugh about this issue. We are friendly with each other, and appreciative of the relationships between our cultures. My Jewish professors have also been very welcoming of some of my rather controversial ideas, and mostly encouraged my intellectual curiosity. I, too, have developed a respect for Jewish culture and ideology, and look forward to a trip to Israel in the future. Perhaps some relationships cannot be destroyed by the misuse of cultural symbols and artefacts, or at least that is my hope.)