The Sri Lankan government is to take up the issue of the proposed EU ban on the Swastika symbol at international level, as Buddhists and Hindus too revere a similar symbol. Religious Affairs Ministry secretary P. Kodituwakku said the government was gathering information to prove that the swastika symbol had been used in Sri Lanka from ancient days.
For thousands of years, it has meant life and good fortune and for 80 years, in the west, it has denoted racism and genocide. Now the swastika symbolises a dichotomy in the new Europe as Germany seeks to extend measures against any resurgence of anti-Semitism, and western Hindus and Buddhists promote the time-honoured use of a symbol of life. It is a criminal offence to display Nazi symbols in Germany and there are calls for the German government to use its current presidency of the EU to push for the ban on Nazi symbols and Holocaust denial to cover all 25 member states. Similar attempts have failed on two previous occasions, and the European Commission has said it would be a strong signal at a time of growing Islamophobia, racism and hostility to foreigners across Europe. continued... Yet not everyone sees the symbol only through the prism of modern history. Next week, Hindu groups across Europe will launch a campaign to reclaim the swastika, a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, lobbying politicians and European governments against outlawing it.