Hitler's Mein Kampf Seen As Self-Help Guide For India's Business Students

Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf has become a popular book among students in India looking for tips on management tactics, reports the Daily Telegraph. Students striving to become successful businessmen and women are using the Nazi leader's infamous autobiography as a self-help book.

Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

...
Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we're happy to sell it to them," said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.

Management Today questions the effectiveness of Mein Kampf as a management self-help guide.

Even if you can stomach the vitriol, paranoia, militarism and crude racism, the book is so long and tedious that even Hitler's ally Mussolini didn't manage to plough his way through it, once apparently dismissing it as 'a boring tome that I never been able to read' (Churchill concurred, calling it 'turgid, verbose [and] shapeless'). So its credentials as a management text seem rather dubious.

The Telegraph reports that Mein Kampf has also been popular in Croatia, Russia and Turkey. While in Germany, its publication is banned until 2015. It is not banned in the United States.

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Comments

[amit j]

12:01 AM on 05/15/2009

I don't buy the "self-help" bit. People want to read about the man who brought the oppressive British Empire to its knees. In Indian textbooks, the Axis powers are seen to have helped India get freedom by weakening the British empire.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

10:36 AM on 04/27/2009

The ignorance and racism in this thread is just breathtaking. Here's a tip to preserve your online reputation: Refrain from commenting on books you've not read. Also please refrain from commenting on religions and cultures you know little to nothing about. Remember: All Teh Stupid you post on the internet remains in the ether, pretty much in perpetuity.

That is all! Thank you, and carry on.

[Pendragon2008]

12:34 PM on 05/03/2009

I have read Mein Kampf, as part of study on dictators and totalitarianism.

There is a passage stating that if only 12,000–15,000 Jews were gassed, then "the sacrifice of millions of soldiers would not have been in vain."

The idea of someone...ANYONE - let alone impressionable youth - reading this as a popular "self-help" book should disturb anyone with the vaguest clue as to what the book lays out.

Mein Kampf or "My Struggle") lays out a course for FASCISM, in a similar vein to Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism, just with a personal slant on it. It combines autobiography with an exposition on Hitler's political ideologies of fascism. For all intents and purposes, this book is the Nazi Bible.

And to complete his quote mentioned above, Winston Churchill actually said: "the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but PREGNANT WITH ITS MESSAGE."

[GYRainforest]

06:09 PM on 04/26/2009

The fact that this book is a favourite among Indian Business students at this time, speaks volumes.
An Indian colleague of mine in a swaggering comment, claimed that India will one day be more economically prosperous than the USA.

He further stated that India will one day hold supreme prominence over the rest of the world; and that Indians are currently on their road to world domination.

In light of this view , I can understand the Indian's business students fascination with Mein Kampf.

It is a bit scary then, if the fortune 500 business some of which is in Wall Street, employ students which such views. Heaven help us all.

[rahul80]

12:46 AM on 04/26/2009

hitler is indeed, popular in India but it has got nothing to do with ant semitism or a secret appreciation of his cruelty !! Its mainly about taking a stern approach to anti national forces !! people are sick of the chicken hearted behavior of some of our parties in power ( esp. Congress) to repeated acts of aggression by some of out neighbors and yearn for a tough leader !! Its mainly because of this reason that Modi, a fascist but an honest and tough leader is gaining popularity !!

[facebook1]

09:55 AM on 04/26/2009

Modi is not a fascist!

[Pendragon2008]

12:36 PM on 05/03/2009

Do you have ANY idea how fascism took root in the Weimar Republic before it became Nazi Germany?

How movements like the Third Reich start as nationalistic pride, and the yearning of masses for a single strong individual to lead them?

[facebook1]

12:36 PM on 04/25/2009

Always remember, that it was Nehru (Left liberal PM of India) who refused to vote for Israel as a country in 1947 at the UN. His daughter, Indira Gandhi and her family another left liberal who have ruled India 85% of the time since independence have been against Israel and for the Pal's. These left liberals are the enemies of the Jews.

Not us conservative Hindus! We will always be with Israel!

[Narby]

10:05 PM on 04/25/2009

Nehru and Ghandi would roll over in their graves at the popularity of Mein Kampf. The fact that Nehru refused to vote for Israel in 1947 doesn't make him a Nazi.

[facebook1]

09:58 AM on 04/26/2009

IF it were for Gandhi (although Gandhi was a good soul), there would not have been a partition. Imagine that.

200 Million Paks and 120 Mil B'Desh Muslims + 180 Mil Indian Muslims + the lefties of India. would have made India an Islamic Nation.

Thanks, but no thanks.

[facebook1]

12:30 PM on 04/25/2009

To all my Jewish friends, Please do not trust or believe these left liberals. They are antisemitic to the core. We Hindus cherish our Jewish friends. These liberals are the friends of Islamists everywhere!

Always..remember that!

[sieger]

09:06 AM on 04/25/2009

This is an appalling story, as is the one out of the Middle East that the notorious forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," is a best-seller there.

Hitler's ideology, as worked out in Mein Kampf, had horrific consequences. The Jews were murdered relentlessly. The Slavs were slated for the same treatment, with those who survived at all, forseen as Helots to the German invaders. The Slavs suffered casualties into the many millions, making one wonder about the "popularity" of Hitler's books in Eastern Europe.

But even beyond these two major ethnic groups, what Hitler & Co had in store for the world would have made Dante's hell seem like a fairy tale.

Anyone who thinks they can learn "business tactics" from Mein Kampf is sadly mistaken, because for Hitler, hate and ideology trumped economics every time.

Is another Hitler possible? That is a question raised in another post, namely:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-gellately/is-another-hitler-possibl_b_189037.html

That blogger's books show the social catastrophe that erupted with the clash of Nazism and its declared opponent, so-called "Jewish Bolshevism."

[facebook1]

09:09 PM on 04/25/2009

IF there is going to be another Holocaust, it would in the hands of the Muslims or in the hands of the radical left....not Hindus!

[v eyepete]

07:50 AM on 04/25/2009

India, the country with millions of starving people and some child movies stars who live in garbage dumps. Perhaps they should be reading a book on public housing.

[facebook1]

09:44 AM on 04/25/2009

What the heck is "Public Housing"? Isn't that like Socialism? Let me understand this... So millions of starving people in India...and yet they should rob from the others who may not be starving to give to the starving. What a commie.

[DoesItMatter]

12:13 PM on 04/25/2009

And you might want to read about other parts of the World.

[sparkandy]

07:41 AM on 04/25/2009

Are they reading it in translation or in the original German? Don't know why this seems important to me....maybe I need more coffee.....

[CostaDelBarto]

01:45 AM on 04/25/2009

For those who enjoyed Mein Kampf, there's another great book in the Business For Meglomaniacs series:

Mao's Little Red Book.

[facebook1]

12:32 AM on 04/25/2009

Quote from "Holy Cow - An Indian adventure". AMAZING

While Jonathan works, Joshua takes me to Worly Hill above the sea where one Jewish building remains, rotting from concrete cancer, it sits small and forlorn among growing numbers of gleaming skyscrapers. Inside is ORT (Org of educational Resources and Tech training), an institute that prepares Indian Jews for emigration to Israel. Its direct Benny Isaac, invites me in with a pat on the back and a couple of jokes. He's a big bloke with a huge heart and, while he just loves his job, he feels sad that he's helping to drain his community dry.

"Most of my school friends have gone, most who come to ORT have gone, most of his staff has gone. They're Jewish, it was their birthright, but mostly they went for economic opportunities. I went to Israel, I loved it, but I love India. I'm loyal to the Mother. India let my ancestors live freely; they....were allowed to eat meat, live as they wanted and to be free... The Hindus and we have best relations, they have protected us and looked after us. This is the only place Jews have not been persecuted. I can't leave here."

I totally understand his decisions.

[trw2k]

08:05 PM on 04/24/2009

So most of the people here haven't read it but have strong opinions about it, how typical.

I have read it from cover to cover and found it very interesting. I was not looking for answers to questions or confirmation about my view of reality or justifications for either side of the Jewish/German issue. I was curious.

From a historical perspective it is a valuable book to have read and frankly the thoughts are quite similar to the immigration debate now raging in certain parts of this country. He saw what he thought of his country changing for the worse and took steps to right the wrongs he saw. (Value judgment left out intentionally)

It is quite informative about how he got into politics and his realization that he was charismatic.

So all you know it all, boring, opinionated, grammar correcting, blowhards on both sides of this issue, educate yourself before you offer up your nonsense.

[jsgaetano]

09:29 PM on 04/24/2009

Every thought a conservative has ever had is contained within it's pages.

[Acidic]

06:17 AM on 04/25/2009

That's just sad.

[NURREDIN]

07:21 PM on 04/24/2009

Wasn't the Swastika originally a Sanskrit symbol?

[synergie]

10:17 PM on 04/24/2009

Sanskrit is a language and thus has letters not "symbols". The swastika is, was and always has been a symbol symbolizing luck and good fortune and is found in the home of nearly every Hindu, including temples. Just because this one maniac and his enablers and followers imbue it with some stigma it does not change it's true meaning and importance in religious and cultural symbolism.

[Virginia Wai]

10:46 PM on 04/24/2009

Not quite, the direct is opposite.

[stratfoj]

03:27 PM on 04/24/2009

while travelling in bangalore, india, two years ago i remember finding it slightly bizarre that the book shops, particularly around the university campus, almost exclusively stocked mein kampf and outdated computer manuals.

[Sridevi Raman]

04:21 PM on 04/24/2009

Which book shop was this? I would like to visit it.

[ThirdSection]

03:05 PM on 04/24/2009

I tried to read it once, but I will have to concur with Mussolini and Churchill on their impressions. Mein Kampf is a tedious book that was written by a dangerously delusional person who did not know how to write.

The only thing I can think of that Indian business students see in it is the shock value. Perhaps they think that having it on a bookshelf in the office will impose a sense of awe upon any visitors, as in "there's a ruthless person who will go far."

Either that, or it simply gains something in the translation to Hindi.