The owner of an Indian clothing store ‘ for westernly outlooks’ says that he would only alter its name from Hitler if he was compensated for re-branding costs, amid a growing anger towards the clothing brand and shop.

New Delhi, India / NationalTurk – Indians walk past the shop named ‘ Hitler ‘ in Ahmadabad, India. Many are not aware of it many do not notice that there is a new store for westernly fashion only named after one of the great dictators of all time, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Now the men’s clothing store in India is being asked to change its name after the chosen ‘Hitler’ unsurprisingly upset the local community especially the Jewish one. Hitler massacred Jews during 2nd World War, they killed millions of them in concentration camps. Jews starved, got tortured and gassed and made soap there.

Adolf Hitler has many names but ‘ is ‘catchy’ really one of them ?

The clothing outlet, which sells Western men’s wear, opened 2 weeks ago in Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat with “Hitler” written in big letters over the front and with a Nazi swastika as the dot on the “i”. Hitler and Nazi swastika for commercial purposes stirred big row in India.

Rajesh Shah, founder and owner of Hitler store in India says : ‘ I will change the name if people want to compensate me for the money we have spent – the logo, the hoarding, the business cards, the brand,’

Shah put the total costs at about a whopping ! 150,000 rupees ($2,700).

‘ We had put up a cloth banner for over a month saying, ‘Hitler opening shortly,’ no one objected to the name then,” smart bussinessman Shah told The Times of India.

Hitler store owner in India : Hitler was the nickname of my friend’s grandfather. Is Hitler real ?

Shah insists also that until the men’s wear store opened he did not know who Adolf Hitler was and that Hitler was a nickname given to the grandfather of his store partner because ‘ he was a very strict figure’

Indian proprietor Rajesh Shah claims he was unaware that the name may cause offence as it derives from a nickname given to his business partner’s grandfather. Shah says no harm was intended when they named the shop with this bussiness idea. Jews don’t share his opinion.

The ‘Hitler’-store has provoked outrage among residents and the small Jewish community in Achmedabad in the Gujarat province in India

‘Frankly, until the time we applied for the trademark permission, I had only heard that Hitler was a strict man, he told the Times of India. ‘It was only recently that we read about Hitler on the internet.’

“I didn’t know how much the name would disturb people,” he continues. “It was only when the store opened I learnt Hitler had killed six million people.”

The city’s small Jewish community has not unexpectedly condemned the name ‘ Hitler’

“In the city of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence, how can anyone celebrate a person like Hitler who is known to have murdered millions of unarmed ordinary civilians?” Nikitin Contractor, convener of the Friends of Israel organization from Vadodara.

A senior Israeli diplomat said the Israeli embassy in India would raise the matter “in the strongest possible way.” “People use such names mostly out of ignorance,” Israel’s Mumbai Consul General Orna Sagiv.

Esther David, a prominent Indian writer in Ahmedabad who is Jewish, says she was “disturbed and distressed” by the Hitler shop, but added that some Indians used the word “Hitler” casually to describe autocratic people.

David said Jewish residents had sought to change Shah’s mind about the store’s name and told him about the Holocaust. But there is possibility that Shah would grow his opinion in favor of Hitler although majority of the world thinks otherwise.

The Hitler store row evoked memories of a controversy 6 years ago when a Mumbai restaurant owner called his cafe ‘ Hitler’s Cross ‘ and put a swastika on the hoarding, claiming Hitler was a “catchy” name and swastika is a beatiful and aesthetical figure.

The restaurant owner eventually agreed to rename after protests by the Israeli embassy, Germany and the U.S. Anti-Defamation League.

Hitler popular and respected in India ? Gandhi to turn over in his grave

Hitler is popular in many parts of India. Hitler attracts an unusual degree of respect in some parts of India. Hitler’s book ‘ Mein Kampf’ is a popular title in bookshops and on street stalls Gujarat schoolbooks issued by the Hindu nationalist state government were slammed a few years ago for praising Hitler as someone who gave ‘ dignity and prestige’ to the German government after the defeat in the Great War.