Desi ishtyle to boot. [Telegraph] via [HuffPo] (tip Karthik via email)

New best selling author in India
img: via Wikipedia

Apparently Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is a hot commodity among management students in India. Thousands of copies are flying off the shelves of bookstores that cater to colleges.

From [The Telegraph]

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.

So why would management students, of all people, in India, of all places read one of the most notorious books of all time? Apparently students see it as a self help book, one replete with …. motivation.

“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.

“They see it as a kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it”

There is no indication of “Mein Kampf” being on the syllabus of any Indian university. So where is this sudden rise in popularity coming from?

Is it because Indians are ticked off at Israel for poking fun of revered Bollywood song and dance routines? Everyone say “Dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga, dinga dinga dee”.

There are other theories tying the sudden popularity of Mein Kampf to India’s dual role in World War 2, Hindu nationalism and, the Swastika. Thankfully they stopped story of blaming Ganpati for Mein Kampf’s popularity. These theories are laughable at best. If these theories held any water, “Mein Kampf” would’ve been successful in India a long time ago and among other sections of India’s populace.

The fact is, most management students read books recommended to them by peers or management gurus. The most likely cause for the sudden rise in popularity is that this book was recommended in some forum or by some highly regarded personality in the field of management in India, as a self help book. In other words, it appears to be a fad, one that we can only hope passes by real quick.

After all, even if Mein Kampf is a passing fad, exposing future leaders of industry and the nation, to books laced with racism and vitriol may not be an ideal thing to happen.

Looks like you are one of our regular visitors. Here is our RSS feed, just another way to keep up with the new posts.