India: Hitler clothes shop owner refuses name change unless costs covered

The owner of an Indian clothing shop has said he will only change its name from “Hitler” if compensated.

The outlet, which sells western-style menswear, opened this month in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat with “Hitler” written over the front and a swastika as the dot on the “i”.

“I will change the name if people want to compensate me for the money we have spent on the logo, hoarding, business cards and the brand,” Rajesh Shah said.

Mr Shah said until the shop opened he did not know who Adolf Hitler was and that Hitler was a nickname given to the grandfather of his business partner because “he was very strict”.

Members of the tiny Jewish community in Ahmedabad condemned the store’s name, while a senior Israeli diplomat said the embassy would raise the matter.

“People use such names mostly out of ignorance,” Israel’s Consul General Orna Sagiv said.

Six years ago a Mumbai restaurateur called his café “Hitler’s Cross” claiming it was “catchy”.