Recently, an image of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was shared by a few users on social media, with a false claim that Nehru was publicly slapped in an event in 1962 after he had said in a speech that “Aryas were refugees in India”. 

A Twitter user name Murali Jai Hind shares a photo with a claim that "Must be read by every Hindu in this country". 

The viral message reads:-

When Nehru got a slap on the face by Swami Vidyanand Videh post 62 debacles.
Reason: Nehru in his speech had said that Aryas were refugees in India, hearing this Swami who was also the Chief guest got up went up to the stage and slapped Nehru, pulled the mike to him, and said ” The Aryas were not refugees they were my ancestors and they were original inhabitants of Bharat, but your ( Nehru’s ancestors ) were of Arabian descent and in your veins flow Arab blood so you in fact are not the original inhabitants of this great country … if Sardar Patel was the P.M instead of you, we would not be in such a sorry state. “

Fact Check

After doing reverse image research on Google, we found that the same image can be seen in an article by Outlook magazine published in 2014. The photograph was captioned, "Braced for the worst Nehru is prevented from plunging into a riotous crowd in 1962, before the war"

We searched for the image in the archives of AP with the keywords “Nehru 1962”  and found it is true that this photograph is from 1962 but the narrative used was false. The caption of the image reads, "A security man grabbed Indian Prime Minister Nehru to keep him from plunging into a riotous crowd at a meeting of the Congress Party in Patna, India, January 1962. Later in the year, Communist China's attack on India plunged Nehru into new troubles."

A report on the same incident in The Florence Times dated January 8, 1962, carrying the same photograph has also reported the incident as "Security men hold back Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to prevent him from plunging into a disorderly crowd in Patna, India, in a personal effort to restore order. A wild demonstration by Indian peasants broke up this meeting of Nehru’s Congress Party and sent 24 persons to the hospital.”

Viral since May 2017

The same image has been viral on Facebook since 2017 but with another false claim that Nehru was beaten up by a mob due to his failure in China War'.



In conclusion, the viral claim is false that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was publicly slapped in an event in 1962 after he had said in a speech that “Aryas were refugees in India”. We found that the picture was taken in 1962 when a security man grabbed Nehru to keep him from plunging into a riotous crowd at a meeting of the Congress Party in Patna.