Interview with first Indian PM edited to claim he 'did not take part in independence movement'
A video of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his final television interview has been edited and shared in social media posts that falsely claimed he said he was not involved in the country's independence movement. The footage was clipped to omit Nehru saying Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah -- the founder of Pakistan -- was not part of the fight for independence from British rule.
"Rare video... 'I was not involved in the freedom struggle at all. Rather, I opposed it.' Nehru ji," read the Hindi-language caption of a video shared more than 7,500 times on social media platform X after it was posted on June 22, 2024.
The black-and-white video shows Indian independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru being interviewed (archived link).
According to English-language text overlaid on the video that appears to transcribe the interview, Nehru says, "I was not involved in the fight for independence at all. In fact, you opposed it".
Nehru then speaks about the founding of the Muslim League, the subcontinent's partition in the wake of independence in 1947 and how he and independence hero Mahatma Gandhi were not in favour of partition.
The demand for a separate Muslim state was led by the Muslim League's Muhammad Ali Jinnah (archived link).
The same video was shared alongside a similar claim on X and on Facebook.
But the video has been edited; in the unedited clip, Nehru was in fact speaking about Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Edited clip
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video found it corresponds to a longer version of the interview uploaded to YouTube by India's national broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, on May 14, 2019 (archived link).
The video is titled "Jawaharlal Nehru's last TV Interview - May 1964".
According to the video description, the interview with American television host Arnold Michaelis was perhaps the late leader's last significant interview before his death on May 27, 1964.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the YouTube video uploaded by Prasar Bharati (right):
The section of the interview seen in the false posts corresponds to Nehru's response to Michaelis' question at the video's 14-minute, 34-second mark: "Well now, you and Mr Gandhi and Mr Jinnah, you were all involved at that point, before the point of independence and then partition, in the fight for independence of India from British domination?"
Nehru answers: "Mr Jinnah was not involved in the fight for independence at all. In fact, he opposed it."
The same video of Michaelis' interview with Nehru is also included on the website of the National Digital Library of India (archived link).
