A viral image showing prominent historical figures from the cabinet of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, such as B R Ambedkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is being widely circulated across social media. Social media users have shared the viral image claiming that Jawaharlal Nehru gave the first Iftar party in Independent India in 1947.
Claim:
In the viral image, historical figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, Maulana Azad, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel can be seen sitting at a table and participating in a feast.
The Twitter page, ‘हम लोग We The People’ shared the image with a caption in Hindi that reads, “स्वतंत्र भारत मे पहली इफ्तार पार्टी 1947 में जवाहर लाल नेहरू ने दी थी जिसमें उनका मंत्रीमंडल नजर आ रहा है| लेकिन सरदार पटेल ने इसका विरोध किया था कियह गलत परंपरा शुरू करना देश के लिए खतरनाक है जबकि कुछ ही महीने पहले हमने होली, दिवाली पर किसी पार्टी का आयोजन नही किया था.”
“The first Iftar party in independent India was given by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, in which his cabinet is visible. But Sardar Patel had opposed it, saying that it is dangerous for the country to start this wrong tradition, considering a few months back, we did not organise any party on Holi, Diwali.”
Fact Check:
We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image and came across an image on the Facebook page, ‘Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.’ The post dated October 27, 2020, captioned, “During dinner on the occasion of C. RajaGopalachari’s appointment as India’s Governor General. (June 1948)”
Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and came across a Twitter thread uploaded on October 29, 2021, on the page ‘History of India’. The post is captioned, “Jawaharlal Nehru’s Cabinet seen at lunch hosted by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel seating next to C. Rajagopalachari who became Governor-General, 1948. Courtesy: Homai Vyarawalla.”
The second tweet in the thread reads, “Seated here are: Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Baldeve Singh, Maulana Azad, J. Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, John Matthai, Jagjivan Ram, Mr Gadgil, Mr Neogi, Dr Ambedkar, Shyama Prasad Mookherji, Gopalaswamy Iyengar and Jayaramdas Daulatram.”
We also came across a result on Alamy with a caption in Marathi that translates to, “Marathi: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and other ministers attending a dinner invitation given by Vallabhbhai Patel to the Cabinet in celebration of Chakraborty Rajagopalchari becoming India’s first Governor General. June 1948”
In our Fact Check, we found the same image with a similar caption in a publication published by the Mumbai Corporation to mark the 125th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution. The image can be found on page 65.
Additionally, we also came across a document that contained some rare photographs clicked by Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman photojournalist.
This contained a top shot from the same feast. The caption of the image reads, ”Nehru’s Cabinet seen at lunch hosted by Sardar Patel after C. Rajagopalachari became Governer-General, 1948. Seated here are: Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Baldeve Singh, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Raj Kumari, Amrit Kaur, John Matthai, Jagjivan Ram, Mr Gadgil, Mr Neogi, Dr Ambedkar, Shyama Prasad Mookherji, Gopalaswamy Iyengar and Jayaramdas Daulatram.”
Conclusion:
The viral image being circulated on social media with the claim that it shows an Iftar dinner hosted by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is actually an image from 1948. It shows a lunch hosted by Sardar Patel after C. Rajagopalachari was appointed as the Governor General of India. This lunch was attended by several historical figures who were members of Nehru’s Prime Ministerial cabinet.
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Fact Check
2023-04-10 10:14:48.0
Does This Image Show Historical Figures At Maulana Azad’s Iftar Party? No, Viral Image Depicts Lunch Hosted By Sardar Patel
