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Image Credit: Twitter, Wikibio/Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Does This Photo Show Savarkar Meeting Jinnah In Conspiracy To Cause The Partition? No, Viral Claim Is False
India, 26 Aug 2022 10:44 AM GMT
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We found that the person in the image alongwith Savarkar is actually Stafford Cripps. The image was captured during the Cripps Mission of 1942, during which Cripps attempted to appeal to the Hindu Mahasabha, amongst other political leaders.
An old image of V.D Savarkar meeting with a person is widely shared across social media. Netizens are alleging that the person Savarkar is meeting is Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The image is going viral in the context of the ongoing row over V.D. Savarkar's inclusion in politics and religious festivals, which Congress is countering. Congress in Karnataka will organise rallies with images of freedom fighters such as Basavanna and Mysuru kings, Kittur Channamma, and Surpur Venkatappa Nayaka, among others.
Claim:
The image shows V.D Savarkar greeting a manúl and shaking his hand. The claim viral, alongwith the image, reads as follows, "Photo of Mohammad Ali Jinnah welcoming his best friend and the architect of Partition, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar."
The claim is viral across Twitter and Facebook with theesimilar claim.
The image was also viral in 2018 after former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt circulated it with the following claim.
Vinay Dokania, National Social Media Co-Coordinator for the Indian National Congress, tweeted the image with a similar claim.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false.
We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image, leading us to this image with the following caption. The caption reads, "Cripps: "India was never a Unitarian nation." Veer Savarkar: "To the Hindus, it is an article of faith that India, their motherland and holy land, is a cultural and national unit undivided and indivisible." As the image notes, the image shows Savarkar meeting with Stanford Cripps, the British Labour Party politician. He led the Cripps Mission of 1942, which was an effort by the British Government to secure the cooperation of India in the war effort against the Japanese.
Under the mission, Cripps met several political leaders of the day, such as V.D Savarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr B.R. Ambedkar, as per this article on the Open University website. However, the Cripps mission failed as several political leaders in India rejected the provisions of the mission.
Taking a cue from this, we conducted a keyword search and came across relevant keywords, 'Cripps and Savarkar'. We came across this tweet by historian Vikram Sampath, who authored two biographies on V.D. Savarkar.
In the tweet, he replied to dismiss rumours that the viral image depicted Savarkar allegedly aligning with the Cripps and the British rule even as the Quit India movement had gained momentum. Sampath notes in the tweet, "The picture is of Stafford Cripps welcoming the Hindu Mahasabha delegation for talks in 1942". Savarkar led the Hindu Mahasabha delegation during the Second World War.
We also came across this The Hindu article published on March 11, 2022. The Hindu article discussed the 'Instruments of Accession and Merger: The Journey of Integration', an exhibition that includes original archival documents and cartographic records.
In the article, the National Archives Deputy Director, Syed Farid Ahmad,is quoted as saying that a photograph of Hindu Mahasabha president V.D. Savarkar meeting Sir Stafford Cripps as part of the Cripps Mission in 1942 would be displayed at the exhibition.
We then conducted a keyword search for the Cripps Mission of 1942 to look for more media about the mission. This video was uploaded to the YouTube channel Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on October 28, 2013. At the 1.34 mark in the video, Savarkar can be seen talking with political leaders and other personalities.
At the 0.55 mark in the video, Stafford Cripps can be seen talking with Mahatma Gandhi. He can be seen in the same clothes as the person greeting Savarkar in the viral image.
We then conducted a keyword search for the biographies of V.D. Savarkar to ascertain the descriptions given to the image by biographers. We found the same image as the viral image in a biography titled, 'Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar'. On page 26, the description below the image read, 'Savarkar with Sir Stafford Cripps'.
On page 278 of Dhananjay Keer's biography, 'Savarkar and His Times (1950), we came across the same image but a darkened version. In the description, the author notes that the image shows 'Savarkar and Cripps' meeting.
Conclusion:
In our Fact Check, we found that the person in the image alongwith Savarkar is actually Stafford Cripps. The image was captured during the Cripps Mission of 1942, during which Cripps attempted to appeal to the Hindu Mahasabha, amongst other political leaders.
During the Second World War, V.D. Savarkar led the Hindu Mahasabha, and the image shows a meeting between the Hindutva leader and Cripps. We can thus ascertain that the image is shared with a false claim.ú
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
Also Read: These Images Show Misleading Comparison Between Cells Of Nehru, Gandhi And Savarkar
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