Edited Image of Mahatma Gandhi Shared to Take a Dig at Late Leader

The original photo shows Mahatma Gandhi joking with late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

A photo of Mahatma Gandhi was shared on social media platforms, which shows him rubbing noses with a young woman with short hair. The black-and-white photo is being shared with text that takes a dig at Gandhi, saying that the freedom struggle was so fierce that he had to fight with his nose too.

The image, however, is edited. We found that the original photo from where Mahatma Gandhi’s photo is taken actually shows him with former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, where the two can be seen engaging in a conversation.

CLAIM

The Hindi text shared with the claim takes a dig at Gandhi’s efforts behind the freedom struggle, which says -

“आज़ादी की भयंकर आर पार की लड़ाई- में गाँधी जी को नाक से भी लड़ना पड़ता था तब जा कर आज़ादी मिली!!”

[Translation: In the fierce fight for independence, Gandhi ji had to fight with his nose, and only then did we get independence!]

Other claims with the same photograph can be seen here, here and here, and some claims have dated back to 2015.

WHAT WE FOUND

After cropping the photo to isolate Mahatma Gandhi, we carried out a reverse image search on it. The results led us to a listicle dated 22 July 2015, by media website Storypick.

This article noted that the photo was ‘a product of Photoshop’ and that in the original image, Gandhi was with late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The article also attached the original photo of the two leaders.

Using reverse image search on this photo led us to the same photo of the leaders on Wikimedia commons, which credited it to Associated Press’ Max Desfor, and carried a date stamp which indicates that the photo was taken on 6 July, 1946.

It also links to the full, uncropped version of the same photo on AP’s website.

In both photos, Gandhi sits in the same position and can be seen holding a bundle of papers.

Evidently, an edited photo of Mahatma Gandhi has been doing the rounds on social media, which shows him rubbing noses with a young woman. The original photo shows him with late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

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