Old Image Resurfaces With False Claim About Indira Gandhi’s Family

It’s actually a picture of Gandhi with Nehru, Russian painter Nicholas Roerich and Indian diplomat Yunus Khan.

An old image of former prime minister Indira Gandhi with Jawaharlal Nehru and two other men has gone viral with the claim that it shows her husband ‘Feroze Khan’ and father-in-law, Yunus Khan.

However, the people in the photo as well as their relationship to Gandhi have been misidentified. It's actually a picture of her with Nehru, Russian painter Nicholas Roerich and Indian diplomat, Yunus Khan.

CLAIM

Several social media users have shared the image with the claim,

"70 साल बाद ये दुर्लभ तस्वीर जनता के दर्शन हेतु उपलब्ध है। इसका लाभ लें और अपना एवं दूसरों का ज्ञानवर्धन करें। बहुत मुश्किल से ये फोटो मिला है। जवाहरलाल नेहरू, इंदिरा गाँधी, इंदिरा गाँधी के ससुर युनुस खान और इंदिरा गाँधी के पति फिरोज खान।"

(Translation: "After 70 years, this rare picture is available for public viewing. Take advantage of it and increase your knowledge and that of others. It was very hard to find this photo. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Yunus Khan, father-in-law of Indira Gandhi and Feroz Khan, husband of Indira Gandhi.)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The viral image has been posted with two false claims:

• The man in the photo identified as Yunus Khan is actually Russian painter Nicholas Roerich
• The man identified as Feroze Khan is Mohammad Yunus Khan, an Indian diplomat and not Indira Gandhi's father-in-law.

A reverse image search led us to a Pinterest account that had tagged the image with 'Nicholas Roerich.'

A keyword search then led us to the website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, which is dedicated to the works of the Russian artist.

We found the same image in the archives, stating that it had been clicked in 1942, in Naggar, India, where Roerich had stayed during the last years of his life.

We also found the same image on the Wikipedia page of Mohammad Yunus Khan, identifying him as the man on the extreme right in the photo. The image had been attributed to the book, Helena Ivanovna Roerich. Letters. Volume 7.

The book also has another image of the four of them, with the caption identifying the man on the extreme right as M Yunus.

We also found an article by The Hindu, 'Mohammad Yunus dead' dated 18 June 2001, which stated that Mohammad Yunus was “a distinguished diplomat, former chairman of the Trade Fair Authority of India and a close friend of the Nehru family”.

He came in contact with Prime Minister Nehru as a student taking part in the freedom struggle. "Their friendship took firm roots and lasted more than three decades," the article further states.

Further, Indira Gandhi was married to Feroze Gandhi, earlier 'Ghandy,' and not 'Khan' as mentioned in the viral post, and her father-in-law was Faredoon Jehangir Ghandy.

Evidently, the image has been shared with a false claim about Gandhi's family.

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