PM Nehru didn’t cover the Hindu temples to appease the Saudi King
Claim
Can you believe it, in 1955 PM Nehru ordered to cover Kashi Vishwanath temple when Saudi Arabia King was on his India visit…
Rating
Explanation
In the viral 2-minute 15-second video, we could see the clippings of Jawaharlal Nehru during his reign as PM. We can hear a person briefing how he covered the Kashi temple when the Saudi King visited India in the year 1955. The anchor in the video claimed that PM Nehru did those acts to please the Saudi King and didn’t want to offend his religious sentiments.
Did you know when the King of Saudi Arabia, Saud-Bin-Abdul-Aziz, visited India in 1955, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got the Kashi Vishwanath Temple covered & insulted the sentiments of the Hindu community to appease the Saudi King!! pic.twitter.com/q2dbwQApxy
— Priti Gandhi – प्रीति गांधी (@MrsGandhi) September 9, 2023
Moreover, in the video, we hear the person saying how Nehru was anti-Hindu and he always favored the Muslims. This same post with a similar message was widely spread on social media which can be seen here, here, and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this viral claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using the keyframes in the viral clip, nowhere in the whole video we were able to see the temples covered by anything. Then we researched Google with relevant keywords and found this information available on the MEA.
The Ministry of External Affairs library performs the duties of a library and also acts as a Resource and Information Centre, where we got our hands on the documents that prove the visit of King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to India in 1955. On the contents page, we can see that under the heading Saudi Arabia, Saud-Nehru joint statement with page number 248 in it.
Moreover, when we went through the book we were able to see the proof of inviting Saudi King to India and he also visited the country for a brief period. During this visit, “the PM Nehru and the Saudi King took this opportunity for a friendly and informal exchange of views. They are resolved to strengthen this friendship by further co-operation, to their mutual advantage, in the cultural, political, and economic spheres.” This proves that the Saudi King visited India in 1955 for a brief period.
Further, when we researched we came across this website namely, kingsaud.org which has all the preserved images, documents, archives and history of the all the Saudi Kings. There are many photographs of the King which shows his visit to India in 1955. The image shows King Saud Bin in a conversation with the Maharaja of Banaras during November- December times in India while visiting the ancient fort of Banaras.
Later, we also got proof from the official X handle of the King Saud with a message saying his visit to India. In the tweet, he has said “The King went on a 17-day visit to India, the first visit by a Saudi Monarch on the 27 /11/1955.During the visit, King Saud toured Indian cities including NewDelhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Mysore, Simla, Agra, Aligarh & Varanasi.” All the cities were put in a hashtag and this tweet was uploaded on 24 August 2019.
This clearly proves his visit to India. But there was no proof of covering the temple during his visit to India anywhere on the internet.
Ironically we got another picture showing a classical dance performance from the kingsaud.orgwebsite, which again proves that the King of Saudi didn’t have any problem watching our traditional cultural dances.
Likewise, we also got another photograph from the same website of the King paying visit to the Ramnagar Fort located at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Notably, the fort consists of a Durga Temple, Chhinnamastika Temple and a temple of Dakshin Mukhi Hanuman which are also holy sites of Hindus. This completely contradicts with the viral video statement claiming that the Saud King feels offended to visit the Hindu holy sites or temples.
Conclusion:
So, this proves that the King of Saudi didn’t show any disrespect to the temples nor did our late PM Nehru covered the Hindu temples to appease the king and his religion.
