Lie bombs against Nehru: a war on truth

A new industry has taken root in the underbelly of Indian politics—one that manufactures what I call “lie bombs” against the legacy of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. These are not explosives made of metal and fire, but of deliberate lies and manufactured slanders, designed to corrode public memory and poison the well of history.

A few days ago, my friend Shivan forwarded me a WhatsApp message that had arrived in his inbox. At first glance, it seemed like a “multi-forwarded” piece of text. But, upon reading it carefully, I realised it was not just a message; it was a carefully crafted, poisonous one! A hateful explosion of letters aimed at our minds, our society and our sense of truth.

The message, which begins with the claim of revealing the ‘true history’ of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and his family, is a collection of fabricated, false revelations and allegations that spread hatred.

My dear friend Shivan asked me to expose this poison before it spreads further. Let us examine this poisonous message.

This myth, constantly spread on WhatsApp, claims that Jawaharlal Nehru's mother was Tussu Rahman Bai, a Muslim woman, his real father was Mubarak Ali, and his grandfather, Ghiyasuddin Ghazi, a supposed Muslim during the Mughal era, changed his name.

Such claims about Jawaharlal Nehru's family background are historically incorrect and baseless.

The history of Jawaharlal Nehru and his family is very clearly documented. Nehru's father, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), was a prominent lawyer and freedom fighter. His mother was Swaroop Rani. Both belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community. The claim of a Mughal-era grandfather named Ghiyasuddin Ghazi is also a fabricated myth. The Nehru family originated in the city of Srinagar in Kashmir. In the early 18th century, their ancestors migrated to Delhi and later to Allahabad. The family name "Nehru" comes from a canal ("Nahar" in Persian/Hindi) near their ancestral home. The documented genealogy is included in various biographies and historical works, including “Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography” by Sarvepalli Gopal (Oxford University Press, 1975) and “Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru”, published by Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund.

The allegations that fabricate Nehru’s paternity, claiming a false secret Muslim lineage, are all despicable and completely baseless. This is an attempt to inject false stories into our society by fabricating names and events and making them believe. And the message is a deliberate attempt to use history as a weapon to sow communal hatred. A former MLA from Kerala, notorious for hate speech and obscene language, recently spread a false narrative claiming Nehru was a Muslim, which was part of this malicious propaganda.

The real danger here is not mere historical ignorance; these are not just innocent errors, but aggressive acts of hate propaganda. They are poisoned lies, bombs carefully designed to divide society and turn religion against religion. Yet, unlike physical bombs, no one goes to jail for these.

This is not new. The Sangh Parivar’s ideological campaign against Nehru has been relentless since the days of the Republic’s infancy. What is new is the speed and scale with which such lies now travel—viral in minutes, entrenched in hours. The internet has become their amplifier, social media their delivery system. In this environment, the “lie bomb” is often more potent than a real one: it leaves no crater, but it erodes trust, distorts history, and damages the nation’s moral fabric.

The logic behind these lies is simple but sinister: to weaken the idea of a secular, inclusive India, you must first demolish its architects. Nehru’s life and leadership—marked by a commitment to pluralism, scientific temper, and democratic values—remain a stubborn obstacle to the majoritarian project. And so, his memory must be defaced until future generations know him only through the graffiti of propaganda.

We must treat these lies not as harmless gossip but as political sabotage. Silence is complicity. Every falsehood must be met with evidence; every fabrication with fact. The defence of truth is not an academic exercise—it is a patriotic duty.

In the end, the real bomb is not the lie itself—it is our willingness to let it go unchallenged.

(The author is the Middle East Convenor of the Overseas Congress Department, AICC.)