In September 2025, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) completed 100 years, and celebrations were held by the organisation across India. On 01 October 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the centenary celebrations of the RSS as the Chief Guest at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. On this occasion, the Prime Minister released a specially designed commemorative postage stamp and a ₹100 coin highlighting the RSS’s contributions to the nation. The ₹100 commemorative coin features the national emblem on one side and an image of ‘Bharat Mata’ in ‘Varad Mudra’ (a hand gesture symbolising blessing or generosity), accompanied by a lion and Swayamsevaks saluting her, on the other side (here, here, and here).
In this context, a collage of photos of former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has gone viral on social media platforms, claiming that Nehru attended RSS shakha meetings. In these photos, Nehru can be seen wearing shorts, a cap, and holding a stick—similar to the RSS uniform. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: These viral photos show Jawaharlal Nehru attending RSS shakha meetings while wearing the RSS uniform.
Fact: These photos do not show Jawaharlal Nehru attending RSS shakha meetings or wearing the RSS uniform. They actually show him dressed in the uniform of the Congress Seva Dal. The Seva Dal is a frontal grassroots organisation of the Indian National Congress, established in 1923 as the Hindustani Seva Dal to counter British rule. Its uniform is similar to the former RSS attire, which included a black cap, khaki shorts, and a stick. There is no evidence to support the claim that Nehru ever attended an RSS meeting. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To know more details about these viral photos, we conducted a Google reverse image search. Upon performing the search on the first photo, we found that the same photo was shared by the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2016. According to the description provided by the INC, Nehru is wearing the uniform of the Congress Seva Dal, not that of the RSS. The same photo is also featured on the official INC website.
A reverse image search of the second photo revealed that it appeared in an article titled “Shahid Amin Reviews Nehru and Bose: Parallel Lives”, published in ‘India Today’ in 2014. According to the caption of the photo, Jawaharlal Nehru is seen wearing the uniform of the Congress Seva Dal. We also found that the same photo is featured on the website of the Congress Seva Dal.
When we conducted a reverse image search on the third photo, we found multiple fact checks published by various organisations (here, here, here, here, here, and here). According to these sources, the photo shows Jawaharlal Nehru attending a Seva Dal session in 1939 at Naini, Uttar Pradesh, not the RSS. He is seen wearing a white cap, whereas the RSS uniform, introduced in 1925, features a black cap. Additionally, a small caption in Marathi at the bottom of the photo reads: “At Uttar Pradesh’s Naini in 1939.” Taken together, these details clearly indicate that the viral photo does not show Nehru in an RSS uniform.
The Seva Dal is a grassroots, frontal organisation of the Indian National Congress (here, here). It was established in 1923 as the Hindustani Seva Dal, with the primary aim of opposing British rule. Members of the Seva Dal received physical training, and by 1931, it had become the chief volunteer wing of the Congress. The Seva Dal uniform resembles the former uniform of the RSS, which included a black cap, khaki shorts, and a stick. Numerous photographs of Pandit Nehru wearing the Seva Dal uniform are available online (here, here).
There is no evidence to support the claim that Nehru ever attended an RSS meeting. The Congress Party, on its official Facebook page, shared a letter written by Nehru on 7 December 1947, published in the book ‘Letters to Chief Ministers’, in which he compared the RSS to Hitler’s Nazi Party.
To sum it up, these viral photos show Jawaharlal Nehru wearing the Congress Seva Dal uniform, not the RSS uniform.
