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| - Fact Check: 1966 incident of police firing on sadhus goes viral with exaggerated claims
A black-and-white picture of a protest is circulating with the claim that on November 7, 1966, hundreds of sadhus and gau rakshaks were killed in police firing in Delhi. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading.
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India Today Fact Check
The incident took place when the agitators’ Parliament march turned violent. Historical documents, including Parliament records and newspaper articles, show eight deaths, including seven agitators and a policeman.
The year 1966 was a landmark in Indian politics, for a massive anti-cow slaughter agitation had forced the then Indira Gandhi government to rethink on the emotive issue. The agitation had often turned violent, forcing police reprisals as well. Even today, it is a talking point on social media.
A black-and-white picture of a protest is circulating with the claim that on November 7, 1966, hundreds of sadhus and gau rakshaks were killed in police firing in Delhi. “ Hindu massacre in Delhi: When #IndiraGandhi killed hundreds of Sadhus, Gau Rakshaks. bullets were fired, tear gas shells were thrown about 5000 Hindus were brutally massacred in the bullet spray at the behest of the then Anti-Hindu Congress,” says the claim.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. Police did open fire on a Parliament march by Naga Sadhus and some Hindu organisations, but according to available records, the death toll was eight.
What newspapers of the day say
Cow protection and a blanket ban on cow slaughter have for long been a demand of many Hindu groups. At the height of this movement on November 7, 1966, the Sarvadaliya Goraksha Mahaabhiyan Samiti declared a Satyagraha in New Delhi.
With Jana Sangh extending support to the movement, records show the number
of participants exceeded one lakh. Following speeches by leaders such as Swami Karpatri and Lok Sabha MP Swami Rameshwaranand, the agitators tried to storm the Parliament, which resulted in clashes with police.
Incidents of mob violence were reported across Delhi and the government deployed military to enforce normalcy. Noted historian Ramachandra Guha has described the event in his book “India After Gandhi”.
The violence and subsequent police action were reported by newspapers across the globe. This included United States daily “The Record”.
While “The Record” claimed seven people were killed and at least 500 injured, “The Times” and “The Guardian” on November 8 reported casualties to be at least five. These reports can be seen below.
AFWA also went through newspapers of successive days to check whether people undergoing treatment had succumbed. Reporting the arrest of then Jana Sangh president Balraj Madhok in connection with the incident, Australian newspaper “The Age” on November 9 mentioned the death toll as eight.
But there was no information available to substantiate the viral claim that hundreds of protesters were killed in police firing.
Scholars recall incident
French political scientist Dr Christophe Jaffrelot mentions the incident in his book “The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s”.
According to the noted Indologist, eight people, including seven agitators and a policeman, had lost their lives in the violence. You can read Jaffrelot’s book here.
For further clarity, we contacted Pushpesh Pant, who retired as a professor of International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“I remember the incident distinctly. It is true that there was firing, but to say that 5,000 Hindus were killed is absurd. Seven Sadhus and a policeman were killed in the incident. It became a major issue that cost then Home minister Gulzarilal Nanda his job. Nanda himself was a Hindu revivalist and belonged to the Bharat Sadhu Samaj,” Pant told AFWA.
We also contacted Prof Dinesh Varshney, a noted historian, for more information. He said police reacted strongly on the day but the claim that hundreds of protesters were killed is baseless.
“There were rumours at the time that police even used bayonets against the crowd. There are plenty of references to the movement and nowhere will you find the toll so high.” Varshney said.
Scanning govt records
To find out more about the people who lost their lives, we searched records of Parliament debates of the time. According to these documents available online, a notice presented in the House on November 8, 1966, said seven people had died and 184 others were injured.
In the documents of November 9, it was found that the government gave the House the names of five persons who had died. Three bodies could not be identified.
Thus, it can be concluded that the viral claim of hundreds of deaths in police firing during the 1966 Parliament march of anti-cow slaughter agitators is misleading.
(Inputs from Bechu S from Thiruvananthapuram)
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