Fact Check: The truth behind “BBC footage” of RSS dancing in 1942 — Video is from a 2015 Shiksha Varg celebration
Archival 1942 BBC footage shows RSS members singing and dancing to a bizarre tune to appease their English masters while freedom lovers chanted Vande Mataram and Inqilab Zindabaad.
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It has been shared with captions such as: “Archival footage from the BBC. Date? Possibly 1942, or maybe later. While the rest of India was chanting Vande Mataram and Inquilab Zindabad, these people were singing an odd song and dancing to it. RSS dancing in 1942, when India was crying out for revolution, they were busy doing choreography for the Raj. History has receipts, and they jiggle.”
The post attempts to frame the RSS’s activities as disconnected from the nationalist fervour of the time, portraying its karyakartas as performing for the British rather than participating in India’s freedom movement. However, a detailed examination of the video reveals that this claim is misleading and inaccurate. Fact-checking indicates that the video is not archival footage from the British era but is instead from December 2015, showing RSS karyakartas celebrating the anniversary of the Sangh’s Shiksha Varg in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Efforts to locate the video or any similar footage of RSS karyakartas dancing during pre-independence India in the BBC’s online archives yielded no results. The purported archival connection to the BBC appears to be entirely fabricated. A search using relevant keywords on Google led instead to the same video uploaded by the YouTube channel Zee 24 Taas on December 17, 2015. This timeline confirms that the footage is contemporary, not historical.
Further verification was conducted by transcribing and translating the accompanying Marathi-language news report featured in the video. The translation clarifies that the video depicts a Sangh Shiksha Varg training camp organised by the RSS at Reshimbagh in Nagpur. The footage shows participants engaged in singing and dancing, which are routine activities at such training camps and anniversary celebrations. These activities are part of the Sangh’s internal cultural and training programs rather than any historical or political commentary on colonial India.
Additional sources indicate that the event took place at Hedgewar Smruti Bhawan, the RSS headquarters in Nagpur’s Reshimbagh. Reports also mention that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, members of his then-cabinet, and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs were present at the event. Their presence underscores the public and political nature of the celebration in 2015, further discrediting any claims linking the footage to pre-independence India.
The video being shared on social media is not historical footage from the British era, nor does it show the RSS performing during India’s freedom struggle. Instead, it captures a 2015 celebration of the Sangh’s Shiksha Varg in Nagpur, featuring routine singing and dancing by participants. Misleading captions framing the clip as archival material from the 1940s have contributed to misinformation and false narratives about the organisation’s historical role.