Rishi Bagreee amplifies ‘accidental Hindu’ quote falsely attributed to Nehru by Deccan Chronicle in 2018

Right-wing influencer Rishi Bagree, who shares misinformation and communal propaganda frequently on social media, shared an image on X on March 7, 2025 of a purported clipping from Deccan Chronicle newspaper. He mentioned the name of the paper as ‘Deccan Chronicles’, which, like most of the stuff Bagree shares on social media, is obviously incorrect.

The clipping, which Bagree claims is from the Hyderabad edition of the paper November 19, 2018, shows a quote by India’s first prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. (Archived link)

Deccan Chronicles Hyderabad edition 19 Nov 2018 pic.twitter.com/Hmatmbsd8s

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) March 7, 2025

The quotation, “By education I’am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and Hindu only by accident of birth,” attributed to Nehru was indeed printed by the Deccan Chronicle in its Hyderabad edition on November 19, 2018.

The quote was printed on top of page 12 of the newspaper. This is a quote which has been used numerous times by several commentators on Nehru. Expectedly, the political opponents of the Nehru-Gandhi family, too, have latched on to this purported statement, criticizing Nehru for being apathetic to Hindus and Hinduism. The fact of the matter, however, is that Jawaharlal Nehru had never made such a statement.

ALSO READ: Rishi Bagree: A relentless purveyor of misinformation

Statement Made by Hindu Mahasabha Leader

Alt News had, in an earlier article established how this quote was falsely attributed to Nehru. These words first made their appearance in an article titled ‘The Angry Aristocrat’, written by N B Khare in 1959, a Hindu Mahasabha leader and staunch critic of Jawaharlal Nehru. The article was part of a volume on Nehru with commentaries by numerous political personalities, called A Study of Nehru.

Interestingly, Khare had claimed in this article that it was Nehru who had described himself thus in his autobiography, calling himself Hindu merely by ascription, but professing to be Muslim by culture and an Englishman by education.

However, Alt News could not find any reference to this statement in the autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru. It was N B Khare himself who had first made a reference to this alleged remark by Nehru. This quote famously ascribed to Nehru has become a legend, used by all and sundry, and Deccan Chronicle is no exception. It seems to matter little that no record exists of Nehru ever having written or said these words about himself.

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