A document claiming to be from ‘British Home Department’ which states that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) did not participate in India’s freedom struggle between 1925 and 1947 is going viral.
Sharing the document, pro-Congress account Pragnya Gupta wrote, “No other proof required. Here’s the proof of RSS’s lack of any contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle.” (Archived link)
No other proof required.
— Pragnya Gupta (@GuptaPragnya) August 25, 2025
Here’s the proof of RSS’s lack of any contribution to India’s Freedom Struggle.#RSS100YearsExposed pic.twitter.com/Xg2hHpw1sJ
Dayashankar Mishra wrote, “Proof of RSS’s distance from the freedom struggle.” (Archived link)
The claim was also shared by other handles like Divya Kumaari (Archived link), Salman Khan (Archived link) and KRK (Archived link).
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Fact Check
At the beginning of our research, we checked the viral document. It says that this letterhead belongs to the ‘British Home Department‘. Then we searched British Home Department on Google, and found out that no entity named British Home Department exists. In fact, there is a British Home Office in the United Kingdom, which was established in 1782.
Next, we noticed that the document is from 1978 suggesting that the document is dated 1978. Even if we assume it is from the UK Home Office, a search for ‘RSS 1978’ in the UK National Archives yielded no catalogue entry.
After this, we also searched for ‘RSS’ separately on the UK’s National Archives website, but no record was found about the Indian organisation RSS.
Upon further examination of the document, we noticed discrepancies in Royal Coat of Arms, which is an official heraldic symbol of the British monarch. The original British emblem bears the motto ‘Dieu et mon droit’ but in the document, it is abbreviated to ‘Dieu Droit,’ showing a careless alteration, something that would never appear in any original genuine document.
Furthermore, we found a report by National Herald which mentions about British Foreign Office telegram after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, which linked Nathuram Godse to the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. Here, we found that in this telegram, the British referred to the RSS as R.S.S.S.
Additionally, we located a PDF document of the book ‘While Memory Serves 2‘ by Sir Francis Tuker, a British Army officer. This book is a historical account of the last two years of British rule in India. In this book, the RSS organization of India has been referred to as R.S.S.S, likely indicating that the British used this designation. However, in the viral document, it is written as RSS, suggesting that the document is not original but a forgery.
Lastly, we also ran a few keyword search on Google to check if any document from the British Home Department or Home Office exists, but found nothing. There are no media reports or historical records referencing such a document.
In conclusion, the document from the British Home Department claiming that RSS did not participate in India’s freedom struggle is fake.
| Claim | A document purportedly from the ‘British Home Department’ claiming that RSS did not participate in India’s freedom struggle (1925–1947). |
| Claimed by | Pragnya Gupta, Divya Kumaari, and others |
| Fact Check | There is no authentic document from the British Home Department or Home Office stating that the RSS did not participate in India’s freedom struggle |
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