Recently, a photo with the claim “Queen Elizabeth is being given a guard of honor by the members of RSS uniform” is being circulated on social media Facebook.
Additionally, the same photo with the caption “When the whole country was fighting with the British, some extremists saluted the queen of Britain, heard their descendants call themselves patriots” is also being circulated.
Check out some of the Facebook posts here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).
Fact-Check
According to Rumor Scanner’s investigation, it is found that the photo claiming that Queen Elizabeth II is being given a guard of honor by the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been edited. In fact, photos of two different incidents are being circulated in the claim by combining them with the help of digital technology.
Verification of the photo on one side
To verify the authenticity of the one side of the photo, Rumor Scanner Team conducted a reverse image search, where a similar photo was found in an Indian media outlet, ‘Deccan Chronicle,’ published on February 26, 2015, under the headline “Staff can take part in a political activities of RSS: Chhattisgarh govt.”
From the report, it is known that the photo was of the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist volunteer organization in India.
Verification of the other side of the photo
To verify the authenticity of the other side of the photo, a similar photo was found through reverse image search in the United States-based media CNN’s report titled “Queen Elizabeth’s guide to traveling the globe,” published on April 21, 2016.
From the caption of the photo, it is known that in 1956, Queen Elizabeth II visited Nigeria during her Commonwealth tour and inspected the troops of the Royal West African Frontier Force.
That is, two photos of two different events have been edited with the help of digital technology and are being circulated claiming the same event.
Basically, in 1956, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II visited Nigeria on a Commonwealth tour and visited troops of the Royal West African Frontier Force. A photo taken during that visit replaced Royal West African Frontier Force soldiers with a different photo of members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organization. As a result, confusion has been created on social media about the circulated photo.
Notably, Rumor Scanner published a fact-check report when wrong information was circulated in the media about the date of Queen Elizabeth II’s arrival in Dhaka in 1961.
So, The photo claiming that Queen Elizabeth II being given a guard of honor by RSS members is edited.
Sources
- Deccan Chronicle: Staff can take part in a political activities of RSS: Chhattisgarh govt
- CNN: Queen Elizabeth’s guide to traveling the globe
- Rumor Scanner’s Own Analysis
