The quote, attributed to one of the fathers of independent India, has gained great popularity in near-political rhetoric in Russia. We checked whether Nehru was the author.

In 2020, Nikita Mikhalkov referred to Nehru’s words in one of the episodes of his BesogonTV program. Later, journalists from the Tsargrad channel dedicated this episode to article “Gref’s dangerous ‘tricks’ against Russia were exposed on Mikhalkov’s air with one precise quote.” The author of numerous books on the history of Kazakhstan, Kalibek Daniyarov, cited the phrase in his work "Anyrakai and Dzungaria".

In an interview with Mridula Ghosh, an international historian and founder of the Tagore Center in Ukraine, the journalist used this phrase with reference to Nehru newspapers "Den". The quote also appeared in numerous collections of aphorisms. And sometimes a statement (with the word “elite” instead of “intelligentsia”) attributed to no less famous person - Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru's mentor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVJlV59hCs&t=9m0s

A search for similar statements in Russian-language editions of the works of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi does not lead to anything. There are no phrases similar in structure in English-language sources, which are much more historically connected with India.

As for the history of the emergence of the phrase in Russian-language sources, one of its first mentions can be found in publications LJ community aforism from May 6, 2009. Among the printed sources, one can highlight the above-mentioned book by Daniyarov, published in 2002. And the use of a phrase in the format “In the figurative expression of J. Nehru, every colonialist made sure that the intelligentsia he raised became the enemy of his people” in a Ukrainian newspaper stands out. "Mirror of the week" dated February 23, 1996. In this version, chronologically the first among all available sources of the phrase, the meaning, as can be seen upon careful reading, is somewhat different.

Thus, with a high degree of probability it can be argued that the “quote” of Nehru (or Gandhi) appeared somewhere in the post-Soviet space in the 90s of the last century.