Old video of religious procession shared as pilgrims from Nepal to India's contentious Ayodhya temple

Published on January 25, 2024 at 08:11
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A video of a large procession of people dressed in saffron clothes has been viewed thousands of times on social media posts alongside misleading captions that claim it shows devotees from Nepal carrying gifts to Ayodhya in north India's Uttar Pradesh state where a temple of Hindu deity Ram was inaugurated on January 22, 2024. While some Nepal devotees travelled to India ahead of the temple's inauguration, the video in fact shows followers of a Hindu religious preacher on their way to attend his event in July 2023.

The video was posted on January 11, 2024 with a caption that it shows a procession of devotees from Nepal ahead of the Ram temple's opening.

"So not only India but Nepal is also in full excitement for the Ram Temple," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook post shared here.

The video attached to the misleading post has been viewed over 700 times and shows a large group of people in yellow and saffron clothes in a procession while singing devotional hymns. Women walking in the procession can be seen carrying urns on their heads.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on January 16, 2024

The misleading claim surfaced ahead of the inauguration of the Ram temple on January 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a ceremony marking the opening of the temple that it heralded a "new era" for India.

The temple is built on a site where the Babri mosque once stood for centuries. The mosque was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992 in a campaign backed by Modi's party, leading to widespread riots across the country that killed 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.

The video was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here, here, and here on X.

But the claim is misleading. While devotees from Nepal arrived at the Ram temple ahead of its inauguration, the video in fact shows followers of a Hindu religious preacher marching to his event in the Uttar Pradesh state's Greater Noida city on July 9, 2023.

Unrelated video from 2023

A reverse image search on Google with relevant keywords found the same video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Hindu religious preacher Dhirendra Krishna Shastri on July 9, 2023 (archived link).

The video's Hindi-language title reads: "Jaitpur Greater Noida procession and Kalash Yatra."

Shastri is a Hindu nationalist preacher and the head priest of Bageshwar Dham Temple located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (archived link).

The screenshots of the same procession were also published in reports by Indian news outlets here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).

According to news reports, a three-kilometre-long procession was organised on July 9, 2023, ahead of Shastri's "Bhagwat Katha" -- a ceremony where he recited Hindu religious scriptures -- held between July 10 and July 16 at a village in the state.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the footage shared in the misleading posts (left) and the video uploaded on the preacher's YouTube video channel (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the footage shared in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on the preacher's YouTube channel (right)

Indian news agency ANI reported on January 21 that Nepal devotees arrived at the Ram temple ahead of the inauguration (archived link).

One of the devotees who travelled from Nepal to the temple told the agency that he was "extremely happy" that he visited.

Other media outlets reported on the visit here and here (archived links here, here and here).

AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation around the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya here, here and here.

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