Spain Dhol Procession Wasn’t Celebrating Ram Mandir Construction

The video is actually from 2018 when a Pune-based group had gone to Spain for an International Folk Festival.

The video is from 2018 of a Pune-based dhol-tasha group, Swarangdhar.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a dhol performance by Indians in the streets of Spain has gone viral with a false claim that it shows celebrations ahead of the Bhoomi Pujan in Ayodhya.

However, the video is from 2018 when a Pune-based dhol-tasha group had gone to Spain for an International Folk Festival.

A still-shot from the video.(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

CLAIM

The video has been widely shared on social media with the claim, "स्पेन मे राम मंदिर के निमार्ण के समर्थन पर हिन्दुस्तानी लोगो द्धारा निकाला गया ढोल-नगाडे के साथ एक छोटा सा शोभायात्रा.... 🚩 जय श्रीराम"

Translated to English, the message reads, "A small procession with the dhol-nagade taken out by the Hindustani people in support of the construction of the Ram temple in Spain... Jai Shri Ram"

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. (Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be found here. (Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the post can be found here. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The video is from 2018 of a Pune-based dhol-tasha group, Swarangdhar, and not of Indians celebrating the construction of Ram Mandir in 2020.

A key-frame analysis on InVid allowed us to examine individual shots from the video. A reverse image search of the same, led us to a YouTube video titled, "Dhol Tasha on the streets of Spain (2) - Swargandhar Dhol Tasha Pathak" posted by the channel, swargandhar dhol tasha pathak.

The video was posted on 16 October, 2018 and has garnered over 13 million views since then.

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

The Quint had earlier debunked another claim with the same video in May 2019. The video had gone viral with the message that people in USA were celebrating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s win in the Lok Sabha election.

The Swargandhar group is a Pune-based dhol-tasha group which had actually gone to Spain for an International Folk Festival held in June 2018. Prasad Pimpale, founder of Swargandhar Dhol Tasha group, told The Quint that the viral video is from their Spain tour.

“We had three performances lined up in the festival – one on stage and two street performances. This video is from our street performance. We weren’t sent by the government, so we weren’t representing India per se. We had applied to take part in the festival and were selected.”

Prasad Pimpale, Founder, Swarandhar Dhol Tasha Group

The insignia, "स्वरंगधार" (Swarangdhar) can be seen clearly on the cloth covering the dholaks in the viral video, proving that it has been shared again with a false narrative.

(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)

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