Fact-Check: The 'Magnificent Bharat' Book Was Not Presented to G20 Dignitaries

The official G20 booklets presented to dignitaries are titled Bharat the Mother of Democracy and Elections in India.

Fact-Check: Magnificent Bharat is written by Neha Krishna Agarrwaal and published in 2021. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

A copy of a book titled Magnificent Bharat is being shared on social media platforms with the claim that it was presented to the dignitaries who attended the G20 summit in New Delhi.

What is the book about?: The book's contents include a descriptive portion of India's history and past.

• It talks about India's Hindu kings and terms leaders of other religions as 'invaders'.

• The book talks in detail about the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu scriptures, as well as ancient temples across the country.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here, here and here.)

This claim is also quite viral on YouTube.

What is the truth?: This claim is false. The booklets that were presented to the dignitaries at the G20 summit were titled, Bharat the Mother of Democracy and Elections in India.

How did we find out?: We found reports by the Business Standard and the Hindustan Times on the booklets that were to be presented namely, Bharat The Mother of Democracy and Elections in India.

• Bharat The Mother of Democracy notes India's history and heritage in detail, including the legacy of rulers such as Ashoka, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Akbar, amongst others.

• It also dwells upon the ancient Hindu literature, Ramayana and relates it to the governance and welfare of the people.

• The other book, called Elections in India, is an analysis of India's election process from 1952 till 2019.

• It talks about the number of political parties in India and the body responsible for conducting elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI).

• We compared the booklets presented to the delegates at the G20 summit and the viral Magnificent Bharat and came across no visual similarities between the two.

• Swipe right to see the differences in the contents between Bharat the Mother of Democracy, Elections in India and Magnificent Bharat.

Here is a comparison between the cover of the two books. 

Here is one such example between differences in the contents of the two books. 

Here is a comparison between the cover of the two books. 

Here is one such example between differences in the contents of the two books. 

• A keyword search for "Magnificent Bharat" didn't return any results of the G20 website.

Here are the records on the G20 website. 

(Source: G20 Website/Screenshot) 

Who wrote the Magnificent Bharat?: We did a keyword search and found a copy of the Magnificent Bharat by one Krishna Neha Agarrwaal that was published on 8 August 2021 on the e-commerce website, Amazon.

• The book was described on Amazon as a journey through Ancient Bharat and its ancestors and rishis (sages).

• We also found a YouTube page by the name of Magnificent Bharat that had uploaded a 'fast version' of the book that was posted on 16 August 2021.

• We also came across a PDF version of the book on Scribd and matched the contents of the book with the viral claim.

• While both Magnificent Bharat and Bharat the Mother of Democracy took a Hindu-centric approach to narrate India's history, they were not the same.

The Quint has reached out to the author for her inputs and the story will be updated once we get a response.

Conclusion: Magnificent Bharat 2 is being falsely shared as the booklet distributed amongst the dignitaries that attended the G20 summit. The two booklets that they presented with "Bharat the Mother of Democracy" and "Elections in India."

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