Old Celebratory Video Falsely Linked to Gyanvapi Mosque Case

We could trace the video back to at least 2019, which predates the recent developments in the Gyanvapi Mosque case.

A video, which could be traced back to at least 2019, has been revived on social media with a claim that it shows celebrations in Varanasi after the counsel representing the Hindu petitioners claimed that a shivling was found inside the Gyanvapi mosque compound.

The video shows men dressed in red 'lungis' (loincloth), dancing and playing instruments.

It comes in the backdrop of the ongoing court case, where it is being claimed that the mosque was built by demolishing a temple in the 17th century.

But clearly, the presence of this video even in 2019 makes it abundantly clear that the video can't be of recent celebrations. Several such claims around the Gyanvapi mosque have been doing the rounds. You can read our fact-checks here.

CLAIM

The caption along with the viral video said, "#ज्ञानवापी के कुएं में शिवलिंग मिलने पर ऐसे जश्न मना रहे हैं #काशी के लोग |"

[Translation: This is how the people of Kashi are celebrating after a 'Shivling' was found in a well at Gyanvapi.]

Archives of more posts shared with the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Using InVID, a video verification tool, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on some of them.

This led us to the same video uploaded on YouTube on 12 August 2019. The title of the video mentioned the celebration to be 'manjira dambroo juloos'. (An archive link can be viewed here.)

No location was mentioned in the video. We also found that the same video was uploaded by another YouTube channel in February 2022, identifying the location as Ujjain.

However, we could not independently confirm the location of this clip. But the fact that it existed in 2019 establishes that it is not a recent video and predates the ongoing developments related to the Gyanvapi osque.

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