2009 Video Shared as Children Reciting 'Shlokas' at Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral

The video was from Commonwealth Games The Queens Baton Relay held in London in 2009.

A video showing children reciting shlokas (Hindu poetic verses) at the Buckingham Palace in London has gone viral with a claim that it is from the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

The claim comes after the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022 after holding the title for a little over 70 years. Charles, the former Prince of Wales was proclaimed King on 10 September following the Queen's death.

However, we found that video, which dates back to 2009, showed the children reciting Shlokas at Commonwealth Games (CWG) The Queens Baton Relay 2010, which was held on 29 October 2009 at Buckingham Palace, London.

CLAIM

The caption with the viral video read, "Wow. This is superb. Especially when we were slaves to the queen for 98 years and now she is been bid farewell with our OM! So proud to be an Indian."

The video was shared by several others on Facebook and Twitter, archives of some can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed the watermark of one "www.wildfilmsindia.com" and "The St James School Choir" written on the video. We check the website and found their YouTube channel.

We then conducted a keyword search with "St James School Choir" and found a video published on their YouTube channel on 22 May 2019.

The title of the video said, "Students of St James School Choir recite shlokas at Buckingham Palace", and the description added, "The St James School Choir recites a spiritual poem called the shlokas at Buckingham Palace during the CWG Queen Baton 2010."

Taking a cue from that, we conducted a keyword search for CWG Queen Baton 2010 and found news reports talking about the CWG Queen Baton.

The Queen's Baton Relay is a relay that is held before the beginning of the Commonwealth Games wherein a Baton carrying a message from the Head of the Commonwealth is taken around the world. The Baton returns back to the head of the Commonwealth.

A report published in The Times of India on 29 October 2009 mentioned that students recited Sanskrit verses from ancient Rig Veda. We checked the 2010 CWG's official Facebook page and found a post talking about the same with a screenshot from the viral video.

We also looked up the plan for the Queen's funeral and according to the detail plan published by the BBC, the funeral is supposed to take place on 19 September.

Evidently, an old video from the 2010 CWG Baton Relay showing children reciting shlokas was shared with a false claim that it was from Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

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