A video unfold on-line reveals an annual stone-pelting ritual in northern India, opposite to claims by social media posts that offered it as Hindu pilgrims attacking one another on the Kumbh Mela mega-festival. The clip racked up hundreds of views in posts sharing the misinformation, but it surely was in truth filmed in August 2024, months earlier than the beginning of the world’s largest spiritual gathering.
“Scenes from Maha Kumbh, because it occurred,” reads Hindi textual content on an X video posted on January 28, 2025.
The put up, which was seen greater than 500,000 occasions, reveals footage of crowds hurling stones at one another, with some defending themselves with massive shields.
Indians from throughout the nation have gathered at Kumbh Mela, a millennia-old Hindu pageant of spiritual piety and ritual bathing that 400 million pilgrims are anticipated to attend over its six-week period.
The footage spread online as saffron-clad holy males led thousands and thousands right into a sin-cleansing dip by the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, undeterred by a stampede on January 29 that killed at the very least 30 folks (archived link).
Screenshot of an X put up sharing the false declare, taken on January 29, 2025
In accordance with the X put up, the footage reveals “saffron terrorists” inflicting bother on the pageant, referring to the color of Hinduism.
“If even a single Muslim have been current right here, the Indian media would have declared it a terrorist assault,” it mentioned.
“Determine them by their garments and label them terrorists,” it added — apparently mocking a 2019 comment by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was broadly interpreted as a jibe at Muslims protesting a controversial citizenship regulation.
Whereas some Hindu organisations have known as for Muslims to be barred from the pageant, there are not any official restrictions on who can attend (archived link)
Stone-pelting custom
A reverse picture search of the footage on Google discovered it was beforehand posted on Instagram on August 23, 2024 — months earlier than Kumbh Mela started in January 2025 (archived link).
Textual content superimposed on the video reads: “Bagwal 2024”, referring to an annual festival on the Maa Barahi Devi Temple within the city of Devidhura in north India’s Uttarakhand state (archived link).
The video shared in false social media posts (left) and on Instagram in August 2024 (proper)
Throughout the pageant, teams of individuals throw stones at one another whereas they attempt to shield themselves with the assistance of huge picket shields.
A 2013 court docket ruling required individuals to throw flowers and fruits as a substitute of stones, however instructions have largely been ignored by locals who consider the dearth of a blood sacrifice would deliver catastrophe, the Instances of India reported (archived link).
Video company Newsflare shared comparable footage from the stone-pelting occasion on August 19, 2024 (archived link).
Round 200 individuals have been injured within the ritual, wherein worshippers throw stones at one another till a priest determines that “sufficient blood has been shed for the goddess Maa Barahi”, Newsflare’s caption mentioned.
AFP confirmed the video was filmed by the Maa Barahi Devi Temple by evaluating it to pictures of the world on Google Maps (archived link).
Maa Barahi Devi Temple seen within the video shared on-line (left) and on Google Maps (proper)
AFP has fact-checked extra misinformation about Kumbh Mela here.
