A video showing an old man dancing in a celebration to honour Tamil social reformer Periyar is being falsely shared online as an old Brahmin harassed by a mob in south India.
The ten-second long clip shows a frail man at the centre of a crowd fold his hands, later the man appears to make a gesture of bowing down. The small crowd can be seen cheering and dancing throughout.
The clip has been shared by several Twitter and Facebook users. The caption with the video falsely suggests the mob cut the man's religious thread, stripped and forced him to dance.
Misleading Tweet
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
The tweet had gained around 3,000 retweets and 2,600 likes at the time of writing this article.
Viral on Facebook
Video viral with misleading caption
FACT-CHECK
The video was earlier fact-checked by YouTurn - a Tamil fact-checking website.
BOOM also found the original video was uploaded on YouTube by a channel named 'Karuppar Koottam' on June 24, 2019.
The original video is 1.17 seconds as opposed to the viral clip which is only ten seconds long.
In the 1.37 second video, one can spot the old man dancing with the crowd holding black flags with Tamil social reformer Periyar EV Ramasamy's face on it.
BOOM contacted the YouTube channel Karuppar Koottam who told us that the event took place place on May 1, 2019 in Kanchipuram.
"This rally which was organised by People's Forum was held at the Periyar staute on May Day near Sankara Mutt Temple. It was a bit surprising at first seeing the old man come and look at the Periyar statue, our companions cheered and applauded when he started dancing."'
In the original video one can clearly see the old man voluntarily partake in the celebration and is not forced to dance by members of the crowd.
At 1.27 time stamp he can be seen interacting with the drummers and leaving the spot unharmed.
