Lighthouse Journalism found a video being shared on various social media platforms, in the video a person is seen teaching Sanskrit to the students. It was being claimed along with the video that Muslim institutions are teaching Sanskrit chants so that the students can get a position as a temple priest. During the investigation, we found the claims are misleading.
Claim:
Facebook user सनातन धर्म रक्षक which has over 5.3K followers shared the reel.
Check the archive version of the reel.
Other users too have been sharing this video for a few months.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by downloading the video and then uploading it in the InVid chrome extension. We then checked the keyframes that we got from the same.
During the reverse image search on these keyframes we found a news report on The Economic Times.
The report mentioned: The Academy of Sharia and Advanced Studies (ASAS) run by Malik Deenar Islamic Complex (MIC) was in the news recently for setting an example by teaching Sanskrit, also known as ‘Deva Bhasha’, to its students with the help of Hindu scholars. The decision, to come out with a structured syllabus to teach the ancient and classical language, was taken to inculcate in the students, knowledge and awareness about other religions, the institute said.
We then ran a Google keyword search and found several news stories about Sanskrit being taught in an Islamic institute in Kerala.
We found a video news report too about the incident.
Conclusion: Video of Bhagwad Gita, Sanskrit being taught in the Kerala-based Islamic Institute being shared with misleading claims. Muslims not being taught Sanskrit to gain temple priest position.
