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FACT-CHECK: Are
Indians throwing their
gods away to follow
Christ?
By Dubawa — June 15, 2020 Reading Time: 3 mins read

CLAIM: A Facebook post claims Indians are

throwing away their gods to follow Christ because the
deities cannot save them from Covid-19.

VERDICT: The video is dated and has nothing to do

with Covid-19. It shows a ritual that is undertaken
yearly by Hindus in India.

Full text

A section of the Christian community on Facebook is

jubilating following a claim on the page Christian
Vibes Gh. that Indians are discarding their gods to
become Christians.

“Indians are throwing their gods to their river because

they cannot save them from #COVID!( they are now
ready to accept the salvation of JESUS CHRIST as
Lord and Saviour. Praise be to God,” the Facebook
post reads.

With 4.7K shares on the social media platform, the

majority of the 896 comments on the post shows
Christians praising Jesus for the “conversion”. A user
even provided a list of some of the gods claimed to
have been thrown into the river as “Brahma the
creator, Vishnu the preserver, Lord Shiva the
destroyer, avatars, Lakshmi and many others”.

Verification

The video in question is, first of all, not related to the

COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2015, this same video was posted on Facebook –

evidence that it is not a recent video. India’s first case
of the coronavirus was reported by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare on 30th January
2020, not in 2015 when the video was posted on
Facebook.

The post at the time spoke about a yearly celebration

all over India where “Lord Ganesh” idols are
immersed in water after the festival.

Another post on Facebook, shared in September

2015 with the same video, suggests that the incident
seen in the video took place at River Krishna.

“Don’t share, Like. It is located on the River Krishna

in the Telangana state off NH 44 Mehboobnagar
district…”

Dubawa found leads in the comments section about

the possibility of the video being from a Hindu festival
in India.

Our search for Hindu festivals that involve the

immersion of idols showed the truth about the
periodic immersion of icons of the gods in water. A
YouTube video posted on September 29th, 2015
supports this claim. According to the text attached to
the video, the video showed how civic authorities
wrongfully immersed Lord Ganpati idols in a river in
Mumbai.

“A wrong way of Ganapati Visarjan”.

We found that Ganesh Chaturthi or Vinayaka

Chaturthi is a yearly 10-day festival celebrated in
India, usually by Hindus in the months of August or
September. On the last day of the festival, the
immersion of religious icons takes place. According to
the history of the festival, immersing idols into the
river enables the god to return to its parents Lord
Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

A report by reuters.com in 2007 reveals that the

immersion of idols into water is a long-standing
tradition. Therefore, it is not at all related to the
coronavirus pandemic. The report suggests rivers
have been choked as a result of this tradition of
immersing idols in water bodies, leading to
environmental issues.

Either way, it is clear that the video has nothing to do

with Indians converting to Christianity and discarding
their gods because of COVID-19.

Conclusion

Indians are not becoming Christians because they

believe that their gods cannot save them from the
COVID-19 pandemic. The immersion of the statues is
part of a festival celebration done by Hindus as a
ritual of renewal.

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