Morphed photo shared to falsely claim lower castes not allowed in Rajasthan temple

Hyderabad: A photo of a temple from Sarohi, Rajasthan, is going viral on social media. The text “Hindu Rashtra” (Hindu Nation) appears in the photo. Another text on the temple wall reads, “People belonging to the Harijan caste (lower caste) are prohibited from entering this temple.”

Harijan (Children of God) was a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi to refer to certain castes and communities considered “untouchable.” However, the word Harijan is now considered condescending and offensive.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the image is morphed and has been viral since 2022.

We skimmed through the viral post and found that several users were saying the photo is morphed. One of the users also shared an image of the same temple, which does not show any text prohibiting certain castes from entering the temple.

On 23 May, journalist Subham Shukla shared a similar image of the temple but it does not show any such text prohibiting certain communities from entering. He said several Twitter handles are sharing an edited photo of Sirohi’s Valmiki temple with indecent comments. No such text is written on the temple. He also requested people not to spread disharmony in society by making misleading posts.

Replying to a user who had shared the edited photo in 2022, the Sirohi police, on 7 March 2022, shared a similar image of the temple, which does not show the text prohibiting the lower castes in the temple. In the tweet, the police said they visited the temple and did not find any such text.

Hence, we conclude that the morphed image has been viral since 2022, and the claim that lower castes are not being allowed in the Valmiki temple in Sirohi is false.