2018 Story of Scientist Being Denied Entry to Garba Event in US Shared as Recent

The scientist, Karan Jani, had shared the details of the incident on his Twitter account in 2018.

A newspaper clipping about a scientist from Gujarat's Vadodara being denied entry to a garba event in the United States of America (USA) is being widely shared on social media as a recent incident. This comes after the festival of Navratri concluded on 4 October 2022.

(Archives of similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.)

However, the incident dates back to 13 October 2018, when an Indian scientist Karan Jani and his friends were denied entry to a garba event, held at Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, USA for reportedly not "looking Hindu" and not having "Hindu sounding last names."

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed that the article carried Tushar Tere's byline, a journalist associated with the Times Group. It also showed that some information was taken from Karan Jani's Twitter account.

Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information and reports on the incident. The search led us to an article published by the same journalist on The Times of India in October 2018.

We also found a Twitter thread by Jani, where he shared a video saying that they were denied entry from the garba event because they "didn't look Hindu" and the last name on their ID's "didn't sound Hindu." The thread was posted on 13 October 2018.

Year 2018 & Shakti Mandir in Atlanta, USA denied me and my friends entry from playing garba because:

“You don’t look Hindu and last name in your IDs don’t sound Hindu”

-THREAD- pic.twitter.com/lLVq4KhJtw

— Dr. Karan Jani (@AstroKPJ) October 13, 2018

He shared details of the incident, saying that his Konkani friend was pulled out of line and was told that she was "Ismaili." Jani mentioned that a senior person in the organising team spoke to them in "crude and demeaning" language.

(Note: Swipe right to view the rest of the thread.)

We found reports published by The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and NDTV which were published in October 2018 as well.

Clearly, a four-year-old incident of a scientist being denied entry to a garba event in Atlanta, USA is being shared as a recent incident.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)