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| - Fact Check: 1938 video of BKS Iyengar shared as PM Modi performing yoga
A black-and-white video of a man demonstrating different postures of yoga is viral on social media with the claim that it is a rare footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing asanas.
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India Today Fact Check
This is a 1938 video of legendary yoga teacher BKS Iyengar. PM Modi was born in 1950.
A black-and-white video of a man demonstrating different postures of yoga is viral on social media with the claim that it is a rare footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi performing asanas.
The over 8-minute-long video is being shared with a caption in Hindi which translates to, “Rare footage of Modi ji performing yoga”. The same caption is superimposed on the video.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the video is of legendary yoga teacher BKS Iyengar. His family confirmed to us that the video was captured in 1938, more than a decade before PM Modi was born.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here, here and here.
AFWA probe
Using InVID tool and appropriate keywords, we found that the man in the viral video is BKS Iyengar, who is also the founder of the yoga style "Iyengar Yoga".
We found that the same video was uploaded on June 12, 2009, on the YouTube channel "Tom Martin". The title reads, "Krishnamacharya & B.K.S. Iyengar in 1938 with Yoga Sutras, Part 1of 6".
We also found a 45-minute-long version of the same video uploaded by the same YouTube channel with a similar caption. This version of the video features other participants as well. This video was uploaded on January 28, 2012.
The video can be seen here.
We also found media reports referring to a 1938 video clip of Iyengar with his teacher T Krishnamacharya.
According to an article by "The Washington Post", a 1938 film featuring T Krishnamacharya and BKS Iyengar was part of an exhibition on yogic art titled "Yoga: The Art of Transformation" held at Washington DC in 2013.
AFWA also reached out to BKS Iyengar's daughter Sunita Parthasarathy, who confirmed to us that the man in the viral video is indeed her father.
"The man seen in the viral video is my father and yoga guru BKS Iyengar. The video was recorded in 1938 in Pune by Dr VB Gokhale, a surgeon from Belgaum. In the 1970s, Gokhale's family brought the film to my father as they happened to find it while cleaning the house," Parthasarathy said.
"We have the one-hour version of the video in Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute's archive in Pune. Unfortunately, we haven't officially uploaded it online yet. In the 45-minute version of the video that is available online, you can also see my father's sister and her husband, the legendary yoga master Krishnamacharya demonstrating asana and pranayama techniques. In the final portion of the viral video as well, we can see Krishnamacharya performing," she added.
We found several interviews by BKS Iyengar where he mentioned Dr Gokhale whom he met in the 1930s. The Iyengar family also shared with AFWA the cover image of the 1938 film's DVD copy.
Here is a comparison of an early portrait of Iyengar from the collection of Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute with a screen grab from the viral video.
Hence it is clear that the viral video is of yoga guru BKS Iyengar and was captured in 1938, while PM Modi was born in 1950. The Prime Minister, however, has been a strong proponent of yoga.
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