No such massive Buddhist conversion event was held in Jaipur recently; images show ‘Dhamma Mela’ organized in Maharashtra - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 18, 2022
In the context of Delhi’s recent Buddhism conversion event controversy, images of a massive crowd are being widely shared on social media claiming that they show 1 lakh people converting to Buddhism at an event held in Jaipur on 16 October 2022. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of 1 lakh people converting to Buddhism at an event held in Jaipur on 16 October 2022.
Fact: There is no news about such a mass conversion event anywhere in Jaipur recently. Also, the pictures shared in the viral post belong to “Dhamma Mela”, organised by Indian Buddhist Mahasabha on the occasion of 66 Dhamma chakra Pravartan Day concluded on 15 October 2022 at Pimpri-chinchwad near Pune, Maharashtra. Though several Buddhist conversions are reported on this occasion, no such event was held in Jaipur recently. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE
In the first place, we searched for the media reports about this mass conversion event but couldn’t find any such report either by national or local media. We then did a reverse image search of the images shared in the viral post and found that the same images were shared in a twitter post by official twitter account of ‘Prabuddh Bharat’, a media house founded by Dr B.R. Ambedkar in 1956.
तू उभा सूर्यापरी, राहिले कोठे निशा !
ऐवढे आम्हा कळे, ही तुझी आहे दिशा !!
66व्या धम्मचक्र प्रवर्तन दिनानिमित्त भारतीय बौद्ध महासभा आयोजित भव्य धम्म मेळावा, आज पिंपरी चिंचवडमध्ये लाखोंच्या जनसमुदायाच्या उपस्थित संपन्न झाला.
लाखोची जनता, तिचा एकच नेता !@Prksh_Ambedkar pic.twitter.com/tGV4TIuDbl
According to this post, these images belong to ‘Dhamma Mela’ organised by Indian Buddhist Mahasabha on the occasion of 66 Dhamma chakra Pravartan Day that concluded on 15 October 2022 at Pimpri-chinchwad near Pune, Maharashtra. Tweets made by Prakash Ambedkar and others regarding this event can be seen here and here.
According to the News18, Dhammachakra Pravartan Din is celebrated on Ashoka Vijayadashami every year to mark the Buddhist conversion of B.R Ambedkar along with his followers on 14 October 1956 at Nagpur. Even though several people accept Buddhism on this occasion, no such mass event was reported from Jaipur on 16 October 2022.
To sum it up, no such mass Buddhist conversion event was reported from Jaipur this year, the viral images show ‘Dhamma Mela’ held in Maharashtra on 15 October 2022.