Video of ‘Jabri Gair’ tradition falsely portrayed as Diwali celebrations in Rajasthan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 24, 2020
A post is being shared on social media claiming it as the video of people celebrating Diwali festival by firing guns and cannon in Rajasthan. In the post, it is claimed that people in Rajasthan celebrated Diwali in Sanathana Dharma, in response to the Rajasthan Government’s ban on fire crackers on Diwali. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Rajasthan people celebrating Diwali festival by firing guns and cannon.
Fact: This video shows ‘Jabri Gair’ tradition celebrated every year in Menar village of Rajasthan. ‘Jabri Gair’ is a 400-year-old tradition celebrated on the next day of Holi. People fire guns and cannons to celebrate the heroism and valour of Menar Brahmins in defeating Mughals during the period of Rana Udai Singh. It has nothing to do with the recent Rajasthan Government ban on fire crackers during Diwali. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of screenshots in the video, similar visuals were found in a video posted by a Facebook user on ‘12 March 2020’. Sharing the video, this user mentioned it as the Menar ‘Jabri Gair’ celebrations.  When searched for more information using these keywords, similar visuals were found in another video posted by the ‘Udaipur beats’ YouTube channel. In the video, it is mentioned that the people in Menar village celebrate ‘Jabri Gair’ every year by firing guns, cannon shots and fireworks. Reporting the same, the Times of India published an article about the ‘Jabri Gair’ event celebrations at Menar village in Rajasthan.
People in Menar celebrate ‘Jabri Gair’ tradition in remembrance of Menar Brahmins heroism and valour in defeating Mughals during the period of Rana Udai Singh. Few more videos and articles about this event can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that this video in the post is not related to the recent Diwali festival.
To sum it up, old video of ‘Jabri Gair’ tradition in Menar village is falsely portrayed as the Diwali celebrations in Rajasthan.