Alt News has stumbled upon a goldmine of fictitious historical claims. History is being re-written on social media, right here in front of our eyes. We found that a large number of such claims have originated from one anonymous Twitter account called @TrueIndology and have been widely shared on social media. While the Twitter account has a larger following, posts are also mirrored on the TrueIndology Facebook Page. Here is the profile of the handle: Many among us like to collect “wounds”. For the chronic “wound collector”, such handles provide a steady flow of real and imaginary insults and historical grievances to keep them feeling wronged all the time. A picture here, a picture there, a half truth here, a half truth there, the show goes on… We have picked a short selection of claims and run a quick fact check on them. Most of them are posted with such confidence and authority that it is not surprising that hundreds of people retweet them, believing them to be true. Read on to see how many of them you fell for: Claim: Brahmin houses burnt by “Gandhians” and other congress activists on the day of Gandhi’s death Reality: This is a picture of shops in Chandni Chowk burning a day after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The picture of a huge column of smoke billowing is not from the houses of Brahmins but shops of Sikhs in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk in 1984. According to Indian Express, when prevented by devotees from attacking Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, the rioters had set fire to the nearest Sikh target. The fire quickly spread through the shops. This picture has been used multiple times with reference to 1984. IndiaTimes featured this picture as part of their coverage in April 2013. Other versions of their picture can also be found on Scroll and Sabrang. It is shocking how such a well-known picture of a well-known incident of Chandni Chowk fire is unabashedly shared as that of Brahmin houses burning. The picture was originally taken by Photojournalist Sondeep_Shankar who was associated with the Telegraph during the 1984 massacre. Claim: 1000 yr old Varun Dev temple in Karachi (Pakistan) now used as a toilet Reality: The Varun Dev temple located in Manora island near Karachi is under restoration and not being used as a toilet. Shri Varun Dev temple was in a dilapidated condition for years. Being a seaside temple, humid winds were eating away the structure and eroding the rich carvings. In Dec 2015, it received $250,000 funding from the US Ambassador Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) and its restoration started in collaboration with the Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society (SEAS). While the temple has been vandalised in the past and was locked in 1990s after the Babri masjid demolition, there is no evidence that it was being used as a toilet as claimed by the Twitter post. As per a story in Dawn , “Kishan Maharaj, who has been guarding the temple for eight years, said that many devotees arrive there for pooja from far away by boat.” You can find older pictures of this temple and its caretaker in this blog from 2012. A picture titled, “respect” shows shoes left outside before entering the temple. To say that the temple is being used as a toilet seems to be a false and malicious claim. The latest reports are from April, 2017 when the US Consul General visited the temple and the restoration seems to be going well. As reported by GeoTV, “Previously, the Shri Varun Dev temple was in a dilapidated state due to humid winds and encroachments around the area. However, since the preservation efforts started, Hindu priests and pilgrims have begun conducting religious rituals for the first time in decades“. Claim: The original temple of Gorakhnath was in Peshawar. The ruins can be found even today. Reality: The temple reopened in 2011. To say “ruins can be found even today” is completely misleading. The historic 160-year-old Gorakhnath temple at Peshawar reopened after sixty years in 2011 based on court`s orders. It was a long drawn legal battle between the daughter of the temple priest and the Evacuee Property Trust Board (EPTB) regarding the ownership of the temple. The court observed that stopping religious activities at a place of worship was against all laws and the temple opened on Diwali day in 2011. A few months after the court order, the temple was vandalised leading to calls for increased security. You can see news and pictures of 2015 Diwali celebrations at the temple here. Watch this BBC report of Hindus of Peshawar celebrating the reopening of the Gorakhnath temple in time for Diwali in 2011. This is the same temple described by the Twitter handle as “ruins can be found even today”.