Old India ‘spitting on Bangladesh flag’ video falsely shared as retaliation for Tagore mural vandalism
An old video from India’s Maharashtra state is circulating on Facebook with the misleading claim that it shows Indians spitting on the Bangladeshi flag in response to the recent vandalism of a mural of Rabindranath Tagore in Dhaka.
The video, however, has no connection to the Tagore incident.
The footage dates back to at least December 2024 and was filmed in Mumbai, according to an earlier fact-check by Indian news outlet The Quint.
The clip shows a large Bangladesh flag painted on a road as vehicles pass over it. Several people can also be seen apparently spitting on the flag.
Recent Facebook posts sharing the footage have sought to link it to the October 10 incident outside Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka, where a group attempted to deface a graffiti portrait of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with black ink.
But the timeline makes that claim impossible.
The Quint’s WebQoof fact-checking team traced the same footage to a Facebook post published on December 11, 2024. Its investigation used reverse-image searches and visual clues in the footage to identify the location as Ghatkopar East in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The fact-check identified a “Pearl” shop sign visible in the footage and matched it with Pearl Salon in Ghatkopar East. Comparisons with Google Maps imagery further confirmed the location.
The video had previously resurfaced in December 2025 with another misleading claim linking it to a then-recent incident involving Bangladesh. The Quint debunked that claim at the time, establishing that the footage was already at least a year old.
What happened to the Tagore mural
The latest controversy in Bangladesh began on October 10 when several people attempted to smear black ink on Tagore’s portrait on a newly decorated wall outside Shilpakala Academy in Segunbagicha.
Police detained four people from the scene. A woman seen applying black ink to the portrait said the group was protesting against what she described as “Indian aggression” and referred to Tagore as Indian.
The four were subsequently arrested in a case involving allegations of criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and hurting religious sentiments.
The Maharashtra footage therefore predates the Dhaka incident by nearly two years and cannot show a reaction to the vandalism of Tagore’s mural.
Verdict: Misleading. The video is genuine and was filmed in Maharashtra, but it dates back to at least December 2024 and is unrelated to the October 2026 Tagore mural incident in Dhaka.