Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Japan made public the map of Greater Nepal with support from doctors and teachers.
Fact
The video actually shows an informal event of non-resident Nepalis living in Japan where they distributed the map.
A video claiming that the map of Greater Nepal has been publicly released in Japan for the first time, much to the chagrin of India, is going viral on TikTok. The video further claims that various people from Japan including teachers and doctors have expressed their support for the map.
TikTok user @rajuchapagay posted a video showing a map of greater Nepal, visuals of a huge crowd walking and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering a speech. The 2.31-minute video also shows several images of people holding maps of Greater Nepal. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Japan has made public the map of Greater Nepal, leaving India in shock. Audio accompanying the video presented in a news bulletin-style says, “Nepal’s Greater map has been made public in Japan. The map published by Nepali Media Centre Japan was made public at Nagoya City in Japan. The formal programme was presided over by Nepali Media Centre Japan’s Chairman Kabi Kiral Neupane and the event was conducted by Media Centre Secretary Rajbin Thapa.”
The video posted on October 7 has garnered 26.9k likes, 477 users have shared it and 473 people have commented on it until the time of publishing this article.The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
The reverse search on the second visual used in the viral video, and found a video report, dated November 16, 2022, on the climate crisis published on the YouTube channel named The Weather Network. The footage of the report from 1.53-minute to 1.58-minute exactly matched the viral video. However, the visual has nothing to do with Japan unveiling the map of Greater Nepal. We found that the video was taken from storyblocks showing a slow motion of crowded Asian people wearing protective masks during Covid 19 virus outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand.
Then, we conducted a search on an image carried in the viral video. The search results led us to a news article, dated October 2, 2023, published on Gorkhali Voice online. The news article also carried other images used in the viral video.
On reading the article thoroughly we inferred that the objective of unveiling the map is to make the Nepali diaspora aware about Nepal’s history. However, the map was not officially released by Japan government as claimed by the viral video.
What is Greater Nepal?
Greater Nepal is an irredentist concept, with its proponents claiming that some of the present-day territories of India, controlled by the Gorkha Army between 1791 AD and 1804 AD, should be returned back to Nepal. The Gorkhas later ceded the territories to the British East India Company under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty as part of a war settlement.
The cause of Greater Nepal is being raised by Unified Nepal National Front, a small political group led by Phanindra Nepal. None of Nepal’s mainstream political parties have adopted the issue on their agenda or party manifesto.
Our findings clearly show that the map of Greater Nepal was unveiled by a small group of Nepali diaspora in Japan and it was not supported by any official of Japan and Nepal governments. Thus, it would be misleading to say that Japan made public the map of greater Nepal, thereby upsetting India.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that Japan made public the map of Greater Nepal is misleading. The video actually shows an unofficial event of non-resident Nepalis living in Japan where they distributed map of Greater Nepal among themselves to keep the Nepali community aware about the history of Nepal.
Result: False
Sources
The Weather Network /YouTube, November 16, 2022
Stock Media
Gorkhali Voice, October 2, 2023
Himal South Asia, March 1, 1993
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
