Fact Check: Did PM Modi Really Claim That Chinese Philosopher Xuanzang Was From His Village? Here’s the Truth.

Claim

A clip of PM Modi is shared by a social media user with the caption “Chinese philosopher is from my village.”

@sanjay_educare a social media user posted this video on Instagram and the user said quote. “PM Modi claims that the Chinese philosopher Hieun Tsang (Xuanzang) was from his village.”

Fact-Check

Upon investigation, the DFRAC team found that the claim made through the video is misleading. The viral clip is taken from a recent podcast featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hosted by Nikhil Kamat.

To verify the facts, our team reviewed the full podcast to find the accuracy of the claim. The context becomes clear when you watch the original video at  6:14 to 6:46, where PM Modi discusses his childhood. He says, “…I had read somewhere that the Chinese philosopher Hiuen Tsang had lived in my village…so a film was going to be made on him…so at that time I had written a letter to the embassy or someone here that I have read somewhere that you are making a film on Hiuen Tsang…so he lived in my village…so mention it somewhere, that was many years ago.”

In addition, we came across reports published by CNBC, NDTV according to which “Hwensang reached Nalanda by walking through several states of India. Meanwhile, he also went to PM Modi’s village Vadnagar, where he stayed for some time. When he returned to China, he pronounced Vadnagar as O-nan-to-pu-lo, which translates to Anandpur. This is the name of the ancient city of Vadnagar.” The reports also confirm that there was no such statement made by Prime Minister Modi.

After a thorough investigation, we found no evidence of Prime Minister Modi stating that Hieun Tsang (Xuanzang) was from his village.

Conclusion

The DFRAC fact check confirms that Prime Minister Modi only mentioned Xuanzang’s stay in his village, Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Gujarat, during Xuanzang’s visit to India. He did not claim that Xuanzang was from his village.