Busting myths and uncovering truths: Meet the people waging war on scientific misinformation Premium

Science communicators in India are turning educators online, promoting evidence-based thinking among their growing bands of followers

About a year ago, in an interview with Behindwoods Air News, a Tamil YouTube channel, astrologer A.B. Mugan claimed he could “scientifically” find out if a soul “attained peace”. He took out a bent copper rod with a bright red handle. “Once you touch a deceased person’s photo with this rod, it will keep pointing at the photo if the person’s soul hasn’t attained peace – if it has, then the rod will turn away,” he said.

He then proceeded to pull up a dead person’s photo on a mobile phone, albeit with dubious hand movements. Like a magician inviting the audience to inspect his props, he even asked the interviewer to test the rod.

Mugan’s claims, you might think, can be dismissed as unbelievable. Wrong. At the time of writing, the interview has over six lakh views. A video where he demonstrates his “scientific proof” of soul detection elicits comments that express a sense of awe. The rod itself - known as Dowsing Rod - is sold on major e-commerce platforms for up to ₹8,000.

YouTuber Dharma Durai (popularly known as Mr. G.K.) noticed Mugan’s videos on Facebook after he was tagged by a few followers. He invited the astrologer to an interview on his channel, where he interrogated him on his ‘scientific’ methods. After a confident start, Mugan’s answers soon got vague and unconvincing. For instance, when asked if he has published his research in a renowned scientific journal, Mugan replied that he has written in Bhagya, a Tamil entertainment weekly.

G.K. isn’t a scientist. He is a BSc graduate who quit his IT job to become a YouTuber. After starting with history videos, he moved to his other favourite subject: science. “There weren’t many people explaining complex topics, like the fourth dimension, in simple terms. I felt I could fill this space,” he says. He now has 1.22 million subscribers and 146 million views across all his videos. “Though I started a channel to educate people on science, I soon realised debunking pseudoscience is a big part of that,” he says.

From flat-earth theory to soul-detecting copper rods, there is an imaginative range of scientific misinformation on the internet, drawing a large and growing number of people.

Pseudoscience seems to be thriving on social media. In India, a chunk of it stems from sentiments about a glorious past. Case in point: Ayurveda and its many interpretations by health influencers. Krish Ashok, who interrogates nutritional myths on Twitter and Instagram, says that people hark back to the “original text” to make preposterous claims like refrigeration is bad or that mixing fruits and dairy is harmful.