BBC Pop Up poser on India's snake charmers sparks Twitter fury

Vasudevan Sridharan

The profession of snake charmers was outlawed in India in 2003

Jayanta Dey/Reuters

The BBC Pop Up has invoked the wrath of Indian twitterati over a question on snake charmers. The BBC asked: "Should India erase its snake charming culture to embrace modernity?"
The BBC Pop UP is a travelling bureau covering stories across India and its latest topic was snake charming. When criticism emerged against one of its promotional videos which showed Indian men charming snakes, the channel went on to investigate whether the snake charmers offend the country's cultural identity.
Amid a backlash from vibrant twitter users, BBC Pop Up issued a clarification and said no offence was meant. The practice of snake-charming was outlawed by the government in 2003.