Gujarati Tourists Perform Garba In Austria, Slammed For 'Forcing' It On Locals: 'Inconsiderate, Entitled'

A group of Gujarati tourists in Austria has drawn sharp criticism online after they reportedly insisted that local street performers play a Garba track so they could dance in public.

A video of the spontaneous performance, which took place in Innsbruck's Old Town, has now gone viral on social media.

The clip was shared by content creator Pearl Shah, who narrated the incident involving her 43-member Gujarati-Marwari travel group. The user has now apparently deleted the video after facing backlash from viewers.

"It's really happening, guys," Shah says in the video, continuing, "We were in Austria, walking through the streets of Old Town Innsbruck, when we saw two people performing. You have no idea what happened next."

She explained that the group asked the buskers if they could play a Garba song on their speaker system.

"Since our 43-member Gujarati-Marwari group was there too, we approached them and asked if they could play a Garba song on their speaker," Shah said.

Initially, the performers declined the request, citing fears of police intervention. However, the group persisted, and eventually, the buskers relented.

"At first, they refused, saying that if the police showed up, they might get into trouble. But we weren't leaving without doing Garba. After several requests, they finally agreed and let us connect our song," Shah added.

In the caption accompanying her video, Shah wrote, "Have you ever thought of playing Garba in Europe? Well, I had and now I can tick it off the bucket list." The video has amassed over 200,000 views on Instagram.

Despite its popularity, the video drew backlash from many users online. Some criticised the group's behaviour as "inconsiderate and disruptive."

One user, who identified as Gujarati, commented, "We don't do Garba on random Indian streets, let alone overseas. There's a time and place," adding that they felt "embarrassed" by the incident.

Another wrote, "You hijacked their performance for your fun. Those performers were working, and you treated it like a picnic. Please stop forcing your version of culture on unsuspecting strangers."

Someone else noted the lack of respect shown to the artists. "Imagine walking into someone's office and asking them to use their computer to play music. This isn't just inconsiderate, it's entitled."