Hate speech against religious minorities in India soared by 75% in 2024
Monday 10 February 2025 13:00 GMT
There has been a sharp rise in hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities in India, according to a new report by an American think tank.
The country recorded 1,165 hate speech events last year, a 74.4 per cent increase from 2023, the report by India Hate Lab said. As many as 98.5 per cent of these events targeted Muslims, either explicitly or in combination with Christians, while almost 10 per cent targeted Christians in some capacity.
The report by India Hate Lab, a project of the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate, noted a “deeply concerning trend of escalating hate speech” especially in states governed by Narendra Modi’s BJP party and its allies.
The United Nations defines hate speech as “any kind of communication, in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor”.
The report found that at least 931 of the recorded hate speech events, just under 80 per cent, occurred in states or federal territories governed by the BJP. This suggests “a strong correlation between political control and the prevalence of hate speech”, it said.
The Independent reached out to the BJP for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
States ruled by opposition parties in contrast accounted for 234, or about 20 per cent, of the documented hate speech incidents.
The states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh led the nation in hate speech incidents, collectively contributing to nearly half of the total events.