Anti-Muslim hate speech peaked in 2023 from August to November, a period when political campaigning and voting were underway for elections in four key Indian states.
According to new data from a US- based research group, India saw an average of two hate speech incidents against Muslims every day last year .
A report published this week by the Washington-based group India Hate Lab (IHL) revealed that such incidents mostly occurred in states where Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing party Wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments are in place.
Hate speech peaked in 2023 from August to November, a period when political campaigning and voting were underway for elections in four key states of India.
India's general elections this year are just a few months away, in which Narendra Modi is seeking a third term in power.
India Hate Lab documented 668 hate incidents targeting Muslims in 2023.
The group recorded 255 incidents in the first half of 2023, while the number rose to 413 incidents in the second half of the year, an increase of 62 percent.
The group said it used the United Nations' definition of hate speech for its data, which includes prejudice against an individual or group based on attributes including religion, race, nationality, ethnicity or gender. Or discriminatory language may be used.
The group noted that despite creating a comprehensive data set, these data sets do not fully cover hate incidents in India.
Hate speech has historically been considered a major cause of serious atrocities against communities, including massacres and genocide, the report said.
According to the report: 'It plays an important role in instilling hatred against a group, effectively instilling solidarity within one's own group and demonizing other groups while also acting as a means of instilling fear. works.'
The IHL report states that 'collective hatred of an out-group targeted by inhumane treatment can effectively legitimize violence against them by presenting it as an aggressive threat. .'
Of the 668 incidents of hate speech in India, 498 or 75 percent occurred in states, federal units and parts of the national capital, Delhi, where BJP governments are in place, IHL said.
The report said that the western state of Maharashtra was the worst affected, accounting for about 118 or 18 percent of such cases even though it has only 9.3 percent of India's population.
About 104 incidents of hate speech took place in Uttar Pradesh alone, home to over 38 million Muslims. Madhya Pradesh state in central India recorded 65 cases. Other smaller states like Haryana and Uttarakhand also saw incidents of hate speech.
The IHC said about 216 or 32 percent of hate incidents were organized by far-right Hindu religious groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal.
Both groups belong to the Sangh Parivar, a collective name for various Hindu nationalist organizations led by the paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). BJP acts as the political wing of this network.
Neither the BJP nor the Modi government have responded directly to the IHL report, but the group's website and its related hate crime tracking site Hindutva Watch were controversial last month. It was blocked by a government order under the Information Technology Act 2000.
The government did not explain its move, nor did it say which parts of the IHL it was accused of violating.
The Independent contacted the VHP and the BJP for their reaction to the report but did not receive a response.
The IHL said in this regard that 'BJP itself was responsible for organizing about 50 hate speech programs, mostly in the context of election rallies.'
New Hindu nationalist groups and elements involved in hate speech are growing rapidly in India, the report said.
Of the total 668 incidents of hate speech, 63 percent referred to Islamophobic conspiracy theories, the report said.
These theories include a series of baseless accusations, including 'love jihad'. 'Love Jihad' is a baseless conspiracy theory which claims that Muslim men are persuading Hindu women to convert to Islam through marriage.
Similarly, through 'Land Jihad', Muslims are accused of occupying public land by building religious buildings or holding prayers, 'Halal Jihad' is to economically remove non-Muslim shopkeepers through Islamic halal methods. Seen as a conspiracy and 'population jihad', it is claimed that Muslims are deliberately increasing their birth rate with the aim of overtaking the population of other communities and eventually dominating the entire country. .
The report found that 'just five speakers were responsible for 146 hate speech incidents or 22 percent of all hate speech incidents documented by IHL.'
The report also said that about 100 incidents of hate speech prominently involved leaders associated with the BJP.
According to an analysis of hate speech incidents in 2023, 169 incidents involved speeches calling for the targeting of Muslim places of worship.
The report said that between October 7 and December 31, 2023, when Hamas took action against Israel, in 41 of the 193 incidents, it was used to incite hatred against Indian Muslims.
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