Anti-Muslim hate speech in India rose 62 percent in the second half of 2023 compared to the first six months of the year, a Washington-based research group said on Monday, adding that the war between Israel and Gaza played a key role in the last three months.
India Hate Lab documented 668 incidents of hate speech targeting Muslims in 2023, of which 255 occurred in the first half of the year and 413 occurred in the last six months of 2023, the research group said in a report released on Monday.
About 75 percent, or 498, of those incidents took place in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to the report. The states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh represented the most hate speech.
Between October 7 – when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, sparking conflict in the Gaza Strip as Israel retaliated – and December 31, there were 41 incidents of hate speech against Indian Muslims that mentioned the war, the report added. They made up about 20 percent of hate speech in the last three months of 2023.
The research group said it used the UN definition of hate speech – prejudice or discriminatory language against an individual or group based on attributes such as religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender.
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Rights groups say Muslims have been allegedly mistreated under Modi, who became prime minister in 2014 and is widely expected to retain power after elections in 2024.
They point to the 2019 Citizenship Act, which the UN Human Rights Office has described as “fundamentally discriminatory”; an anti-conversion law that challenges the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief; and in 2019, the repeal of the special status of Muslim-majority Kashmir.
There was also the demolition of Muslim properties in the name of removing illegal constructions and the banning of hijab in classrooms in Karnataka when the BJP was in power in that state.
Modi’s government denies the existence of abuses of minorities and says its policies are aimed at benefiting all Indians. The Indian embassy in Washington and India’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
India Hate Lab said it monitors the online activity of Hindu nationalist groups, verifies hate speech videos posted on social media and collects data on isolated incidents reported by Indian media.
