Hate speech against religious minorities in India soared by 75% in 2024

Independent

10-02-2025

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.
The report noted that hate speech incidents spiked during last year's general elections, making up 32 per cent of the total events recorded in 2024.
'The persistence of hate speech targeting minorities – and its sharp escalation in the lead-up to the 2024 elections – suggests a deeply troubling trajectory,' the report stated. 'Hate speech is no longer just an instrument of communal polarisation but is becoming increasingly normalised as a standard feature of Indian political culture and electoral campaigns.'
As many as 259, or over 22 per cent, of the recorded events featured dangerous speech, including explicit calls for violence. No less than 224 of these events occurred in states governed by the BJP or its allies or in union territories under the jurisdiction of the BJP's central government, the report said. This is an 8.4 per cent increase in dangerous speech incidents compared to 2023.
According to the Dangerous Speech Project, a nonprofit research team, dangerous speech is defined as communication that 'can increase the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group'.
Social media platforms played a major role in amplifying hate speech, the report said, with 995 of the recorded events first shared or live-streamed on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X.
The platforms did not remove such videos inciting violence even though they were in breach of their community standards, it said.
'Our report clearly demonstrates that anti-minority hate speech is not incidental but follows a deliberate pattern. It is no longer just an instrument of communal polarisation but, shockingly, a standard feature of Indian political culture and electoral campaigns, institutional structures, and social fabric,' Raqib Hameed Naik, executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, told The Independent.
'Modi government's politicisation of religious identity has reshaped public discourse on Muslim identity to such an extent that even leaders from opposition parties have largely refrained from categorically condemning hate speech against Muslims. The lack of public outrage over hate speech suggests the disturbing social acceptance and normalisation of the sentiments expressed in such rhetoric. The complicity of Big Tech in enabling hate speech is also very evident from its utter unwillingness to stop the weaponisation of its platforms.'
The Independent has contacted Meta, X, and Google (which owns YouTube) for comment.
The report further noted that while hate speech incidents nationwide rose by 74.4 per cent from 2023 to 2024, Karnataka saw a 20 per cent decline, with 32 events recorded in 2024 compared to 40 the previous year. Six of the incidents occurred during the 2024 election campaign.
The southern state was governed by the BJP until May 2023, when the Congress party took power. 'The new administration implemented measures that contributed to a decline in hate speech incidents,' the report said.
India has also witnessed a rise in hate speech targeting places of worship, the report said, with 274 incidents calling for the destruction of Muslim or Christian places of worship. Hate speech against vulnerable communities like the Rohingya and people of Bangladeshi origin has gone up as well.
The report argued that 'the degradation of political life through the mainstreaming of hate speech signals a new low in India's political culture, one with grave implications for the security, psychological wellbeing, and fundamental sense of belonging of religious minorities in the Indian republic'.