{"id":168518,"date":"2025-02-11T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T05:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=168518"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T05:02:14","slug":"anti-muslim-hate-speech-surges-in-india-under-modi-says-us-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2025\/02\/11\/anti-muslim-hate-speech-surges-in-india-under-modi-says-us-think-tank.html","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Muslim hate speech surges in India under Modi, says US Think Tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Washington: In what India\u2019s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future, hate speech targeting the country\u2019s religious minorities saw a \u201cstaggering\u201d surge in 2024, a US-based think tank said, the other day.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, the alarming rise was \u201cdeeply intertwined with the ideological ambitions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindu nationalist movement\u201d, the India Hate Lab (IHL) said in a report.<\/p>\n

During India\u2019s bitterly contested national vote last year, critics and rights groups accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP of ramping up rhetoric against Muslims to unprecedented levels during his campaign in a bid to mobilise the Hindu majority.<\/p>\n

At his rallies, he referred to Muslims as \u201cinfiltrators\u201d, and claimed the main opposition Congress party would redistribute the nation\u2019s wealth to Muslims if it won.<\/p>\n

Modi won a third successive term in office in June but was forced into a coalition government after a shock election setback for his BJP left him without an outright majority for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

The BJP\u2019s Hindu nationalist rhetoric has left India\u2019s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities surged from 668 in 2023 to 1,165 in 2024, marking a staggering 74.4 percent increase,\u201d the IHL report stated.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cthe fact that 2024 was a general election year\u2026 played a crucial role in shaping the patterns of hate speech incidents\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said 98.5 percent of the hate speeches targeted Muslims, with more than two-thirds of them taking place in states controlled by the BJP or its allies, according to the report.<\/p>\n

More than 450 hate speeches were delivered by leaders of the BJP, with Modi himself responsible for 63 of them, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuslims, in particular, were portrayed as an existential threat to Hindus and the Indian nation,\u201d the report said.\u201cThe most alarming rise was in speeches advocating for the destruction of places of worship,\u201d the report added. Hindu supremacists have upped the ante demading religious sites be taken from Muslims.<\/p>\n

That escalated after Modi inaugurated a grand temple to the deity Ram ahead of last year\u2019s vote, built on the grounds of a centuries-old mosque razed by a mob backed by the BJP.<\/p>\n

Facebook, YouTube and X were the major platforms for dissemination, according to IHL\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

IHL said 266 \u201canti-minority hate speeches delivered by senior BJP leaders\u201d during the elections were simultaneously broadcast across YouTube, Facebook and X through the official accounts of the party and its leaders.<\/p>\n

India Hate Lab is part of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a non-profit think tank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington: In what India\u2019s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future, hate speech targeting the country\u2019s religious minorities saw a \u201cstaggering\u201d surge in 2024, a US-based think tank said, the other day. According to Kashmir Media Service, the alarming rise was \u201cdeeply intertwined with the ideological ambitions of the ruling …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-168518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/modi.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}