All this becomes ratified in the latest report released by ‘India Hate Lab’, a Washington DC-based group that documents hate speech against India’s religious minorities. The report with the title ‘Hate Speech Events in India’, notes that while 255 events took place in the first half of 2023, “the number rose to 413 in the second half of the year, a 62% increase”. The details are very revealing.
As per the report nearly 75% of the events of the total (498), took place in BJP-ruled states, Union territories (administered by the BJP-led Central government), and Delhi (here police and public order come under the Union government’s purview). While 36% (239) of the events “included a direct call of violence against Muslims” and 63% (420) of incidents include references to “conspiracy theories, primarily involving love jihad, land jihad, and population jihad”. About 25% (169) featured speeches calling for targeting Muslim places of worship.”