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.