NEW DELHI: Hate speech in India targeting the country’s religious minorities saw a “staggering” surge in 2024, a US-based think tank said on Monday.

The alarming rise was “deeply intertwined with the ideological ambitions of the ruling BJP and the broader Hindu nationalist movement”, the India Hate Lab (IHL) said in a report.

During India’s bitterly contested election last year, critics and rights groups accused PM Narendra Modi and his BJP of ramping up rhetoric against Muslims to unprecedented levels in a bid to mobilise the Hindu majority.

“The number of hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities surged from 668 in 2023 to 1,165 in 2024, marking a staggering 74.4 per cent increase,” the IHL report stated.

It said 98.5pc 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.

More than 450 hate speeches were delivered by leaders of the BJP, with Modi himself responsible for 63 of them, the report said. The India Hate Lab is part of the Washington-based Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSOH), a non-profit think tank.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2025