INDIA’s rabid streak is at an all-time high. Prejudice is now an organised movement to erase religious freedoms for lower castes and faiths other than Hinduism. Citing its 2026 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has demanded that India be declared a “country of particular concern” for “ongoing, systematic, and egregious religious freedom conditions”. The USCIRF chief highlighted the legal structure affecting conversion and security rules. This year, “13 out of 28 Indian states” enforce strict anti-conversion laws that involve severe punishments, including life imprisonment, for those accused of facilitating or performing conversions of Hindus, the report notes. From surveillance to assassination bids, the country is also guilty of transnational repression of minorities and critics. Bengali Muslim citizens are pushed through the border into alien territory. Rohingya Muslims are dropped into the sea to swim to Myanmar. True to form, Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintains a cold silence.

India’s record of intolerance reflects the BJP-led government’s smugness about its majoritarian hold. But its strategic confidence and economic power are dimming. The global gaze is on communal brutality as a failure of the Indian state, and a toxic regional threat. With culture, festivals, history and monuments rearranged to expand the fantasy of a Hindu rashtra, India’s sociopolitical landscape stands significantly altered. Meanwhile, throughout Mr Modi’s bleak rule, perpetrators have rarely been held to account. This cover, widely read as state protection, has cemented impunity and created a sense of entitlement. Then there is the long list of infringements on freedom of expression, targeting of dissenters, and a climate of fear that point to a soft dictatorship. As per the Early Warning Project’s Statistical Risk Assessment, India has consistently featured among “high-risk countries for mass killings and atrocities”. Rabid communalism jeopardises human productivity, economic gains and humanity. India has forsaken a secular ethos for a brute force that rejects a multifaith environment. The need to change such a dangerous context to one that prefers equality over hate cannot be stressed enough. Without a renewed commitment to pluralism with curbs on injustice through institutional involvement, India is doomed to darkness.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026