Shillong, Jan 18: An annual report on hate speech events in India for 2025 suggests that India’s politics of hate and normalisation of hate crimes is only getting worse.
The report was compiled by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSoH) and published on altnews.in, among other news sites.
According to the report, there were a total of 1,318 hate speech events targeting religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, in 2025 across 21 states, one Union territory and Delhi. This means that four hate speech events occurred per day, on average.
This is a 13 percent increase from 2024 and a 97 percent increase from 2023, when 668 such incidents were recorded, according to the CSoH, which is a non-profit, non-partisan US-based think tank which conducts evidence based research on hate, violence, extremism, radicalism and online harms. Its stated mission is to understand, prevent and combat the multifaceted phenomena of organised hate against any group defined by characteristics such as religion, race, nationality, caste, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.
The report also highlights how social media is used to amplify hate speeches. Videos of 1,278 out of the 1,318 hate speech events were first shared or live-streamed on social media platforms. That is almost 97 percent of events being circulated on social media platforms, with Facebook accounting for 942 of the first uploads, followed by YouTube (246), Instagram (67), and X (23).
Out of the 1300-odd speeches, the CSoH found that 98 percent (or 1,289 speeches) targeted Muslims, either singularly or alongside Christians. This represents a 12 percent jump from the 1,147 instances recorded in 2024. Hate speech targeting Christians was recorded in 162 incidents, accounting for 12 percent of total cases. This represents a nearly 41 percent increase from the 115 anti-Christian hate speech incidents documented in 2024.
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh witnessed a whopping 266 cases of hate speech, the highest. UP was followed by Maharashtra with 193 cases, Madhya Pradesh 172, Uttarakhand 155 and Delhi 76. Nearly 40 percent of the hate speech events in Maharashtra called for violence. This, CSoH reports, is the highest proportion recorded for any state.
The BJP held power (fully or partially) in 16 of the 23 jurisdictions analysed by the CSoH. Around 88 percent of the events occurred in territories governed by the BJP. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ranked first among “hate speech actors”, with 71 speeches, followed by Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad chief Pravin Togadia (46) and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay (35). Maharashtra BJP minister Nitish Rane was also ranked among the top five.
As many as 158 hate speech events were organised in April. Many of these events coincided with Ram Navami processions and rallies organised in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Between April 22 (the day of the Pahalgam terror attack) and May 7, 98 in-person hate speech events were documented.
As many as 23 percent (308) of the hate speech events had explicit calls for violence, while 136 speeches included direct calls to arms.
Calls for violence increased by 19 percent from 2024 and calls for social or economic boycotts of minorities (120) rose by 8 percent. A total of 276 speeches called for the removal or destruction of places of worship, including mosques, shrines and churches; the most frequently targeted sites being the Gyanvapi Mosque and the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Uttar Pradesh. And 141 speeches contained dehumanising language with terms like “termites,” “parasites,” “insects,” “pigs,” “mad dogs,” “snakelings,” “green snakes,” and “bloodthirsty zombies” being used to describe minorities.
Hindutva outfits, such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, emerged as the most regular purveyors of hate speeches. They were linked to 22 percent of the events (289), followed by the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (138 events). CSoH identified more than 160 organisations and informal groups as organisers or co-organisers in 2025.
As many as 69 hate speech events targeted Rohingya refugees, while 192 speeches invoked the “Bangladeshi infiltrator” trope, frequently used to label Bengali-speaking Muslims as foreigners.
The CSoH, in its document, highlighted the alarming increase in attacks against Christians, documented in more than 162 distinct events. Among event organisers, the VHP–Bajrang Dal and the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad–Rashtriya Bajrang Dal organised 50 and 16 events, respectively. States ruled by the BJP directly or in coalition recorded 134 events and opposition states recorded 28 events. As of November 2025, the United Christian Forum reported 706 incidents targeting Christians.
In multiple speeches, Christianity was reportedly paired with Islam as a foreign force (followers of whom were labelled “vidharmis”), allegedly bent on harming Hindus and “dismantling Hindu civilisation”. The “forced conversion” narrative was also weaponised, portraying every act of Christian charity as a deceptive tool for converting Hindus to Christianity, often reinforcing this claim through the “rice bag” trope.
Christmas last year saw targeted harassment against the community rise manifold. Incidents were reported from Assam, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha. A BJP leader from Jabalpur led the charge by abusing and heckling a visually impaired woman in a church in Jabalpur. Alt News reported on all of these events.
Meanwhile, in August, two nuns were arrested in BJP-ruled Odisha allegedly on the insistence of Hindutva outfits.
Alt News also reported extensively on hate speech events and hate crimes last year. In December, the Union Culture Ministry and the Tourism Department of Delhi sponsored a two-day event in the national capital where prominent right-wing faces offered solutions to the ‘Muslim problem’, from deporting Muslims, population control, mass conversion and excluding them from jobs and more ‘offensive steps’.
