On January 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler, on the sixth anniversary of his chancellorship of Germany, delivered a speech to the Reichstag proclaiming the annihilation of ‘European Jewry’ from the earth. Nazis had committed two years later, mass scale genocide across Europe. However, Hitler was the byproduct of the very society that had for centuries targeted Jews through hate speech and hate crime which later aided the Nazis to normalize the systematic annihilation of Jews. On January 19, 2022, Gregory Stanton, the founding President of ‘Genocide Watch’ explained in an interview to the Wire that there are noticeable signs of genocide of Muslims in India. He said genocide need not necessarily be similar to the mass extermination of Jews, rather it will assume form of mob violence, slowly seeping into majoritarian consciousness. Stanton’s words are relevant because the data reflects that in India, the situation of minorities is a cause of grave concern.

Delhi based socio-cultural organization, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), released recently report on India’s rising hate speeches and hate crimes in a book, Hate Grips the Nation, marking 20 years of the Gujarat 2002 pogrom. It shows that anti-minority cases have been growing by an alarming rate across India, primarily against Muslim and Christian communities. ANHAD’s recent report reveals that hate speeches and hate crimes have primarily targeted Muslims (73.6 percent) and Christians (26.7 percent) in India. There are more cases of hate speech (61.6 percent) and hate crimes (38.4 percent) against Muslims. Year wise analysis shows cases of hate crime have slowly taken precedence over hate speech against Muslims, which explains how hate speeches have propelled hate crimes against Muslims in India. In the case of Christians, the percentage of hate crime (96 percent) is higher than hate speech (4 percent). Though the percentage of hate crimes against Christians seems higher than hate crimes against Muslims, the numerical value indeed remains higher for Muslims.

The way hate mongering shapes communal violence in society, political scientist Hannah Arendt explains that essential feature of hate speech is to isolate or atomize a targeted community from the public sphere. It erodes all public means of dialogue and throws them into a systematic cycle of violence. She said, “hate speech victimizes individuals and narrows down the public debate, which is an essential feature of a totalitarian worldview”. Due to the lack of free dialogue among equals, the majoritarian rabble-rousers transform the victims into non-human and enforce violence as a solution. Of the total of 878 cases of hate speech and hate crimes recorded across India during 2014-2022, more than half of such cases were in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. State wise hate speeches and hate crimes were recorded with UP (25.2 percent), Delhi (14.8 percent), M.P. (7.7 percent), and Maharashtra (6.3 percent) accounting for the highest number of cases. It is noteworthy, in all such States, RSS Pariwar were in power.

Data shows Muslims have been persecuted in most parts of India, whereas Christians targeted majorly in the Central Indian and South Indian States. However, these cases are based on recorded crimes, and unreported cases are higher than given statistics. UN Human Rights office in its “Citizens Against Hate” report explained that in the second term of the Modi government, various BJP (RSS Pariwar) ruled state governments passed anti-minority laws, such as the anti-conversion law named ironically ‘Freedom of Religion’, most commonly known as ‘love-jihad’ law that provided a free hand to the police and vigilante organisations to criminalize individuals belonging to the minority community. These laws including the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the reading down of Article 370 in Kashmir are instances of systematic violence against minorities.

The current data on hate crimes suggests that positive electoral gains do not necessarily stem from rising hate crimes against minorities in society. It is interesting to see BJP’s vote share increased in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But that does not necessarily imply that people have been voting BJP to power for communal reasons alone. People voted BJP for various reasons, and the Hindutva agenda along with hate speeches and hate crimes remain a significant contributing factor, rather than becoming a significant issue in itself. CSDS Lokniti research scholar Shreyas Sardesai argues in his work that in the 2019 LS elections, BJP overcame caste and class hierarchies and subsumed them under a larger ‘Hindu Umbrella’ that voted for BJP. Despite this larger vote consolidation, it does not conclusively prove that a larger majority voted for BJP government on the basis of an anti-minority sentiment. Sardesai’s perspective remains interesting as the question still remains if major anti-minority hate is not transposing into increased vote share in elections then why do instances of hate speech and hate crime keep on rising? Elections are the sum total of various factors and ideology remains one of them. BJP endorses Hindutva sponsored violence which needs a communal atmosphere to flourish.

Recent series of communal violence incidents across India during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti celebrations are testament to the power of hate speeches by RSS Pariwar’s prominent leaders. Hate speech and its consequences are nearly similar across languages, regions and cultures. In history, there are instances where people were often referred to as “insects”, “vermin” or “threats” or “termites”, similar to the Indian context. Inflammatory speeches have always preceded mass violence. Before the Nazis started their genocide of the Jews, a German political folklore regarded Jews as less worthy and referred to them as “vermin”. The Hutu before the 1994 Rwanda genocide referred to Tutsi people as “cockroaches.”

Irrespective of whether hate crimes benefit RSS Pariwar electorally the trend is alarming. We are nearing an unstable state. Indian majoritarian society has hopes in the current RSS regime. At this point, it is optimistic to even hope for a better future for minorities in India!

India has witnessed various detestable incidents that reflect the degree of hate prevalent and exponentially rising in the country. The marginalization, frustration, helplessness, fear and insecurity of Muslims and Christians, and the dominant observations, while the economic hardships, violence, humiliation and subjugation of Dalit, women and Adivasis are also equally frightening phenomena that mark the rising domination of majoritarian politics. India is seeing the continuing rise of hate against Muslims and Christians. The narrative of hate against these religious minorities has been constructed by communal organisations, spread and intensified by the captive media. Hate has been mongered by various affiliates of RSS, the corporate controlled godi media, out to bow to the ruling RSS Pariwar to condemn opposition parties and the ruling RSS Pariwar’s critics. The television networks have been totally bought over by corporates who are in strong cahoots with the majoritarian government aiming towards a Hindu nation. Ruling RSS Pariwar has also opened media cell and started lakhs of WhatsApp groups to broadcast its message of hate.

This is a very critical phase in the life of republican India where hate is being aggressively dished out from the hallowed portals of the highest institutions of democracy, with a most deleterious impact on social life and the core values of our Constitution, that is fraternity. Hate speech, which is a crime, goes unabated and unpunished. Many of our Dharma Sansads and RSS Pariwar hate mongers are strolling through society with the dangerous weapons of hates. According to Professor Gregory Stanton, a genocide studies scholar, who predicted the 1994 genocide in Rwanda after studying the broadcasts of Radio Rwanda, India has attained the eighth out of ten ‘stages’ of genocide. What can now be done to check the menace of hate crimes? Can the political parties committed to the values of the Indian Constitution; social groups and human rights groups come together to devise a way to promote fraternity at the community level? This is an urgent task now overdue!