2025 Report: Hate Speech Against Minorities Surges in India

In 2025, there were 1,318 hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities in India.

Most of these, about 88%, happened in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The report says that hate speech against Muslims and Christians increased a lot.

The worst month was April, with 158 incidents, which happened during religious events and after a terror attack.

The report also names some leaders and groups, like the BJP's Pushkar Singh Dhami and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, as being involved in many of these incidents.

States like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had the most hate speech events.

The report shows that hate speech is a big problem in these areas.

The report also says that political leaders and members of Hindutva organizations use fear-mongering and scapegoating narratives to depict Muslims and Christians as disloyal, anti-national, dangerous, or demographically threatening.

These narratives have become central to public discourse, shaping electoral strategies, community organizing, and national debates on national identity and security.

The report states that this rhetoric is almost immediately translated into policy initiatives, legitimizing aggressive measures to counter “love jihad” by Muslims and mass forced conversions of Hindus by Christians.