Minorities in India have witnessed gravest violations of human rights, religious freedoms

Indian American Muslim Council, the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with chapters across the nation, has released the report "State of Religious Minorities in India (June-July 2022)".

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Even though India marked 75 years of independence on August 15, 2022, the descent of once the world’s largest democracy into a Hindu fascist entity is nearly complete. Under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), religious minorities have witnessed the gravest violations of their human rights and religious freedoms.

The hateful ideology of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) espoused by the BJP seeks to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation) and paints religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, etc.) as the biggest threat to its Hindu majoritarian vision. Extreme polarization through hate speech, discriminatory policies, and violence targeting religious minorities have been normalized to reduce the country’s 300 million minorities into second-class citizens.
In June and July 2022, India had been staring at economic uncertainty with a consistently falling Indian Rupee and soaring prices. However, even amid such a precarious situation, the Hindu extremists backed by state actors continue to commit acts of discrimination and violence against religious minorities. The culture of impunity enjoyed by Hindu extremists only emboldens their actions, and this report for June and July is a testament to the same.

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