Hate Speech Events in India 2025

FOCUS

India Hate Lab (IHL), a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), Washington D.C., published this report in January 2026. It records and tracks trends in hate speech incidents in India in the year 2025. The report notes that hate speech incidents in the country increased from 1,165 in 2024 to 1,318 in 2025, marking a 13 per cent rise. It highlights how hate speech and inflammatory rhetoric has become a campaign tactic in the present political scenario.

The report follows the United Nations’ framework which characterises hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech, writing, or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.”

The report's methodology includes social media tracking, media analysis, field reporting, and verification based on the Rabat Plan of Action's six-part threshold test for hate speech. The six factors under consideration are: context, speaker, intent, content and form, extent of the speech, and likelihood and imminence.

The 115-page document is divided into 17 chapters: Introduction (Chapter 1); Key Findings (Chapter 2); Methodology (Chapter 3); Hate Speech Trends in 2025 (Chapter 4); Hate Speech Events Post Pahalgam Terror Attack (Chapter 5); Twin Pillars of Majoritarian Mobilization (Chapter 6); Hate Speech During Local and State Elections (Chapter 7); Weaponizing Demographic Fear During Elections and Beyond (Chapter 8); Anti-Christian Hate Speech (Chapter 9); Dangerous Speech and Call to Arms (Chapter 10); Dehumanization (Chapter 11); Social Media and Economic Boycott of Minorities (Chapter 12); Calls for Destruction of Places of Worship (Chapter 13); Hindu Religious Leaders and Hate Speech (Chapter 14); Judicial and Legislative Developments on Hate Speech (Chapter 15); Social Media Platforms and Hate Speech (Chapter 16); and Conclusion (Chapter 17).

    FACTOIDS

  1. Hate speech in 2025 has been shaped by a decade of intensifying Hindu nationalism that has painted Muslims and Christians as disloyal, anti-national, dangerous and demographically threatening, the report notes.

  2. As in 2024, the prominent drivers of in-person hate speech events were affiliates of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, namely, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.

  3. Social media further smoothed the proliferation of hate through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter). The majority of documented hate speech events in the country in 2025 were shared widely in online videos.

  4. The India Hate Lab documented 1,318 hate speech events in India in 2025. These events, recorded across 21 states, one union territory and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, mainly targeted Muslims and Christians.

  5. The report notes that 98 per cent (1,289) of the speeches targeted Muslims – explicitly in 1,156 instances and alongside Christians in 133 instances. The number marks an almost 12 per cent increase compared to the 1,147 such cases in 2024.

  6. Around 12 per cent (162) of all recorded events targeted Christians, representing a more than 40 per cent increase in such cases from the 115 cases documented in 2024.

  7. The highest number of hate speech events were recorded in Uttar Pradesh (266), followed by Maharashtra (193), Madhya Pradesh (172), Uttarakhand (155), and Delhi (76).

  8. Across the 23 states and union territories analysed under this report, 1,164 incidents (88 per cent) were recorded in the territories governed by the BJP directly or as part of a coalition. The seven opposition-ruled stated recorded 154 events, 34 per cent fewer than in 2024.

  9. As many as 98 in-person hate speech events were documented taking place between April 22 and May 7, 2025, following the Pahalgam attack. The report calls these cases which preceded the hostilities between India and Pakistan, an indication of “rapid and nationwide anti-Muslim mobilization.”

  10. Almost half of all hate speeches recorded in 2025 referenced baseless conspiracy theories such as ‘love jihad’, ‘land jihad’, ‘thook jihad’ and ‘vote jihad’. Around 308 speeches explicitly called for violence and 276 called for removal or destruction of places of worship like mosques, shrines and churches.

  11. As many as 141 speeches used dehumanising language to describe minorities, including terms like ‘termites’, ‘parasites’, ‘pigs’ and ‘bloodthirsty zombies’. The report adds that that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal were the most frequent organisers of hate speech events, linked to as many as 289 events.

  12. Bengali Muslims were targeted and called ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ in 192 speeches whereas 69 speeches targeted Rohingya refugees.

  13. Social media played a crucial role in the spread of hate speech with 1,278 of the 1,318 events being first shared or live-streamed on these platforms. Facebook recorded the highest first uploads at 942. It was followed by YouTube (246), Instagram (67) and X (23).

AUTHOR

India Hate Lab

COPYRIGHT

India Hate Lab

PUBLICATION DATE

Jan, 2026

TAGS

#hate-speech #social-media #elections #minorities

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