On January 30, 1939, 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. Two years later, mass-scale genocide had been committed by Nazis across Europe.

However, Hitler was the by-product of the very society that had for centuries targeted Jews through hate speech and hate crime which later aided the Nazis to normalise the systematic annihilation of Jews.

On January 19, 2022, Gregory Stanton, the founding president of ‘Genocide Watch’ explained in an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire that there are noticeable signs of genocide of Muslims are in India. He said genocide need not necessarily be similar to the mass extermination of Jews; rather, it will assume the 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.

The Delhi-based socio-cultural organisation, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), recently released a report on India's rising hate speech and hate crime cases in a book Hate Grips the Nation marking 20 years of the Gujarat pogrom. It shows that anti-minority cases have been growing by an alarming rate across India, primarily against the Muslim and Christian communities. 

From Figure 1, it is visible that from 2014-22, around 878 cases of hate speech (54%) and hate crime (46%) have occurred.

In eight years, the highest number of cases was recorded in 2017. Hindutva groups appear to be the core facilitators of hate speech and hate crime in India. Most of these groups are related to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in whose tenure communal hate-mongering has sharply elevated.

ANHAD's recent report reveals that hate speech and hate crimes have primarily targeted Muslims (73.3%) and Christians (26.7%) in India.

There are more cases of hate speech (61.6%) against Muslims than hate crimes (38.4%).

The year-wise analysis shows cases of hate crimes 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 the Christian community, the percentage of hate crime (96%) is higher than hate speech (4%).

Though the percentage of hate crimes against Christians seems higher than hate crimes against Muslims, the numerical value indeed remains higher for Muslims. 

How does hate-mongering shape communal violence in society?

Also read: Heartland Hatewatch

Political theorist Hannah Arendt explains that the essential feature of hate speech is to isolate or atomise a targeted community from the public sphere; it erodes all possible means of dialogue and throws them into a systematic cycle of violence.

She has said that "hate speech victimises 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 fringe community transforms the victims into non-humans and enforces violence as a solution. 

In February 2020, communal violence in northeast Delhi resulted in the death of 53 people, three-quarters of whom were Muslim. Even before the violence, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a militant Hindutva leader, had delivered hate speeches which had the capacity to enthuse people.

An NDTV report shows that from 2014 to 2019, there has been a 500% increase in the invocation of communal hatred in speeches by politicians which subsequently led to anti-minority violence in Indian society.

!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.