A chilling wave of hate is sweeping across India, with Hindu extremists targeting Christians in a disturbing escalation of religious violence. This alarming trend has sparked intense controversy and raised urgent questions about the role of political leaders and the future of religious harmony in the country.
On Christmas Eve, an alarming incident unfolded in the city of Raipur, where hardline Hindu groups affiliated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a shutdown. The protest was fueled by unsubstantiated claims of "forced" religious conversions by Christians, a familiar accusation leveled against the Christian community.
That same day, a mob armed with wooden sticks stormed a shopping mall in Raipur, vandalizing Christmas decorations and disrupting celebrations. Despite police filing a case against the attackers, only a handful were arrested, and they were soon released on bail. Their release was celebrated with public processions and chants, a disturbing display of support for their actions.
Prime Minister Modi's response to this incident has been a subject of intense debate. While he visited a Catholic church in New Delhi on Christmas morning, he notably refrained from condemning the violence.
But here's where it gets even more concerning: a new report by the India Hate Lab, a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), reveals a shocking escalation of religious hate speech and violence in India. The country witnessed a total of 1,318 hate speech events in 2025, an average of more than three per day.
These events, largely organized and led by Hindu majoritarian groups and the governing BJP, targeted Muslims and Christians alike. The report highlights a 97% increase in hate speech since 2023 and a 13% rise over 2024. While Muslims remained a primary target, the report also documents a sharp rise in anti-Christian rhetoric. Hate speech events targeting Christians rose from 115 in 2024 to a staggering 162 in 2025, a 41% increase.
The violence and intimidation unleashed by Hindu supremacists during Christmas celebrations last month were a stark reminder of this rising tide of hate. Instances were recorded across India, from the capital state of Delhi to Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh, where the mob ravaged the mall in Raipur.
In Madhya Pradesh, a BJP leader led a mob that attacked a Christmas lunch for visually impaired children. In Delhi, women wearing Santa caps were intimidated by Hindu supremacists. In Kerala, schools reportedly received threats from officials belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the BJP and other Hindu majoritarian groups, warning against holding Christmas celebrations.
Christians, who make up only 2.3% of India's population, have become an increasingly visible target, alongside Muslims, in a climate of intensifying Hindu majoritarian rhetoric. The Hindu community, which comprises 80% of the population, has been fueled by conspiracy theories and incorrect claims, stoking suspicion, anger, and hate against religious minorities.
Experts warn that this latest escalation marks a new chapter in the religious hate that India's religious minorities have had to confront since the BJP came to power in 2014. The BJP's ideological mentor, the RSS, founded in 1925, advocates for India to become a "Hindu nation," a concept that contradicts the country's constitutionally enshrined value of secularism.
Historical Hindu nationalist ideologues, such as Vinayak Savarkar and MS Golwalkar, whom Modi has publicly honored, have labeled religious minorities like Muslims and Christians as "unwanted" and "internal enemies" of India, calling for a "permanent war" against them.
Raqib Naik, from the CSOH, notes that the instances of hate speech recorded in the report mirror this dangerous rhetoric. Muslims and Christians are portrayed as "dual threats," foreign and demonic forces seeking to harm Hindus.
"The forced conversion narrative is central to this," Naik explains. "It portrays every act of Christian charity, education, or healthcare as a deceptive tool for converting Hindus to Christianity."
Despite the Christian community in India never exceeding 3% of the total population between 1951 and the last national census in 2011, according to Pew Research Center data, this narrative persists.
Within the Christian community, these hate incidents have led to fear and deep unease. John Dayal, a former president of the All India Catholic Union and a former member of the National Integration Council, an Indian government advisory body on religious harmony, describes the situation as dire.
"The fear of vandalism by Hindu supremacists has led to many taking unusual and extreme steps," Dayal says. "In Raipur, the archbishop was forced to advise all churches and Christian institutions to seek police protection during Christmas. I couldn't believe such a letter had to be written."
And it's not just Christians who are bearing the brunt of this hate. The report also highlights a significant rise in hate speech against Muslims. Out of the total 1,318 hate speech events, 1,289 contained hateful and violent references to Muslims.
In these hate events, speakers, often from the BJP or affiliated Hindu supremacist groups, invoked conspiracy theories against Muslims, claiming they were capturing Hindu land, outnumbering Hindus, and luring Hindu women to convert them to Islam.
"These narratives are designed to paint minorities as organized aggressors, intent on destroying Hindu culture, demographic dominance, and wealth," says Naik.
The large-scale dissemination of these conspiracies is part of a deliberate strategy to create an environment of perpetual Hindu victimhood and enable the passage of anti-minority laws to address these imagined threats.
Since the BJP came to power, several Indian states have introduced laws criminalizing coercive religious conversions, but critics argue these laws are veiled attempts to prevent interfaith marriages. Ministers in these states have publicly called these laws attempts to curb "love jihad."
In November 2025, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom highlighted what it called "several discriminatory pieces of legislation" in India, including on citizenship and religious conversion.
The report also finds a strong link between the BJP and much of this hate. Almost nine out of ten hate speech events, 88% in total, took place in states governed by the BJP or its allies. Among the top ten actors involved in the most hate speech, the report identifies five with associations to the BJP, including Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, widely considered India's second-most powerful person after Modi.
Al Jazeera reached out to the BJP's chief spokesperson, Anil Baluni, and the Ministry of Home Affairs for comment but received no response.
Ram Puniyani, an author and president of the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), a research body promoting religious harmony, believes the rise in hate is directly linked to the BJP's electoral fortunes.
"The Hindutva foot soldiers have become more emboldened by the party's return to power, and hence, attacks on religious minorities are on the rise," Puniyani says. Hindutva is the Hindu majoritarian political movement advocated by the RSS.
Puniyani points to the attacks on Christian missionaries as an attempt to consolidate the BJP's base among tribal and Dalit communities, where Christian missionaries predominantly work. Dalits, historically the least privileged community under Hinduism's complex caste system, have faced centuries of systematic discrimination.
"All this is very dangerous," Puniyani warns, "because hate speech eventually leads to violence."
The question remains: Will India's leaders take a stand against this rising tide of hate, or will they continue to turn a blind eye? The future of religious harmony in the country hangs in the balance.
