Hyderabad: As many as 523 Hindutva pop hate songs were streamed across various platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Meta, that promoted hatred, dehumanisation and incitement to violence against religious minorities in India, mainly Muslims and Christians, according to a report by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate.
The study, “Profitting from the Hate Music: The Role of YouTube, Meta, Spotify, and Apple Music in Hosting and Monetising India’s Hate Music Industry,” was released on Monday, June 15.
According to the organisation, the report, through a “first-of-its-kind database,” demonstrated the platforms’ complicity in allowing such music to “flourish largely unchecked,” despite their own content policies and restrictions.
Of the total 523 songs, the data identified 210 songs on YouTube, 109 on Spotify by 53 artists, 103 on Meta’s Music Library and 101 on Apple Music by 59 artists, with songs on YouTube viewed more than 198 million times. Songs in Meta’s Music Library were used in over 5.9 million Instagram Reels.
One in two songs explicitly called for violence against the minority communities, the report said, with 50 per cent of the total number of songs directly threatening or inciting hatred through slurs or dehumanisation.
Monetary gains of Hindutva elements
While tracking the monetary gains the right-wing creators received, the CSOH study found that YouTube’s “Super Thanks” fan-funding feature was enabled on 55 pc of such videos. The YouTube feature lets creators earn revenue from viewers who can send a one-time monetary tip ranging from Rs 180 to Rs 4,000.
Mayur Music, which released 25 Hindutva pop songs, was even awarded YouTube’s Silver Creator Award. On Meta, of the 30 Hindutva pop singers researched, 20 had monetised Facebook accounts.
Although 225 songs, which accounted for 43 pc of the data, were reported to the respective platforms for policy violations last year, 207 songs remained live as of May 2026, the report said. It highlighted that reporting such violative songs was inconvenient, whereas enforcement was easy to evade.
Taking singer Sandeep Acharya as an example, the report showed that even though his accounts were suspended around three times, 21 of his 26 Hindutva pop songs remained available across YouTube.
Use of dramatic visuals, including Mughal emperors
“Hate music is one of the oldest and most dangerous instruments of mass violence, and we have seen where it leads, from Rwanda to Myanmar,” said the executive director of CSOH, Raqib Naik.
Naik said what makes India’s Hindutva pop “alarming” is its reach. “These companies and platforms, most of them based in the United States, have handed these artists a global stage, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the tools and revenue streams to keep producing more,” he said.
The centre described most songs as combining hateful rhetoric with polarising visuals to amplify the impact. A song titled Ram Mandir depicts visuals of Mughals as invaders, murdering children and assaulting women. While such visuals played out, the lyrics explained the purported historical acts and attacked Indian muslims as those who follow such brutality. “Ram Mandir” has over 9.6 million views, more than 2.56 lakh likes and 19,000 comments.
Another song, “Jo Bhi Usko Cheerenge Aur Faadenge (whoever comes our way, we’ll rip them, tear them apart),” does not hide its threats. The lyrics promise to “chop and tear apart” any individual standing in the way of Hindus and their goal for supremacy. It called on all Hindus to unite against their “enemies.” Notably, this song is based on a Sufi qawwali released seven years ago with the same title. This song threatens to cut apart anyone who hinders the path of Islam.
The song, “Bhogol Hi Badal Jaayega (even the map will be reshaped),” warns of anarchy when Hindus rise with swords, claiming that “enemies” will be beheaded, their existence wiped out. The song has been viewed more than 3,68,000 times and has over 3,900 likes.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Khadija Irfan Rahim | | 
