India’s worsening condition of minorities continued in 2024, especially in the months before and after the Lok Sabha General Elections. The country witnessed a surge in hate speeches, including inflammatory remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who referred to Muslims as “infiltrators,” and Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh, who openly called for the demolition of mosques.
According to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, following the election results, at least 28 attacks on Muslims were recorded between June and August.
As many as 161 incidents of violence against Christians were reported, 47 occurring in Chhattisgarh alone. These incidents included attacks on churches, prayer meetings, physical assaults, harassment, and false accusations of forced conversions.
Dalits also faced a heightened risk of hate crimes, including physical violence, sexual assault, rape and discrimination in employment and education.
From enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and inaugurating the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya to Justice Chandrachud’s interpretation of the Places of Worship Act permitting surveys of historic mosques—actions that triggered protests and violence—the Bharatiya Janata Party justified each move as essential for preserving India’s “cultural and linguistic heritage.”
Siasat.com’s annual tracker of atrocities against minorities in 2024 documents incidents targeting Muslims, Dalits, and Christians across India’s diverse geographic and cultural landscape.
Table of contents
Atrocities against Muslims
Religious violence against Muslims in India highlights deep-seated communal tensions. Incidents like mob lynching over cow slaughter allegations hate crimes, and riots have left many Muslims marginalized and vulnerable.
Social and economic boycotts, fueled by hate speech and political polarization, worsen their plight.
Siasat.com presents its yearly tracker on the atrocities against Muslims in 2024, shedding light on these incidents spread across the country’s diverse geographic and cultural landscape.
January
January 7: A young Muslim man was arrested on charges of ‘promoting enmity’ after he gave Azan (call for prayers) in front of a 250-year-old dilapidated mosque in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.
Omar Qureshi, a resident of Jalalabad, gave the Azan in front of the mosque at Ahata Gausgarh village and posted a video which went viral.
January 9: Two Muslim teenagers, Mohammed Munaaz, 18, and Sameer, 19, were attacked by a group of Hindutva supporters near the Mudigere bus stand in Karnataka. They were there to collect Sameer’s phone from a shop when the attackers confronted them.
January 10: A catering contractor in Lucknow filed a police complaint against a Hindu customer, Madan Lal Vajpayee, who refused to pay Rs 70,550, and allegedly demanded the details of the waiter’s caste and religion.
January 14: A Muslim truck driver, Bachal Khan, 37, was assaulted for allegedly offering ‘namaz‘ (prayers) on the side of a busy road in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district.
January 17: A Muslim auto driver was attacked in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district after one of his Hindu passengers accidentally spat on a man standing alongside others near the three-wheeler.
The altercation escalated when the aggressive Hindu right-wing group stopped the vehicle and began thrashing Sheikh. The Hindutva group thrashed the man relentlessly despite the Hindu passenger confessing to having spat the tobacco outside, unintentionally splattering some on a pedestrian.
January 21: Mira Road in Maharashtra, which is predominantly a Muslim area witnessed clashes between the community and Hindus, over objection to firecrackers at an event ahead of the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Vehicles were vandalised and participants in the rally were physically assaulted. Thirteen individuals were arrested, and four minors were detained in connection with the incident.
On January 23, authorities initiated bulldozer action on Mira Road’s Muslim-dominated Naya Nagar area, where Hindutva celebrations and confrontations with Muslims occurred. A demolition drive was carried out against alleged illegal structures in Mira Road’s Naya Nagar. The targeted shops are owned by Muslims. Initially at least 15 “illegal structures” were been pulled down. “The drive to weed out the illegalities will continue,” a senior MBMC officer had stated then.
January 22: Tension prevailed in Narketpally village of Nalgonda district, in Telangana, when a mob of 200-250 right-wing outfits like VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and BJP assembled on an open plot admeasuring 2,840 square yards beside a mosque, registered as Waqf property, and allegedly attempted to construct a Hanuman temple there. The mob was also seen performing puja on the Waqf land.
Narketpally police told Siasat.com that the local Hindus wanted to organise a food camp at an open place, near the mosque, in view of the Ram temple inauguration. “No permission was issued to them due to the sensitive nature of the place,” the SHO replied.
January 23: In another incident from Telangana, tensions flared up in Sangareddy on Monday night after a right-wing Hindutva mob, rallying across Daulatabad in Hathnoor mandal, set ablaze a shop belonging to a Muslim vendor.
In another incident from the same day, tensions broke out in the Kosgi Jama Masjid in Kodangal as a Hindutva mob, played loud music and danced in a procession close to the mosque, during the celebrations of the inauguration of the Ram temple.
January 25: A 62-year-old Muslim activist was arrested in Kerala for protesting against the demolition of Babri Masjid during the live telecast of the consecration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Muhammad Salim popularly known as Ottayal Salim held a placard of Babri Masjid’s photo. Salim has also live-streamed his protest on Facebook and the video has garnered hundreds of likes and more than four thousand people watched it.
January 26: In Bihar’s Darbhanga district, during a Hindu procession celebrating the Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22, 2024, a firecracker was allegedly thrown into a Muslim graveyard in Khirma village. This caused a fire to spread rapidly across the graveyard, causing damages.
January 26: A 26-year-old Muslim young man was allegedly killed in a police encounter over allegations of theft, while his family refuted the allegations. Matin, also known as Bilal or Billa, a resident of Khatauli, district Muzaffarnagar, left home as usual for the vegetable market to buy vegetables for his cart. However, he didn’t return home for lunch on that day. At around 3 pm, a family member received a call from Matin who said that the police had shot him.
Matin informed them he was at a hospital in Meerut. When the family reached the hospital they were not allowed to see Matin who was unconscious on a stretcher surrounded by police personnel. At around 7 pm Matin’s family received the news that he was no more.
January 27: A 19-year-old Muslim teenager was paraded naked by Hindutva supporters in Telangana’s Sangareddy district over allegations of disrespecting the saffron flag. Police took him into custody.
January 27: A 22-year-old commerce student was attacked and thrashed by Hindutva supporters in Maharashtra’s Mira Road. Mohammed Tariq Chaudhary offered to help out his father who runs a tempo service. He was delivering a cargo of plastic cans and scrap materials. While driving through Shanthi Nagar, Tariq was stopped by a Hindutva mob. The mob reportedly stopped him after taking note of the banner of ‘Rashid Tempo Service’ on the vehicle. Tariq was then dragged and mercilessly thrashed.
February
February 1: In what appears to be an instance of the state’s suppression of minority voices and rights, a madrassa was demolished by the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation’s anti-encroachment team leading to strong protest from the Muslim community who raised slogans against the demolition. Police imposed Section 144 to maintain law and order. The demolition occurred a day before a local court was scheduled to hear the Muslim appeal.
February 4: A bookseller, Irshad alias Sheru, was allegedly arrested by the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) police on Sunday, February 4, for ‘selling religious books’ in Gonda district, Uttar Pradesh.
When Siasat.com reached out to officials from the UP ATS and the Gonda superintendent of police, they denied his arrest. However, witnesses say that on Sunday evening, Sheru was escorted by 4-5 people dressed up in plain clothes.
February 9: As many as six people succumbed to bullet injuries after shoot-at-sight orders were issued by Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday amid clashes between protestors and police over the demolition of a Madrasa (Islamic seminary) and mosque in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area.
February 9: In another instance of the state allegedly curbing the rights of minorities, three Muslim men were arrested for sharing posts on a land dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities on their social media. Abrar, Asif and Saqib — all in their early 20s — were booked under sections 295A (outraging religious feelings) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The three men are residents of Barnawa. The issue occurred when on February 5, a Baghpat court ordered that 25 hectares of land in Barnawa, which also consists of a Sufi tomb and a graveyard be handed over to the Hindu petitioners. They claimed that it had been the site of an episode from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
February 9: Seven VHP persons were arrested for assaulting a Muslim youth over allegations of ‘love jihad’ in Chikkamagaluru district. The girl’s parents accused him of attempting to kidnap and cheat their daughter in the name of love.
February 11: A Muslim man, Boyat Ali, died of Hypothermia after he and his family were forcefully chased away by the forest department in Panchratna NC, a riverine village in Assam’s Goalpara district, and forced to live in a shanty in an arbitrary eviction. His family called Ali’s death a ‘state-sponsored murder’.
February 12: Two days after a mosque and madrassa were demolished by the Haldwani administration, locals faced police brutality. The police have been accused of barging into their homes, assaulting family members including women, and vandalising their properties.
In the case, the Haldwani Civil Court issued orders to confiscate the property of nine people, including Abdul Malik and his son Abdul Moeed, the alleged masterminds of the protest, this was followed by the Haldwani police confiscating the houses of Muslims named in the FIR, on February 17.
February 13: A Muslim family in Mumbai was reportedly forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a Hindutva mob during an assault. A horrific 26-second video of the incident, reportedly filmed on January 24, shows the Hindutva goons beating up a Muslim man while his wife and minor daughter scream for help in front of Panvel police station.
February 13: Four office bearers of the Halal Council of India (HCI), an organisation allegedly issuing “fraudulent” Halal certificates, were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh special task force. While extreme Hindus attempt to isolate the Muslim community with economic boycotts, the Halal industry deeply rooted in Islamic dietary laws has become a focal point. The Hindu right wing has been actively running campaigns to discredit the halal certification framing it as “discriminatory”.
February 14: A Muslim youth was assaulted and thrashed by members of the Bajrang Dal after he allegedly tried to propose to a Hindu girl in Indore on the occasion of Valentine’s Day.
February 21: Twelve Muslim homes were demolished by the Rajasthan authorities in the Kishangarh Bas area over allegations of cow slaughter in Rundh Gidawada village in Mirzapur of Alwar district on Monday.
March
March 13: In Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, a state transport bus was pelted with stones by some members of Hindus and Muslims, triggered by an altercation between the groups over the volume of the loudspeaker on a temple.
March 13: A 15-year-old Muslim student identified as Altamash committed suicide In Maharashtra’s Akola after he was reportedly beaten, humiliated and abused by his school principal and teachers on account of his being a Muslim. The family of Altamash has claimed that two teachers would regularly and consistently beat him and psychologically abuse him.
March 16: At least five International Muslim students were injured after a Hindutva mob allegedly attacked them for offering prayers in Gujarat University’s (GU) hostel on Saturday night. Students were praying Taraweeh (special prayers offered in Ramzan) at their hostel, sparking a violent response from the mob. Videos of the incident surfaced online.
March 19: Rajasthan’s Pahuna village, Chittorgarh district, witnessed significant communal violence which was instigated by a religious procession. The incident began with a heated confrontation when some Muslim residents objected to noise during the religious procession, leading to stone pelting from both sides.
March 24: In a bid to assert hegemony, the word “Ram” was found written on a back wall of Markaj mosque in Majalgaon town of central Maharashtra’s Beed district during Holi festivities. The word was written using Holi colours and a water gun (pichkari).
March 25: A young Muslim auto rickshaw driver, Khan Mohammed Kadir who was fasting claimed that a group of people celebrating Holi forcibly made him break his fast as they threw colours and water on him. The group also broke the windshield of Kadir’s auto.
March 26: A Muslim family was harassed by a group playing Holi in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district and a video of the incident surfaced online leading to widespread condemnation of the incident. At last, the group let go of the family amongst chants of ‘Hara Har Mahadev’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
March 28: A communal clash broke out between two groups in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. The incident occurred during Shiv Jayanti when a huge procession stopped in front of a local mosque at Shirsoli village and reportedly played DJ music loudly during prayer time, leading to objection from the Muslim community. The confrontation escalated into violence when Hindu groups refused to leave the place and switch the DJs off, leading to stone pelting and injuring six people. Amid the chaos, the police intervened and arrested 32 persons. However Muslim residents claimed that some of them were innocent and had come to the mosque to offer namaz.
April
Aside from violent atrocities, this month witnessed polarising speeches courtesy Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Prime Minister Narender Modi who resorted to polarising and divisive speeches after the party’s development schemes and other tactics of voter appeasement failed to gain traction in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
April 15: A right-wing mob set ablaze two houses belonging to the family of a Muslim man accused of kidnapping a Hindu woman. However, the woman in a video clip stated that she went willingly with him.
Police arrested eight people involved in the mob attack, which they said was carried out by members of a group known as Dharam Jagran Samanvay Sangh. A police post-in-charge was suspended for negligence and a probe was ordered against the local SHO.
April 16: When economic growth, job creation, and development failed to bolster the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s prospects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a last-ditch effort to secure his voter base, resorted to the polarising rhetoric. During an election rally in Rajasthan, he invoked phrases like “Ek hain toh safe hain” and made indirect references to ghuspethiye or “infiltrators,” targeting Muslims. His remarks drew widespread criticism from various sections of society.
April 17: BJP Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh targeted Muslims during his public address at the Ram Navami rally on April 17, questioning if Muslims did any work but think of “jihad”.
April 18: A video of BJP Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate Madhavi Latha participating in the Ram Navami procession went viral on social media. In the video, Madhavi Latha is seen standing in a jeep at Siddiamber junction, pretending to aim an arrow, while onlookers watch. The crowd films the BJP leader’s actions using mobile phones and cheers her on.
After the video went viral netizens claimed that she was pretending to shoot an arrow at the Siddiamber Bazaar mosque during a Ram Navami procession. It drew significant criticism and demands for action.
April 23: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath made serious allegations against the Congress and said that the grand old party has in its election manifesto expressed its intention to implement the ‘Sharia law’ in the country and redistribute people’s property to give Muslims a larger share.
Referring to a comment made by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2006, Adityanath said, “When Dr Manmohan Singh ji was the Prime Minister, he had said that ‘Muslims have the first right on the country’s resources…’ so where will our Dalits, backward classes, Kharagvanshis, Pals, poor and farmers go? Where will the mothers and sisters go, where will the youth go?” he posed a question in an attempt to polarise voters.
April 25: Union Home minister Amit Shah in an election speech in Telangana, said that the BJP would end the 4 percent job reservations for Muslims in the state if his party came to power again at the Centre after winning the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Shah added that the reservation will be given to Backward Classes (BC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities instead.
April 25: In a recap of his speech from Amroha, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath alleged that the Congress’s attempt to give reservations to Muslims from the OBC quota in Karnataka was part of its agenda to push the country towards “Islamisation and division.”
April 26: Union Home minister Amit Shah claimed that Congress has said it would make a separate law for minorities, and asked whether the country should “function on the basis of Sharia”.
April 27: During an election rally, Gujarat BJP president CR Patil made controversial remarks against the Muslim community, labelling them as ‘infiltrators’. The BJP state president was addressing a larger gathering in Banaskantha, Gujarat.
May
May 2: Two policemen and their driver were booked for allegedly assaulting a roadside Muslim stall owner and dragging him with a police van in the Sayajigunj area.
May 5: A Muslim cattle trader was brutally thrashed by a group of goons allegedly associated with the Hindutva Bajrang Dal outfit at Babaleshwar Taluk in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district.
May 7: A principal of the Somaiya School in Vidyavihar, Mumbai, was forced to step down from her position due to her alleged social media activity regarding Israel’s war on Palestine and the ongoing killings in Gaza.
May 12: Mistaken for being a Muslim, a journalist was reportedly beaten up at Amit Shah’s rally in UP.
May 9: A 600-year-old dargah of Imam Shah Baba on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, witnessed a flare-up when a group of miscreants demolished graves and installed idols in the shrine.
May 13: BJP’s Madhavi Latha faced a police case after a video showed her asking burqa-clad Muslim women at a polling booth to reveal their faces so that she could match them with the photographs on their voter ID cards.
May 16: President of the radical outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) Dhananjay Desai made inflammatory remarks against Muslims and Christians by advocating violence against them, referring to them as a “burden,” and “disease”.
May 20: A India Civil Watch International (ICWI) report revealed that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, approved a series of AI-manipulated political advertisements during the Lok Sabha Elections to spread disinformation and incite religious violence.
The report revealed that Facebook allowed anti-Muslim content on its platform which contained slurs, such as “let’s burn this vermin (referring to Muslims in India),” “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned,” and also contained “Hindu supremacist” language and disinformation about political leaders.
June
June 3: A Muslim youth was stripped naked and beaten by members of Hindutva outfits for allegedly talking to a Hindu girl in the Quarsi area of Aligarh.
June 2: Karnataka police broke up a pro-Palestine protest in Fraser Town and detained 15 activists for more than five hours.
June 6: Saddam Qureshi, 23, the third victim in the Chattisgarh lynching case succumbed to his injuries after battling for his life since June 7. Three Muslim men were assaulted in Chattisgarh’s Raipur, over alleged cattle transport of which two died on the spot.
June 9: Tension gripped Uttar Pradesh’s Sonpur village after a 70-year-old madrassa owner and general secretary of Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind Pratapgarh chapter, Maulana Mohammad Farooque was allegedly beaten to death over a land dispute.
June 12: A 45-year-old imam of a mosque was shot dead in a village on the outskirts of Moradabad city.
June 13: In Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, Hindu militants from the Bajrang Dal beat a Muslim man after he was seen in the company of a Hindu woman.
June 15: A group of cow vigilantes armed with guns raided Mewat village of Haryana and assaulted two Muslim men over alleged cattle slaughtered and selling beef.
June 15: Ahead of Eid al-Adha, a controversy erupted in Mira Road, Maharashtra when some members of the Bajrang Dal created a ruckus and attacked Muslim families who brought lambs for sacrifice.
June 15: Several people were injured in an attack by a right-wing mob on a madrasa in Telangana’s Medak district.
After a clash erupted between two communities over the alleged illegal transport of cows, Section 144 was imposed near Ramdas Chowrasta in the Medak district of Telangana, police said.
June 16: Eleven belonging to Muslims were demolished in tribal-dominated Mandla in Madhya Pradesh as part of action against the illegal beef trade in the state, a police official said.
June 16: Cow vigilantes barged into a Muslim home and seized all the meat and their fridge, allegedly over suspicions of storing beef in Odisha’s Khordha town.
June 16: In Himachal Pradehs’s Nahan, a textile shop owned by a Muslim person was looted and vandalised by a large group of Hindus after the shopkeeper shared a picture of animal sacrifice on his WhatsApp status.
June 17: Cow vigilantes set up a checkpoint to inspect auto rickshaws with Muslim passengers for beef. They handed over four rickshaws to the police for allegedly transporting beef.
June 17: Cow vigilantes harassed two truck drivers for transporting cattle in Chandwad city of Maharashtra.
June 17: A Muslim man was thrashed and humiliated by a Hindu mob over allegations of dropping meat near a Hindu temple.
June 17: A 46-year-old man was allegedly killed by a man with the help of his friends for opposing his daughter’s interfaith marriage in Maharashtra.
June 18: A Muslim meat shop owner and two Hindu men who were there to buy chicken were assaulted by a group of cow vigilantes in Haryana.
June 18: A 35-year-old Muslim man was lynched to death by a Hindutva mob after he was mistaken for a thief in Aligarh’s Mama Bhanja locality.
June 19: Members of the cow vigilante group attacked a rickshaw driver in Uttar Pradesh over suspicion of carrying a bag of beef.
June 19: A textile shop owned by a Muslim person was looted and vandalised by a large group of Hindus after the shopkeeper shared a picture of animal sacrifice on his WhatsApp status. The incident occurred in Himachal Pradesh’s Nahan.
June 20: A group of Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes) barged into a Muslim home and seized all the meat and their fridge, allegedly over suspicions of storing beef.
June 22: In a shocking incident, a Muslim youth was beaten to death during a cricket match by a group of 15-20 men in Gujarat. The incident occurred on Saturday, June 22, in the Anand district of Gujarat.
June 24: The Khushi Nagar police of Uttar Pradesh arrested 11 Muslims, including minors and elderly, for offering Eid-ul-Adha prayers in an open ground in Kushinagar district.
24 June: Amidst heavy rainfall, authorities razed hundreds of homes, displacing approximately 8,000 people, mostly Bengal-origin Muslims, who had lived in the settlement for nearly four decades, Scroll reported.
June 28: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Gujarat’s Bharuch District arrested two Muslim clergies over alleged social media posts in which they had described rules of animal sacrifice as per Islamic law.
June 30: An Imam was reportedly lynched by a furious mob who accused him of allegedly attacking a Hindu woman in Jharkhand’s Koderma district when he was returning home.
June 30: Two Hindu men from Haryana were assaulted by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Churu district on Sunday night, June 30, over allegations of transporting cattle while in reality their pickup truck was loaded with lemons.
July
July 1: A Muslim man was lynched to death by Hindus after he tried to save another Muslim from a violent mob. The incident occurred in Gujarat.
July 2: In a tragic incident in Jharkhand, an imam was lynched by a mob. The victim, identified as Maulana Akbar Hussain, was returning home after leading prayers at a nearby mosque when he was attacked. Hussain was later found by passersby and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
July 3: Two Muslim brothers faced the wrath of an angry mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district when they requested an exchange of items from a shop.
July 4: A 36-year-old man travelling from Hyderabad to Mangalore, Karnataka, was beaten black and blue by his co-passengers who accused him of theft on learning his religious identity.
July 7: Shamli police in Uttar Pradesh lodged an FIR on Sunday, July 7, against journalists Zakir Ali Tyagi and Waseem Ali Tyagi and three others for tweeting about the alleged lynching of a Muslim.
July 7: In a disturbing incident, a Muslim youth was stripped naked and beaten by members of Hindutva outfits for allegedly talking to a Hindu girl in Aligarh. In a viral video, that surfaced on the internet recently, the youth is seen shirtless surrounded by a group of people.
July 11: A Muslim man, who runs a coaching centre in Delhi, was beaten by members of right-wing groups who alleged that the man Ibrar forcibly converted people to Islam.
July 15: Police arrested three persons for allegedly waving a Palestinian flag during a procession in Bihar’s Nawada district.
July 15: A Hindutva mob recently vandalised a mosque in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur region. Chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram‘, a group of people attacked the mosque in Gajapur village during ‘Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati Remove Encroachment campaign’.
July 17: Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district sent notices to restaurants, fruit shops, roadside dhabas and hotel owners to display their names in front of the shops in order to identify which religious community they belong to.
July 17: Four Muslims were arrested for waving a Palestinian flag during a Muharram procession.
July 18: Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar asked eateries and food stalls along the kanwar yatra route to display the names of their owners and employees to prevent “confusion” among devotees.
July 18: In Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district, three cattle transporters—Saddam Qureshi, 23, Guddu Khan, 35, and Chand Miya Khan, 23,—died last month after allegedly “jumping” from a bridge during a mob chase over suspected cow smuggling.
Initially, the police filed assault and attempted murder charges, but a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has now charged five men with culpable homicide and common intention. Chand Miya died on the spot, Guddu succumbed on the way to the hospital, and Qureshi passed away.
July 22: A group led by Akhand Hindu Rashtra Sena Chief, Shiv Pratap Singh harassed Muslim fruit vendors to enforce the Uttar Pradesh government’s recent directives to display shop owners’ names along Kanwar Yatra routes. The incident occurred in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
The assault took place in the backdrop of the Uttar Pradesh government’s recent order for vendors to display their names prominently along the routes used for the Kanwar Yatra, a significant pilgrimage for However, the Supreme Court had later halted this order.
July 22: Four Muslim staff workers were dismissed from service on the instructions of Uttar Pradesh police.
July 26: In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, a group of Kanwariyas vandalised a car carrying some Muslims and thrashed its driver falsely alleging that the car had brushed against the ‘Kanwar’ carried by one of them during their yatra and damaged or desecrated it.
July 30: A Muslim man was assaulted, abused and forced to chant the Hindutva slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a group of people in Jharkhand’s capital city of Ranchi.
August
August 4: Police have arrested two individuals, including a young woman, on charges of ‘forcible conversion and fraud’ following a complaint by a local woman. The complainant alleged that her daughter had been ‘brainwashed and coerced’ into converting to Islam. According to the police, the woman from Vitthalwadi in Thane district reported that her daughter was influenced by a neighbouring family who showed her videos of a ‘controversial Islamic preacher’. The daughter renounced Hinduism and converted to Islam in June 2022 while the complainant was in London. The woman also claimed that her daughter went missing after the conversion.
August 10: As many as 34 migrant workers working at a construction site in Odisha’s Sambalpur district were handed over to the police by the BJP’s youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, alleging they were Bangladeshi infiltrators. The incident occurred on August 10. However, they were later released by the police after investigations revealed they belonged to West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
August 11: A group of Hindutva workers belonging to the Hindu Raksha Dal group attacked slum dwellers in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, accusing them of being ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’. The slur is commonly used by Hindu right-wingers to attack Muslims. The attackers hit them with sticks and destroyed their shanties.
August 16: A Muslim youth along with his friends were assaulted by a Hindutva mob when they had come to have a refreshing tea in Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur district. As soon as they revealed their names, the mob started attacking them. “As we reached there, they came in front of us and asked our names. They asked whether we were Hindus or Muslims. As soon as we told our names, 10-12 persons started thrashing us with sticks, Arman was quoted by the local media as saying.
August 17: Communal tensions were reported in several; districts of Maharashtra amid a call for a band by Saka Hindu Samaj, to protest the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. Tensions were reported in Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar districts. In Nashik, tensions flared up after a confrontation between the two sides. Both groups threw stones at each other. Six people police officials were injured in the clash
August 17: In yet another incident of violence by cow vigilantes, an elderly Muslim man was brutally attacked by a mob in Samastipur, Bihar, reportedly on suspicion of cow smuggling. A video that has surfaced on social media shows the man pleading for mercy with folded hands while the violent mob viciously thrashes him. The man was saved only after police intervened in time to rescue him from the assault, preventing further harm.
August 18: The Udaipur Municipal Corporation demolished the rented home of a 15-year-old Muslim boy, accused of stabbing his Hindu classmate, over allegations that the structure was “illegally built” on land belonging to the forest department. “The owner was not able to provide any form of ownership document, after which the house was demolished,” Udaipur Inspector General Ajay Lamba told The Indian Express.
August 19: A class 12 Muslim student was arrested by Assam police in the Cachar district shortly after a brutal assault by a mob-linked to Hindutva groups, accusing him of “love jihad” for talking to a female Hindu friend on school premises. The incident unfolded on Friday when the teenage boy identified as Ali Ahmed was spotted talking to a Hindu classmate near a higher secondary school in Narsingapur.
Ali recounted his ordeal stating that upon learning of his name, a group of 15 to 20 individuals surrounded him and began to physically assault him. “They asked my name and when I replied Ali Ahmed, they started beating me mercilessly without further inquiry”, Ali said.
August 21: Hindus of Vakeelo Wali Gali, a residential area in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly’s Punjab Pura area protested against a Muslim family who purchased a house in their locality. According to the protestors, the Muslim family was not welcomed and demanded an immediate annulment of the property’s registration. They even threatened a mass exodus if their demand was not met.
Following this the family was forced to sell the house.
August 22: Two Muslim youngsters were thrashed by a Hindutva mob who accused them of transporting buffalo beef. According to media reports, Ashraf and Aamir, both from Delhi, were transporting the beef in their vehicle which overturned near the ABES Engineering College in the Crossing Republic area of the city, causing the stuff to spill onto the road.
August 24: Four men allegedly assaulted a Muslim Zomato man, Mohammed Aslam, subjected him to communal slurs, poured liquor over him and held him hostage for over an hour. According to reports, the fight started after the delivery person Mohammed Aslam requested the customer to pick up their orders at the gate due to a high volume of deliveries.
August 25: An 18-year-old woman was allegedly raped and forced to convert to Islam in Rajasthan. Police arrested three people in the matter whose identities have not been disclosed. The incident took place in Ramganj on July 5 and the woman lodged a complaint the next day. She alleged that she was lured by one of the accused and duped into signing some papers to convert to Islam, Station House Officer (SHO) Yajendra Patel said.
August 27: Muslim girls were allegedly assaulted after they were found offering namaz in a school in Telangana. Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan claimed that Bajrang Dal members entered Chanakya High School in Telangana’s Wanaparthy and threatened and assaulted some Muslim girls who were offering namaz with permission from the school authorities.
August 28: A 55-year-old woman died after the Uttar Pradesh police raided the house of a Muslim family. The raid was conducted following allegations that the family was storing beef at their home. According to the deceased’s daughter, Farhana, four constables barged into their house without any warning. When Farzana’s mother Razia objected to the raid the police allegedly misbehaved with her. “The police misbehaved with us. My mother fell after one of the constables pushed her. She had a panic attack. We took her to the hospital but she died on the way,” Farhana said.
August 31: Cow vigilantes killed a 22-year-old migrant worker Sabir Malik from West Bengal for allegedly consuming beef in in Charkhi Dadri district in Haryana. Police arrested seven persons.
August 31: An elderly Muslim man was assaulted by a group of Hindu passengers who alleged he was carrying beef with him. The assault took place on a train in Maharashtra’s Nashik district. A video of the incident, which took place near Igatpuri on Dhule Express, was shared by AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel, who called out the government and police for turning a blind eye against “these forces”. The mob also threatened to “call Bajrang Dal to kill him,” as can be heard in the video.
September
September 2: Residents of Nandanagar town in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand staged massive protests and violently attacked shops belonging to Muslim community members after a barber was accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl.
September 4: Properties belonging to Muslims were vandalised after a Muslim auto driver allegedly tried to sexually assault a tribal woman in Telangana’s Jainoor region of Asifabad district. Following the assault, right-wing organisations issued a bandh call. The Asifabad police arrested 32 persons belonging to two communities in connection with the violence
September 5: Two Muslims were attacked by far-right workers after they demanded to know their names in Baksa district. “They scolded me with many slurs and tried to strangulate me,” said one of the Muslim men.
September 5: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates, Gau Raksha Dal members claimed involvement in a joint operation with police on Tuesday, September 3, targeting four Muslim men allegedly transporting cattle in Deeg city of Rajasthan. According to the reports, the operation led to a high-speed chase that ended in a crash resulting in severe injuries to the men who were later found with visible assault marks.
September 7: A 28-year-old Muslim shoe trader, Muhammad Hazek, was brutally attacked by a group of cow vigilantes in the Beed district of Maharashtra. The assailants falsely accused Hazek of stealing cows and beat him mercilessly with sticks, leaving him seriously injured.
September 9: A Hindutva mob vandalised Muslim-owned shops and a local Idgah (used for public prayers) in Gujarat following a minor road accident that occurred on the Kathlal-Balasinor highway. The incident unfolded when a car reportedly driven by a Muslim man from Godhra collided with a motorbike ridden by a Hindu resident of Kathlal, which ignored tensions between the two communities.
September 10: Following a minor accident in the Kathlal-Balasinor area of Gujarat, a large number of Hindutva mob vandalised several Muslim-owned shops and a local Eidgah.
September 19: A Hindutva mob brutally attacked three Muslim youngsters and forced them to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. The incident occurred in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi city. While speaking to the media, Dastagir and Ayub stated that they were riding their motorcycle when they came across a disturbing scene. “The Hindutva mob had already apprehended another person who was being ruthlessly beaten. As they attempted to pass by, the assailants turned their attention to them, blocking their way and launching an unprovoked attack.”
September 27: An elderly Muslim man was prevented by Hindu right-wing members from entering Maharashtra’s Malegaon city to sell goods. This incident is the latest act of hostility towards Muslim businessmen and vendors in this region, reportedly linked to ongoing agitation surrounding the Waqf Amendment Bill.
September 30: A shivling was vandalized in Himachal Pradesh’s Nagrota town, igniting protests led by right-wing groups who blamed the local Muslim community and demanded their evacuation. Though the incident occurred on September 27, the situation worsened in the following days when protesters started assembling at Gandhi Maidan and raising anti-Muslim slogans. Local Hindutva groups quickly attributed the act to the Muslim community demanding the evacuation of Muslims from the locality.
The protestors marched through streets and also raided Muslim-run shops demanding them to evacuate while shouting communal slogans such as “Na mullon ka, na qaazi ka, ye desh hai veer Shivaji ka”.
September 30: In a tragic incident, a Syrian refugee and his 11-month-old son were targeted in West Delhi’s Vikaspuri town where residents allegedly splashed the boy and his father with a corrosive substance. Describing the harrowing incident, the victim Rafat noticed the attackers approaching with a canister. Despite his efforts to escape, he and his son were doused with a corrosive liquid that caused immediate burning sensations. Following the attack, they struggled to find transport to Safdarjung Hospital and eventually received help from a passerby.
October
October 2: BJP leader Ravi Negistirtred up a controversy after threatening Muslim-owned shops to display their “real Muslim names” or face severe consequences, including closure and sealing of their businesses.
In a viral video, Negi is seen questioning a Muslim shopkeeper Altamas and demands to know why he had named his shop ‘Tomar’ instead of displaying his real name. “If you are a Muslim, why have you written Tomar?” Negi is heard saying in the video. “Your name is Altamas, a Muslim name. You need to get it written tomorrow so people know your identity. If you are working in a Hindu colony, at least write a Muslim name. If you don’t, the shop will be closed and sealed.” The brazen tone and threatening language used by Negi have left many questioning the growing atmosphere of intolerance and communal intimidation in the city.
October 3: Indore police cancelled the permission granted for a Garba event that was scheduled to take place in the Bhanwarkuan area, after a complaint by members of a far right-wing Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal, prompting a significant outrage.
The event, organized by Firoz Khan, for the past 15 years was cancelled following complaints from the local Bajrang Dal leaders. They alleged that ‘love jihad’ was taking place under the pretext of the Garba event.
October 5: A Muslim woman and her three-year-old daughter were killed by far-right Hindutva men who chased the mother-daughter in a car for nearly five kilometres before running over them. The incident occurred on September 29. The deceased – Iqra and her daughter Nadia were killed while Iqra’s husband Sadique Shaikh and their six-year-old son survived. Shaikh has alleged that the men chasing him hurled anti-Muslim slurs, including saying that “Muslims need to be taught a lesson,” a local newspaper reported.
October 5: A Muslim man Firoz Khan was allegedly attacked by Bajrang Dal in Uttar Pradesh for entering a dandiya event and promoting ‘love jihad’.
October 6: Yati Narsinghanand, the infamous Dasna head priest who is known for his Islamophobic and derogatory remarks against the minority communities, especially Muslims was booked for hate speech after he allegedly made objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad. FIRs were lodged in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana.
The inflammatory remarks stirred up a storm with many demanding the Hindutva priest’s arrest. Politicians like AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and prominent Muslim organisations like Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) condemned Narsinghanand’s remarks calling it “intolerable, blasphemous”. Owaisi met Hyderabad police commissioner CV Anand demanding a criminal case against Narsinghanand.
October 8: An elderly Muslim beggar was mercilessly beaten with sticks by Hindutva members after he was spotted begging for alms in a Hindu-dominated locality. “You have no right to be here,” said one of his attackers. The disturbing incident came to light after footage of the attack surfaced on social media.
October 9: A mosque in Uttarakhand came under the radar of right-wing Rashtriya Sewa Sangathan members after they claimed the place of worship was illegal. The Hindutva outfit protested in front of the sub-divisional magistrate’s office, demanding the removal of the mosque. Locals suggest the mosque has been functional for the last 25 years. A madrasa is also being run in the mosque.
October 10: Two Muslim men from Telangana’s Bhainsa – Rafi Khan and Obaid Uddin (driver) – were going to buy vegetables from Nirmal to be sold in Bhainsa as usual. While they were proceeding towards Nirmal at around 3:00 am, their vehicle bearing registration AP23 TA 1680 developed a snag at Rampur village, which is two-and-a-half kilometres from the Narsapur police station.
The duo got out of the vehicle to inspect the snag when a mob consisting of 20-25 persons allegedly led by RSS workers Gangadhar and Yellanna asked for their names. When they were identified as Muslims, the duo was attacked and suffered injuries.
October 12: Following Dasna head priest Yati Narsinghanand’s Islamophobic speech against Prophet Muhammed, thousands of Muslims gathered for a peaceful protest against the Hindu saint in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district. The protest took place in front of the revered Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti Dargah. Participants wore black armbands.
October 13: A fruit distribution program organised by Samajwadi Party MLA Sayyed Khatoon outside the Mahakali temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Domariyaganj town was disrupted by a Hindutva group reportedly led by BJP leader Luvkush Ojha. The event was held amid ongoing festivals intended as a gesture of brotherhood to showcase “Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb”, a term used to describe the syncretic fusion of Hindu and Muslim traditions in northern India.
However, tensions escalated when the far-right groups accused the organizers of attempting to “corrupt their religion”. They claimed “beef-chicken eaters” were involved in the distribution.
October 13: The recent communal violence in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, was triggered during a religious procession on October 13. The conflict began when objections were raised about “offensive” songs played during a Durga idol immersion procession, passing by a residence. The situation quickly escalated into stone-pelting and vandalism. Police intervened with lathi charge which led to further chaos. A 22-year-old Hindu man was killed sparking retaliatory attacks, including arson and property damage in nearby areas.
October 24: Rajasthan’s Hawa Mahal BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya along with Hindutva supporters assaulted Muslim women over offering namaz in Jaipur on October 23.
They also stamped out the curtains that were used to separate women’s portions and asked the Muslim women to show their faces. They also misbehaved with Imam Asad Ali Meer and raised questions on the fresh-painted walls and internal Islamic decorations. There were also several young Muslim girls present at the moment who felt extremely terrified.
October 24: Muslim properties were attacked during a rally of right-wing groups at Zaheerabad taken out in protest of Muthyalamma temple vandalism in Secunderabad. A rally was held on Wednesday, October 23, in Zaheerabad town of Sangareddy district by right-wing groups. When the rally passed by a Muslim-dominated locality some persons attacked a hotel and a shop with sticks they were carrying and hurled stones on establishments. The police were present and prevented more trouble.
October 27: In a disturbing incident in Marthadi village of Bejjur Mandal of Asifabad district, a 19-year-old Muslim youth was assaulted and tied to a tree by a group of residents. Abid, a resident of Marthadi, was allegedly seen with a minor girl from Easgaon village, both from different religious backgrounds. The incident escalated quickly as villagers detained Abid, accusing him of misconduct, and proceeded to beat him severely.
October 28: Hindu Sena leader Vinay Sharma assaulted several Muslim tenants in Ahmedabad, Gujarat demanding they vacate the locality. Wrapped in saffron scarves, Vinay asked for Aadhar card verification and falsely accused Muslims of “love jihad”.
October 31: A 22-year-old Muslim man identified as Zahid was abducted and tortured to death by a group of people in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. According to the reports, Zahid a resident of Dhanj village in Mukundgarh was forcibly taken by the group in a camper van on October 21. Two hours later, his father Jamil received a call from kidnappers ordering him to retrieve his son. Upon arriving at the designated location, the assailants dragged him out of the vehicle before speeding away. Jamil found Zahid in unconscious condition with severe injuries.
Subsequently, Zahid was rushed to Navagarh Hospital in Jaipur for treatment. However, despite efforts he succumbed to his injuries.
November
November 1: A Muslim leader Mohammad Rafi and five others were injured after a group of people threw stones at them in the Haveri district of Karnataka. Police said the reason for the violence was fears that their houses were being recorded as Waqf properties in account records. Police arrested 32 people.
November 3: A young man named Niyaz was assaulted after he was found messaging a woman from a different religious community. The incident occurred in Karnataka’s Sullia district. A case has been registered.
November 3: In Andhra Pradesh’s Bhimavaram district, a Muslim man was thrashed by Hindu extremists who forced him to chant Jai Shri Ram. Fearing his life, the man started chanting the communal slogan multiple times. According to reports, the mob accused the Muslim man of allegedly causing harm to a temple.
November 7: A food vendor in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district was harassed by Hindutva workers who accused him of hiding his religious identity and serving them food.
November 10: A Muslim man identified as Sahil was beaten and paraded through the streets of Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh district by a right-wing mob who accused him of molesting and threatening a Hindu girl.
The incident came to light on November 9, when a video of the incident surfaced on social media, sparking outrage. The footage shows Sahil, who works at a local salon, being dragged through streets with his shirt torn, while the agitated mob shouts “Jai Shri Ram”. Reports indicate that the mob’s actions were fueled more by communal prejudice than by any substantiated claims against Sahil.
November 13: A man named Amir, accused of cow slaughter, was injured in police firing after he attempted to flee when officers were recovering equipment used for slaughtering cows. He was later admitted to a local hospital for treatment.
November 18: Muslim traders in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh were evicted and barred from installing their stalls at a state fair. Ironically, the posters of the ‘Swadeshi Mela’ which was held from October 14 to October 24, highlighted ideals like equality, harmony, and national unity, emphasising living together without discrimination. According to reports Muslim traders who had paid their fees for installation of stalls were asked by the organisers to leave the premises.
November 20: A video of an Uttar Pradesh police officer pointing a gun to threaten Muslim women voters during a bypoll has emerged on social media, triggering outrage. In the video Yadav shared, a Muslim woman is heard telling the cop, “You don’t have the order to fire.” The cop, revolver in hand, walks towards her shouting, “We have the orders”. The Muslim woman stands her ground and says, “This is not right.”
November 21: Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur police allegedly raided a wedding celebration of a Muslim family on suspicion of beef being served to the guests. The function, hosted by Mohmmad Ahmed for his daughter, was set to take place on Tuesday, November 19 in Dhanupura village under the Bhot police station limits. The chaos ensued when police arrived at the scene reportedly after receiving a tip-off about the supposed presence of prohibited meat.
November 22: Tensions ensued in Sambhal following a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid on November 19. Violence erupted on November 24 during a second survey attempt, resulting in stone pelting, arson, and clashes with security forces. Four persons were killed in police firing during the violence.
November 25: A Muslim man was allegedly beaten, stripped and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram in Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place when Gulfam Saifi was returning home. According to Saifi’s father, three people took his son to Victoria Park and assaulted him. Saifi allegedly fell unconscious after the incident.
November 29: UP priest Yati Narasinghanand delivered a hate speech at an event during Dasara celebration in UP’s Ghaziabad where he told his followers to burn the effigies of Prophet Muhammed instead of the demon king Ravanan. The video became viral on social media with many demanding an immediate arrest of Yati.
December
December 3: A self-proclaimed lady Aghori in Telangana, who identifies as a Naga Sadhu, spewed hate against Muslims and Christians in the light of Secunderabad’s Muthyalamma temple desecration case that occurred in October. “I will strip each Muslim and Christian and beat them on the road publicly. I will do anything to protect ‘Sanathan Dharma’,” the lady Aghori is heard ranting in the video.
December 4: After enduring nearly four years of legal battle, bangle seller Taslim Ali who had several cases lodged against him including the POCSO Act, was finally acquitted of all charges by an Indore court. In August 2021, while selling bangles in Banganga’s Govind Nagar, he was subjected to a religious hate crime after members of the Hindutva group Bajrang Dal thrashed him accusing him of sexually harassing minor girls.
December 5: Protest erupted in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad after a house in a residential society, mainly occupied by Hindus, was sold to Muslim couple Dr Yusuf Malik and Dr Iqra Chaudhry. The couple was forced to sell the house under pressure from society members.
December 5: Kerala police booked a suo moto case against a Muslim young man for riding a bike along with a Hindu girl. The case was booked despite no objections raised by the girl or her mother.
December 7: Three Muslim children were thrashed by a radical Hindu group in Madhya Pradesh after they were forced to chant Jai Shri Ram. The incident occurred a month ago but the video went viral in December. The children, visibly frightened were also allegedly threatened with a knife. “If you say Allah, you will be thrown into a nearby pond,” a child recalled being threatened.
December 7: After facing intense protest from their Hindu neighbours, a doctor Muslim couple were forced to sell their newly brought house in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad.
December 7: A far-right leader and general secretary of the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti Jitendranand Saraswati made inflammatory remarks stating that India might witness violence reminiscent of the 2002 Gujarat riots if there is a “Godhra-like plot” against Hindus.
December 8: The Calcutta National Medical College asked a researcher named Sabir Ahamed to prove his Indian citizenship in reply to his submitting an RTI query, The Telegraph reported.
Sabir Ahamed, a researcher who works with Pratichi Trust had reportedly submitted an RTI seeking data from 23 medical colleges in West Bengal. The RTI sought details on their students, faculty and administrative employees, including details such as social groups they belonged.
December 13: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the home of Mohammad Aleem, a 45-year-old chicken vendor from Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, near the India-Nepal border. The team of NIA arrived at 4:00 am, leaving Aleem’s family in shock. After a thorough search with no results, Aleem was taken for five hours of interrogation and later released on personal bond, although his phone was confiscated.
December 13: A retired Army officer from the Muslim community had to wait for two long years for an FIR to be registered after being subjected to an intense hate campaign on social media by the Hindutva group Rudra Sena in Uttarakhand.
December 14: Hindutva group members in Maharashtra’s Badlapur area targeted and assaulted Muslim vegetable vendors in a campaign to make “Bangladeshi Mukt (Bangladeshi-free) Badlapur.”
December 14: A Hindutva worker disrupted the Azaan at a local mosque and allegedly threatened the people inside, demanding that the loudspeaker be switched off. The event unfolded at the time of evening prayers.
December 15: BJP Hawa Mahal MLA Balmukund Acharya was caught raiding a Muslim doctor’s chambers and harassing staff members in Rajasthan’s Jaipur. The raids were reportedly conducted on December 12 however, came to light on Saturday, December 14 when a video of the incident surfaced on social media.
December 16: Two Muslim girls were assaulted by a group of individuals in Uttar Pradesh when, on their way home, unidentified persons gathered and misbehaved with them. They used abusive language and allegedly forcibly removed their hijabs.
December 21: A truck driver named Arman Khan was brutally assaulted by right-wing members associated with a cow vigilante group for transporting bulls in his vehicle. The incident occurred in Haryana’s Nuh area.
December 22: The Indian Muslim community has once again found itself at the centre of a disturbing wave of hatred and prejudice as right-wing Hindutva influencers created a fictional video showing Muslims engaging in “Rail Jihad”. The video published on the MVS YouTube channel trended on various social platforms creating an anti-Muslim narrative of the community members being involved in “Rail Jihad”.
Atrocities against Christians
On December 23, over 200 prominent individuals, including Tushar Gandhi, Annie Raja, Father Cedric Prakash, John Dayal and Shabnam Hashmi, signed a joint statement expressing grave concern over the increasing rise of violence and harassment against Christians in India. The statement was released on the same day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited for Christmas celebrations in the national capital by top Christian priests.
“It’s surprising that despite the growing persecution of Christians, prominent members of the Christian hierarchy have chosen to engage with Prime Minister Modi, who has been criticised for his inaction in protecting the rights of Christians,” the statement read.
In 2014, when Modi took over as the Indian Prime Minister, the reported cases of violence against Christians were 127. This has significantly risen to 745 as of November 2024, according to the data from the Evangelical Fellowship of India and the United Christian Forum (UCF).
Uttar Pradesh has been leading in the persecution of Christians with 182 cases reported this year followed by Chhattisgarh with 139 cases.
Siasat.com presents its yearly tracker on atrocities against Christians, shedding light on these incidents spread across the country’s diverse geographic and cultural landscape.
January
January 1: A 50-year-old Christian woman was attacked and killed by a Hindu man inside the church premises in Varanasi on Jan 1. The victim, Victoria, was found in a pool of blood while her attacker Jitendra was found standing over her holding an iron rod and a grinding stone.
January 5: A Hindutva group barged into a Christian event in Madhya Pradesh Khargone district alleging forced conversion was taking place. Two Christians- Mehram Malloi and Satyam Nagar – were arrested and booked under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religious Act, 2021.
January 6: Around 80 Christians reportedly died in Manipur due to inadequate healthcare and substandard living conditions in makeshift shelters. These individuals were displaced amidst the ongoing conflict between the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities.
January 16: Three Christians including a pastor were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district under the anti-conversion law. The arrest was made based on a complaint from a Hindu man, Jitendra Singh. The three were sent to judicial custody.
January 18: Three churches in Uttar Pradesh’s Amdi region were raided by Hindutva forces who accused them of forced conversion. The far-right workers stormed into their Sunday morning services and attacked the worshippers. Four people – the pastor, his wife, son and daughter-in-law were arrested under the anti-conversion law.
January 21: Four young men belonging to the Hindutva clan climbed atop a church and planted a saffron flag, while others cheered triumphantly. The incident occurred in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district.
January 21: In a similar incident in Rajasthan’s Matasula village, around 80-90 right-wing workers marched towards a pastor’s home chanting ‘Ek hi Rashtra, ek hi Ram,” and planted a saffron flag atop the pastor’s home. When the pastor initially objected, he was threatened that his house would be bulldozed. The pastor finally gave in to their demands for the safety of his family.
Jan 21: Several Christians in Chhattisgarh, including a pastor, complained to the police over the assault by Hindutva workers. They reported that they were beaten up by sticks while their women were harassed. The Christian group was also purportedly questioned and asked not to visit the village again.
Jan 28: A Christian couple was allegedly beaten up by a mob of Hindutva workers who accused them of forceful religious conversion in Karnataka’s Bijapur district. The right-wing groups also ran a campaign against the couple on various social media platforms.
February
February 3: The Union Home ministry cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Tamil Nadu Social Service Society (TNSOSS), a Christian NGO under the aegis of the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Conference. This is the second cancellation with the first being World Vision India, which lost its licence on January 20. FCRA is an Indian law that regulates the acceptance and use of foreign funds or donations by individuals, associations, or organizations in India.
February 6: Based on a complaint by Hindutva workers, six Catholic Christians including a Catholic priest and five Protestant pastors were arrested on charges of trying to convert people from economically weak backgrounds in Uttar Pradesh.
February 7: Ten people, including a church priest, were arrested, under the anti-conversion law, for allegedly attempting to convert a large group of Hindus to Christianity in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. Police raided a conference hall of the church and found nearly 200 people, mostly from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
February 9: A group of Hindutva workers from Kutumba Surakshya Parishad allegedly warned convent schools to remove Christian symbols in Assam. They also accused the school of religious conversion.
February 9: A group of Christians were attacked by far-right Hindutva persons while returning from a lunch gathering in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh. Women were also harassed. Unable to bear the atrocity, one of the pastors fainted and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
February 13: In Tripura, Hindutva workers belonging to Hindu Jagran Mancha, asked a Christian school to conduct Saraswati pooja inside the school premises. The school management politely refused, agitating the far-right workers. They threatened the pooja would be conducted by hook or by crook. The matter was taken to the district magistrate who immediately disfused the situation. ‘No pooja was conducted in the school premises,“ the DM said.
February 15: At least 11 people were injured, three of them seriously, when nearly 200 assailants, allegedly associated with Bajrang Dal, attacked a Church in Janwara, in Narsingi of Ranga Reddy district in Telangana, following a dispute over road expansion. The attack took place while Dalits were praying in a church. Raising slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the attackers destroyed the crucifix, chairs, and the roof of the church, the victims said.
February 23: Two nurses were arrested for forced religious conversion in Kalaki taluk in Karnataka. The complaint was filed by a Hindutva organisation Hindu Jagruthi Sene who stated that the nurses were offering money and converting people to Christianity.
February 27: After a Christian school was threatened to remove religious symbols from its premises, Sanmilita Sanatan Samaj workers posted threatening posters that read, “This is the final warning to stop using the school as a religious institution…stop anti-Bharat and unconstitutional activities or else…” outside the educational institutions. They were also asked to remove churches located inside the premises.
March
March 5: A Christian prayer hall was attacked and vandalised by miscreants in Karnataka’s Ramanagar district. According to reports, kerosene was poured from a window before setting the hall on fire.
March 27: A meeting held by members of the Christian community in Gujarat’s Bharuch district was allegedly attacked by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers who shouted slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and claimed that religious conversions were taking place. With both groups complaining, the police arrested the organiser of the event and launched an investigation into the incident.
March 31: Kanpur police arrested two persons on charges of converting around 80 Hindus to Christianity. Police said that the Hindus were ferried in a bus and promised employment, money and housing if they converted.
April
April 16: A Catholic school in Telangana was attacked by Hindutva workers at St Mother Teresa English Medium School in Mancherial district. The mob accused the management of hurting religious sentiments after questioning students who attended class in saffron attire instead of the prescribed uniform. The attackers, wearing saffron shirts and shouting slogans like “Jai Shree Ram,” vandalized the premises, throwing stones at a statue of St Mother Teresa and destroying property.
April 22: A pastor and another person were attacked with knives and swords by a Sikh warrior group for leading a church worship in Sultanwind village in Amritsar district of Punjab.
May
May 4: Unable to accept religious conversion, a 22-year-old man, who had recently converted to Christianity, was murdered by his Hindu relatives in Chhattisgarh. The victim, Kosa Kawasi was frequently intimidated by his relatives to revert back to Hinduism. Kawasi’s wife, who is a Christian, was also attacked but escaped.
May 5: The Noida police arrested six Christians for allegedly promoting religious conversion. The arrested were from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Kolkata.
May 6: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal alleged forceful religious conversion taking place at the basement of a commercial complex in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. They filed a police complaint stating that 15 Hindus were being converted to Christianity in a prayer meet. However, no evidence was found.
June
June 12: Christian families were allegedly attacked by a Hindutva mob in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur and given an ultimatum to denounce their religion within 10 days. At least two victims were left unconscious while three were hospitalised. They were also banished from their village due to their religious identity.
June 14: During a prayer meet in Cuttack, unknown people reportedly threw a bomb at the Church. The explosion has reportedly caused substantial damage to the church’s concrete floor.
July
July 6: In Rajasthan, over 25 people were detained by the police after a complaint was lodged stating they were luring others to convert to Christianity. Hindutva right-wing workers barged into the religious congregation in a house and attacked the people there.
July 11: A teenage son of a pastor was brutally murdered by Hindu extremists in Arwal district of Bihar. As per reports, the attackers broke his hands and strangled him to death. They dragged the body outside and hung it from a nearby bamboo tree.
July 14: A group of Hindutva goons interrupted a prayer meet in Uttarakhand accusing the pastor of forcefully converting people present there to Christianity. The mob forcefully entered the house alleging that a mass conversion was taking place. The Hindutva workers made derogatory remarks against the Christian faith, attacked the inmates including women and children present there and kicked the Christian Cross.
July 21: In Chhattisgarh, a Pentecostal pastor was accused of “illegal conversion” and attacked during a housewarming ceremony. A group of around 20 villagers, observing the gathering from a nearby Hindu temple barged into the house and disrupted the prayers. They later called the police alleging forced conversions.
July 29: Police detained a man allegedly involved in luring tribals to convert to Christianity in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) created a ruckus at a church, alleging that 100 people from the tribal community were undergoing religious conversion.
July 29: A missionary pastor was arrested after he sought permission to reopen a church in Uttar Pradesh. As per reports, Pastor Shyam met the sub-divisional magistrate who insulted the pastor and called the police on him. The pastor was falsely charged with forced religious conversion. Not only that, a Hindutva worker created a false narrative about how he stopped the pastor from converting people to Christianity.
July 30: Members of the far-right Hindu Munnani outfit disrupted an event of Christians in Vellore town of Tamil Nadu, alleging that it was a front for religious conversions. A video of the incident went viral.
August
Aug 8: Around 120 tribal Christians belonging to two villages in Odisha were forcefully reconverted to Hinduism during a ceremony known as “ghar wapsi”. During these rituals, men shave their heads and in extreme cases, are forced to drink the blood of a chicken mixed with cow dung.
Aug 12: An eight-year-old local church in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur was demolished after allegations that it was practising religious conversion. However, local authorities asserted that the religious structure was illegally built on government land.
Aug 22: Two Christians were acquitted by a local court in UP after they were charged with forced religious conversion on May 29. The charges were made by the district president of Hindu Jagran Manch Himanshu Patel who alleged that Abhishek Gupta and Kundan Lal Kori were running a conversion programme with a team of eight people. Patel claimed that several people were converted by the two men. During the legal process, Gupta lost his job.
September
September 1: A mob of far-right Hindu groups assaulted Christian community members and disrupted their prayer meeting in Bihar accusing attendees of engaging in religious conversions. The incident took place when a group of Christians had gathered for a Sunday prayer at the residence. The agitated mob, donning saffron scarves and shirts, barged into the house and interrupted the prayer.
September 9: In Odisha, during a Sunday prayer meet, a pastor and a group of people were beaten up by members of the RSS and Bajrang Dal who alleged religious conversion was taking place. The far-right organisations learnt that the pastor had rented a three-storey building for worship and more than 100 people were attending it. They decided to attack the church on false claims.
September 15: In Uttar Pradesh, ten Christians, including six women and a pastor, were arrested under allegations of forced conversions during a Sunday prayer service. The arrest followed a complaint by a Hindutva group accusing them of converting Dalits.
September 26: A pastor along with four others was jailed on charges of forceful religious conversion in Uttar Pradesh. According to police, the individuals were arrested for converting people under the pretext of curing illness and education.
September 30: Nineteen Christians were arrested for distributing religious literature at two government-run schools without the permission of the school staff. Police said that 17 of the 19 people arrested hailed from Telangana. The religious literature included Bibles, photos and pamphlets.
October
October 2: Four persons, running a coaching centre, were arrested by Rampur police in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly converting Hindus to Christianity under the pretext of providing free coaching for the civil services, free meals and treatment of illnesses.
According to the complainant Bhim Singh, who had been studying for three months, alleged that the coaching centre took classes for UPSC only for 30 minutes to 1 hour a day. The rest of the time was spent on teaching about the Bible and Jesus Christ.
October 7: In Bihar, 18 Christians, including 11 women evangelists from Hyderabad, Telangana, were arrested on false charges of forced conversions after distributing gospel books of the New Testament at a school with the principal’s permission. Hindutva workers confronted them and informed the police, who detained them but found no evidence of wrongdoing. The police later prepared to release them.
October 18: Four people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh Barbanki district over alleged involvement in religious conversion. According to the police who raided the house of Rajendra where a prayer meet was underway, the four were luring villagers into Christianity in exchange for curing kidney stones and epilepsy through exorcism. Police also seized two religious books from the spot.
October 24: Hindutva group Bajrang Dal warned the Millennium Club in Juhu, Mumbai, against hosting Sunday prayer gatherings, alleging religious conversions. Meanwhile, Khar Gymkhana, cancelled cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues’ membership after objections to her father, Ivan Rodrigues, allegedly organizing religious activities and conversion events at the club. Protestant Christians had been holding Sunday prayers at the Millennium Club for over a year.
October 26: A man named Rajesh alias David was arrested for trying to convert people to Christian faith. During a prayer meeting he alleged that Christianity has the power to heal from diseases and offered financial assistance to those who converted. The prayer meeting was attended by a large number of people including women and children.
November
November 4: A video from Raigarh went viral on social media platforms showing BJP leader Anshu Tuteja interrogating a man about the Bible (a holy book for Christians) in his house and subsequently raiding the property with local right-wing members.
November 6: Members of the Rajwar community interrupted a state convention organized by the Rashtriya Christian Morcha accusing them of religious conversion activities. The incident occurred in Chhattisgarh.
November 6: An inauguration of a church was disrupted by the Hindutva groups who alleged it was part of a conspiracy to convert Hindus. The event was abandoned amid police deployment to maintain law and order in the area.
November 6: Three Christian organizations in Assam urged authorities to act against VHP leader Surendra Jain for accusing the Church of being involved in the drug trade. Jain had purportedly said: “Today I realized that the drug business is also done on a large scale by the Church. On one hand, the church is destroying our culture, insulting the traditions, beliefs here and also destroying the life of the people here.”
November 7: The Hindu Jankalyan Manch members led by national president Vijay Rawat raided a Christian prayer meeting in Haidergarh village accusing the community members of conducting “illegal conversions” through these gatherings. They also informed the local police, resulting in the arrest of nine people under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion laws.
November 10: A massive protest led by BJP leader Anshu Tuteja erupted outside a pastor’s residence. The situation escalated when the crowd chanted slogans and accused the pastor of converting Hindus through ”illegal prayer meetings”. Amid the chaos police intervened and arrested several protesters to control the situation.
November 10: Members of the radical outfit Bajrang Dal raided a prayer meet held in a house. The members created chaos and called the police who rushed to the scene and arrested seven Christian members.
November 10: Police raided a Christian prayer meeting in Siddharth Nagar after receiving complaints from right-wing groups. These groups alleged the meeting was part of a scheme to convert marginalised Hindu community members by offering financial incentives. Two Christian members were arrested during the operation.
December
December 2: In Madhya Pradesh, a Christian priest named Shiv Kumar Jharbad was booked under the state’s Freedom of Religion Act after the Hindutva organisation Bajrang Dal accused him of promoting forced religious conversions. They disrupted a prayer meeting at his house, alleging he lured families in exchange for medical treatment, education, and employment. Although an FIR was registered the women present in the prayer meet fiercely denied the allegations, stating they embraced Christianity willingly.
December 19: Seven Christians in Uttar Pradesh were arrested on allegations of luring the poor with money under the pretext of converting them. The police pressed forceful religious conversion charges against them.
December 22: Bajrang Dal members stopped a Christmas Carnival at a school, vandalised decorations and burned posters. They took over the event, playing communal songs.
December 22: Hindutva leaders, including members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini in Siddharthnagar, protested against Christian Sunday prayers at a missionary school’s church, blocking attendees from entering and accusing them of engaging in religious conversions.
December 24: Right-wing organisation members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal barged into a school and disrupted Christmas celebrations in Kerala’s Palakkad district.
December 25: A Zomato delivery man was stopped by workers of the right-wing Hindu Jagran Manch and asked to remove a Santa Claus attire he was wearing for Christmas celebrations. The incident occurred in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city.
December 25: Christmas celebrations in Mumbai were stopped by Hindutva workers. A video has emerged on social media showing a group of children participating in the Christmas celebrations.
December 26: A large crowd of Hindus gathered outside a renowned Roman Catholic Church located in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow on Christmas eve and raised “Hare Krishna Hare Ram” slogans loudly, to disrupt Christian prayers reportedly attended by 1000 people.
Atrocities against Dalits
The caste-system in India is deeply rooted. A secular country, India is tainted with intricate layers of untouchability leading to systematic caste-based violence and social boycotts, often faced by the Dalit community, despite Constitutional and legal protection.
In 2024, India faced a series of anti-Dalit attacks and discrimination. Victims range from as small as five-year-olds to elderly citizens, illustrating that no one is spared from this injustice.
Siasat.com brings you its yearly tracker on atrocities against Dalits 2024, shedding light on these incidents spread across the country’s diverse geographic and cultural landscape; exposing a grim reality: caste-based violence and discrimination continue to be a pervasive issue in the country.
January
January 1: An 18-year-old teenage girl was pushed into a boiling sugarcane juice after she resisted an attempt of molestation by three men. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. The girl suffered 50 per cent burn injuries on her hands, face and stomach.
January 1: Two elderly Dalit farmers were summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) involving a land dispute case. The farmers, Kannaiyan and Krishnan, who own 6.5 acres of agricultural land in Attur, Tamil Nadu, accuse a local BJP leader of attempting an illegal land grab.
January 2: A 25-year-old Dalit woman was raped and hanged to death by a police constable in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra. The woman’s body was found hanging from the ceiling of the policeman’s rented room on December 29, they said.
A 25-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by members of the upper caste over his relationship with an upper caste woman. The incident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Trinulveli district. Two people were arrested.
January 3: A Dalit PhD holder held a protest for over 50 days protesting against caste and gender discrimination by Osmania University vice-chancellor Prof D Ravinder Rao in Hyderabad, Telangana. as well as the OU Teachers’ Association. The PhD scholar, Dr J Padmaja, alleged, “I was refused admission to PhD, and told that it was because I belonged to an inferior caste.” She added that third-class MSc graduates from OU were preferred over her.
January 4: Two temples were closed for purification after a Dalit man, who was hired for loading work at a house demolition site, entered its premises. Reports suggest he was also assaulted by the residents who belonged to a dominant caste. The incident occurred in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka.
January 4: A Dalit scientist, Arti Harle, observed a fast unto death over alleged caste discrimination, mental harassment, and severe financial distress at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune.
January 4: A 28-year-old Dalit man was assaulted by upper-caste people in Mulabagilu taluk of Kolar district in Karnataka after he requested a repayment of a loan. He and his sister-in-law were attacked with knives and stones. Five people were arrested.
January 6: A 22-year-old Dalit law student was tricked into drinking urine by his classmates at the Tamil Nadu National Law University. The final-year student was offered a soft drink mixed with urine.
January 7: A 21-year-old Dalit man was beaten to death over his alleged love affair with a woman from a dominant caste. The incident occurred in Jasola village in Uttar Pradesh.
January 9: Two Dalit minor girls, aged between 8 to 12 years were allegedly raped in Patna. While one died, the other was taken to the hospital. The children belonged to the most marginalised Dalit communities, Mushahar, which are considered the poorest of the poor and mostly live in a ghetto, Mushahar Toli, outside the main villages.
January 9: A 19-year-old woman from an upper caste was burned to death by her relatives after she married a Dalit man in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district. The woman belonged to Kallar (backward) community, a dominant caste and a subgroup of the politically influential Thevar community. Police said the couple were school classmates and had fallen in love.
January 14: In blatant caste discrimination, funds and prasad made by the Dalit community for Lord Ram’s idol at Ram Temple in Ayodhya were rejected considering it was impure to use for temples. The incident occurred in Rajasthan.
January 13: An 18-year-old Dalit youth was subjected to a heinous assault by members of another community. It is alleged that the assailants went to the extent of humiliating the youth by urinating on his face. The young man was left unconscious during the altercation. The incident occurred during a cricket match in Uttar Pradesh.
January 17: A 14-year-old Dalit girl was raped by a member of the dominant caste when she had gone to a field to defecate in Uttar Pradesh.
January 18: An 18-year-old Dalit woman working as domestic help in the house of Tamil Nadu DMK MLA I Karunanithi’s son, Anto Mathivanan and his wife Marlina, alleged that she was physically tortured and was denied medical care by her employers. She was not even paid her salary. “Even if I don’t do the smallest task properly, they would slap me on my face. Once, they asked me to prepare food by 6 am because they were going out of town. I hadn’t slept till 2 am the previous night. Nobody can survive without sleeping. I could only get up by 7 am. Because I couldn’t keep the food ready, they burnt my hands using a hair straightener,” the woman said. The MLA’s family has denied the allegations.
January 20: A 27-year-old customer from the Dalit community was denied food at a restaurant in Guttiganur village of Kurugodu taluk, Karnataka. In the video, which is being widely circulated on social media, a woman can be heard saying, “I will close the hotel, but I will not give you food,” as he denies service to the Dalit man.
January 21: In Bihar, two Dalit women were beaten up and subjected to caste-based insults after they were caught drinking water from a handpump situated within a temple premises. The caretaker of the temple, Kariman Yadav, who caught them, said, “You people have no sense. We offer water from this handpump to the deity.” Although the incident occurred on January 2, it took 17 days for the victims to lodge a police complaint.
January 24: A 17-year-old Dalit boy was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a group of right-wing workers in Karnataka’s Bidar district. The boy had put up a WhatsApp status of Dr BR Ambedkar, Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman. His attackers objected to it. They took him to a Hanuman temple, assaulted him and forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
January 28: Two students allegedly hit a Dalit student, who chanted ‘Jai Bhim-Jai Bharat’ after finishing his speech at the Republic Day function in a school in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.
January 30: In a disturbing incident, a 17-year-old Dalit boy of Rajasthan’s Ajmer district was allegedly assaulted with sticks and rods and forced to drink urine by upper-caste men. The attack took place when he was making Instagram reels in a public place. The attackers allegedly urinated on the minor boy and forced him to drink it.
February
February 1: The Department of Electronics and Communication at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C) suspended a Dalit student for taking part in a protest on the day of the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Uttar Pradesh. The protestors held placards that said, ‘India is not Ram Rajya’ on January 22. The student was held “exclusively responsible for instigating unrest” and for “diminishing the prestige” of the institute.
February 2: Dalit man was forced to drink liquor and then garlanded with a shoe tied around his neck. He was also thrashed by his attackers.
February 2: A 15-year-old Dalit girl was raped by two men from her village in Uttar Pradesh. The men dragged the girl to the fields and then committed the crime.
February 5: Two Dalit girls in Hyderabad, Telangana, were found hanging in their hostel room after an altercation with their juniors. The incident occurred in Bhongir district. In the suicide note found by the cops, the two girls, who were friends, said they were falsely blamed and were ending their lives as they were “scared” and “embarrassed”. They blamed their teacher in their the suicide note.
February 6: A Dalit professor from Basavanagudi National College in Karnataka was transferred after he alleged caste discrimination by the college authorities. The professor who taught undergraduate and postgraduate students was demoted to teach pre-university students.
February 9: A minor Dalit girl was murdered by an upper caste man after she lodged a complaint against him for eve-teasing. The incident occurred in Bengaluru rural. The boy is said to have slit the girl’s throat and dumped her body on the outskirts of the village.
February 9: A woman and her daughter-in-law were arrested by the police for serving tea in coconut shells to Dalit farm workers. The incident occurred in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. A video of the incident went viral on social media platforms.
February 9: A 37-year-old Dalit man working as a manual scavenger was asphyxiated to death while cleaning a septic tank in an apartment building in Chennai. The victim, Mohanasundaralingam, was supervising the cleaning after two of his workers went inside the tank to clean it.
When one of the workers fainted, Mohanasundaralingam entered the tank to save him. Although the worker was pulled out safely, Mohanasundaralingam suffocated and died.
February 12: A 17-year-old Dalit student of Government Social Welfare Residential College at Imampet in Telangana’s Suryapet district was found hanging in her hostel. The girl was a resident of Suryapet town. Police suspect that the girl took the extreme step as she had backlogs and was also physically weak.
February 12: An assault video of a Dalit man working as a DJ came to light on social media in Madhya Pradesh. In the video, the DJ is constantly beaten up by a man named Chanchal Rajput, who belongs to the Bajrang Dal. Even as the man begs him to stop hitting him, Rajput continues the assault.
February 13: A Dalit groom was assaulted by upper caste people after they found him riding a horse during his marriage procession. The incident occurred in Gujarat. The accused person hurled casteist slurs at the groom, objecting to him riding the horse by saying that only members of his community can ride a horse.
February 14: A 35-year-old hair stylist was arrested after he refused to attend to a customer who belonged to the Dalit community. The incident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district.
February 16: A 20-year-old Dalit man, who was detained at a police station for a week following a complaint by the village head for allegedly abducting his teenage daughter, died at a hospital in Aligarh. Police said Gaurav Jatav tried to hang himself with a muffler inside the washroom in Amapur police chowki, although his family claimed “torture by cops”.
February 17: Five Dalit minor boys were physically assaulted by an upper caste man in Madhya Pradesh. The disturbing video of the assault was uploaded on X platform showing the little children tied behind their backs and crying out loud as their attacker continues to hit them with a stick. It is alleged that the boys drank water from a well. Onlookers did nothing to save the children.
February 20: A 25-year-old government officer from the Dalit community died by suicide after filing a corruption case against a sarpanch in Rajasthan. Lalit Kumar Beniwal was a village development officer and an IIT graduate and aspired to one day become an IAS officer. His family members alleged that Lalit was constantly harassed by the village sarpanch and local panchayat officers because of his loyal nature.
February 22: In another case of honour killing, a 27-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by his wife’s relatives in Chennai. The victim, Praveen alias Ashiq, was a bike mechanic and in a relationship with D Sharmila, 20, a fourth year college student.
February 25: A government school teacher belonging to the Dalit community, posted in Rajasthan’s Baran district, was suspended for allegedly refusing to garland a portrait of the goddess Saraswati during the Republic Day celebrations.
March
March 7: The Tamil Nadu police arrested a couple charged with attempting to kill their Dalit son-in-law by ramming his bike with a van. The incident occurred on March 6. While the young man escaped, his 16-year-old sister was killed. The Dalit man, who belonged to the Adi Drvidar caste, had married a woman from the upper caste Kongu Vellalar Goundar community.
March 7: A nine-year-old Dalit girl was abducted, bruatally raped and murdered in Puducherry. The crime took place on March 2 and her partially decomposed body was retrieved from a drain a few days later. Two men – a 56-year-old and a 19-year-old, were arrested in the case.
March 14: In Uttar Pradesh, a 14-year-old Dalit girl was found dead in her house by her family. Her inconsolable mother alleged that her child was raped and murdered by a villager who had a dispute with them two months ago.
March 26: A 19-year-old Dalit teen was beaten up by a group of upper caste Hindus for attempting to participate in the annual day celebrations at his former school in Tamil Nadu. The victim, S Shyam Kumar claimed he was mercilessly beaten up by his former schoolmate and the latter’s relative near his school.
March 27: Clashes erupted between two communities leaving 15 injured after a Dalit boy joined a group of dancers in Bijnor city of Uttar Pradesh. The incident occurred during Holi celebrations. The Dalit boy’s presence was objected and he was verbally insulted. He went back and narrated the ordeal to his friends who then reached the spot and clashed with the dancers’ clan leading to injuries from both sides.
March 30: Dalit families in Karnataka’s Malligare village of Mandya district claimed that the local administration was discriminating against them based on their caste by not releasing drinking water to their colony, which houses nearly 300 Dalit families. However, officials denied the allegations.
March 30: In a shocking incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, a 60-year-old Dalit woman was beaten after her goat strayed into a field of an upper caste man. The owner thrashed the woman with a stick and hurled abuses at her. The video of the assault has gone viral on social media, sparking outrage and calls for justice for the victim. In the footage, the assailant can be seen mercilessly thrashing the helpless woman, while hurling derogatory caste-based slurs at her.
March 31: In Kerala’s capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, a 46-year-old Dalit man belonging to the Kuruva community was arrested for staging a protest in front of his Grama Panchayat, demanding a motorable road.
March 31: A Dalit student studying MA (Sociology) final year at the prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was sodomised by a fellow student. As per reports, the victim said that there was a sudden power failure. When he went to check the reason, he was attacked and beaten up by the accused. The accused followed him to the room and started sodomising him. When the victim protested, he was repeatedly slapped and punched.
March 31: An eight-year-old Dalit boy was mercilessly beaten up by a man from the Thakur caste. The child’s only crime was he accidentally touched a bucket while trying to drink water from a hand pump.
March 31: A 17-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh was repeatedly raped by her lover and his friends. The incident took place in Rajasthan. The girl met the accused through social media and became friends. One day, she eloped with him taking jewellery and Rs 18,000 cash with her. On reaching Rajasthan, she was held captive in a room where she was repeatedly raped by the men.
April
April 1: In yet another case of caste discrimination at the Banaras Hindu University, a Dalit student was assaulted by some students in the middle of the night. The victim is enrolled in the MA course in Sociology.
April 3: A Dalit veterinary doctor was assaulted for his caste by a person who brought his dog for treatment. The doctor said that upon knowing his surname was Gautam, the man started hurling casteist slurs and attacked him. The attacker vandalised his clinic and broke furniture. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
April 3: A magistrate was booked after he asked a Dalit rape survivor to strip to show her injuries. “She refused to strip and after recording the statement in the court on March 30, she registered a complaint against the magistrate. The case was registered with Kotwali police station under charges of outraging modesty,” deputy SP said. The incident occurred in Rajasthan.
April 14: A Dalit man in Uttar Pradesh died in police custody after he was detained at the police station for questioning regarding the case of a six-year-old girl who was found murdered 10 days ago. Based on a complaint lodged by the father of the girl, the Dalit man was called for questioning. His family has been accused of third-degree torture by the police.
April 17: In a similar case, another Dalit man was tortured to death while in police custody. The victim, Gopal Rathod, a labourer, died while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
April 19: An owner of an event management company was booked by the Mumbai police for discriminating against an employee based on his caste. The 23-year-old complainant told the police that they received a WhatsApp message from their employer who enquired about his caste. When he replied in affirmative, she said “main Jai Bhim wale ko job pe nahi rakhti (I don’t employ Dalits)”.
April 19: A Dalit student and PhD scholar was suspended by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai for two years, for participating against the BJP party.
April 25: A female student from the Dalit community studying at the Faculty of Law at Delhi University (DU) became the target of online abuse and rape threats after she posted an image of a shivling as part of her WhatsApp status. Her fellow students led a campaign against her. The link to her Instagram profile was posted in college groups to “teach her a lesson”.
April 26: Two Dalit school girls were forced to clean toilets by their teacher and headmaster. The Class VI students, aged 11 and 12, were allegedly engaged in the task for the past several months. The incident occurred in Tamil Nadu.
April 26: Dalits belonging to a village in Gandharvakottai in Pudukottai district found that their drinking water overhead tank (OHT) was contaminated with ‘cow dung’ by unknown individuals.
May
May 1: A 23-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by her 30-year-old neighbour at her house in Rajasthan while her husband was away.
May 3: A 37-year-old Dalit man was stripped and assaulted by members of Maratha community for dancing in a Tamasha (popular folk art form) in Maharashtra. The deceased belonged to the Hindu Mahar Dalit community.
May 3: A Muslim man was arrested for impregnating a Dalit minor girl and then threatening her and her mother with dire consequences. The incident took place in Karnataka. According to the FIR, Saddam Hussein established a physical relationship with the girl. When she told him she was pregnant with his child, he abused her caste and threatened to kill her.
May 4: A 13-year-old Dalit girl who had gone to the fields to defecate was burnt alive by unknown people. Police registered a case. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
May 6: A 13-year-old Dalit girl was raped by upper caste men in Bihar. The child was abducted near her house and taken to the fields where she was raped throughout the night. The accused also made a video of the act and threatened her against reporting it to the police. However, she along with her mother lodged a police complaint. Six people were arrested.
May 14: A father and son were arrested under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) for refusing a haircut to a 17-year-old Dalit boy. The incident occurred in Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district.
May 16: A former Samajwadi Party MLA Ashutosh Upadhyaya aka Bablu Upadhyaya was booked for thrashing a Dalit employee in a private company. The victim was hit on the head and showered castiest slurs by Upadhyaya. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
May 20: A Dalit family was reportedly attacked by the Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Uttar Pradesh after it was found that they had not voted for the party.
May 21: Three members of a Dalit family were assaulted by Thakor community for taking out a procession to celebrate a tonsuring ceremony. The upper caste men tried to instigate the victim Bhavesh Vagela who did not react as he wanted the procession to conclude peacefully. However, the same evening, while driving to the market, the victim was stopped by the men who rained down castiest slurs and objected to his driving. They attacked Vagela and hit him with sticks and stones. The incident occurred in Gujarat.
May 23: Four persons were booked after they brutally beat a Dalit groom during his wedding procession. The groom, in his complaint, alleged the upper caste men were waiting with sticks to attack the procession. ”They also fired gunshots in the air and beat up the groom and other relatives with sticks, and broke the horse carriage,” said a relative of the groom. The incident occurred in Madhya Pradesh.
May 25: A Dalit man’s house was allegedly set on fire by Biju Janata Dal party workers in Odisha after they did not vote for the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
May 28: A Dalit woman died after reportedly falling from an ambulance carrying her dead uncle’s body. In 2019, the woman was verbally harassed, threatened and assaulted by members of the Thakur community. She lodged a police complaint. She refused to take her complaint back even after repeated threats by her harassers. In August last year, her 18-year-old brother was beaten to death. In May, her uncle was attacked who was threatened to take the case back. On May 28, while mourning for her uncle, the woman allegedly fell off the ambulance and died.
May 31: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Santhosh Puthran was arrested by the Karnataka police on charges of sexually harassing a minor Dalit girl.
June
June 2: A Dalit youth was assaulted and insulted with casteist slurs during a wedding by a group of upper caste men after he turned the direction of a fan towards himself. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh’’s Jaunpur district.
June 3: An upper caste man urinated on the face of a Dalit labourer while he was taking an afternoon lap in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
June 7: A Dalit sarpanch of Koutharkalan village was tied to a tree and beaten up in Madhya Pradesh. The issue started when some men asked the sarpanch to withdraw from his post and hand over his dongle, containing his digital signature password. When he refused to give in to their demands, he was taken to the outskirts of Koutharkalan and thrashed.
June 15: A Dalit labourer was grievously attacked by upper caste Tiwaris after he asked for money to eat food. The Dalit man was working in brick klin under the Tiwaris. He was promised a monthly wage of Rs 20,000. When he asked for money to have food, the upper caste men started hurling casteist slurs and attacked him injuring the Dalit man and his young son.
June 26: A Dalit young man was stripped and thrashed severely in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur city. The young man was bleeding from the head when he was found by locals. Police said that his attackers mercilessly thrashed him by hitting him with belts and butts of country-made pistols.
June 27: Seven persons were arrested on allegations of repeatedly raping a 28-year-old Dalit woman In Uttar Pradesh. According to her, she was kidnapped by her rapists while on her way to a community health center.
June 27: A Dalit youth was stripped naked at gunpoint, singed with cigarettes and thrashed by a group of youths in MP’s Chhatarpur city. Police took action four days later when a video of the crime went around on social media.
June 27: In a brutal caste killing reported in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district, a man from the Arunthathiyar community was beheaded for his relationship with a woman from the Devandra Kulla Vellalar community. Both communities are categorised as Scheduled Caste (SC). However, Devandra Kulla Vellalars believe that they rank ‘higher’ in the caste hierarchy than Arunthathiyars. The victim was stripped, beheaded and his body left in the undergrowth near Kalligudi town.
June 28: A 13-year-old girl was brutally thrashed, raped and killed in a series of gruesome events in Haridwar. Six persons were arrested including a close aide and an expelled BJP member. The incident occurred on June 23 when the Dalit girl had gone to meet one of her male friends. Unfortunately, he along with three of his friends raped her and threatened with dire consequences if she reported the incident. Troubled, the girl disclosed the matter to another male friend Amit, who instead of helping her, allegedly raped her too. When she resisted, he thrashed her resulting in severe head injuries. Amit’s family also assaulted the Dalit girl. They then dumped the critically wounded child on the Haridwar-Delhi highway where she was run over by a vehicle.
July
July 8: A sub inspector died by consuming poison in Hyderabad. The police officer took the extreme face after he faced caste discrimination by his seniors. The incident took place on June 30, the SI died a week later.
July 9: A Dalit man was reportedly abducted, stripped naked, and brutally beaten by a group of men in Maharashtra’s Nashik district. The disturbing incident, which took place on June 17 came to light on Monday after a video of the assault went viral on social media. According to reports, the Dalit youth identified as Prasad Khairnar was lured to a place named Khau Gali, allegedly by his girlfriend under the pretext of meeting him. However, upon reaching the location, he was surrounded by a group of men, reportedly the girl’s relatives.
July 9: A Dalit girl and her two minor brothers were assaulted by a group of men belonging to the OBC Dheevara community in Kerala’s Allapuzha district. According to the police, the accused men stopped and pushed the Dalit woman’s brothers. When she tried to intervene, she was dragged, pulled, tugged her dress and tore it. The accused also stated that they would not allow ‘such’ people to live here while using derogatory statements against them.
July 13: A young Dalit man ended his life by setting himself on fire after his employer constantly harassed him for an unpaid debt of Rs 4,500. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district. The attackers claimed the Dalit man had asked for a loan of Rs 60,000 but the Dalit man said it was Rs 4,500.
On the previous night of the suicide, the Dalit man was mercilessly thrashed by his employer. A video surfaced of the assault where the Dalit man begs to let him free only to be met with more blows. The following day, he returned home, set himself on fire and died.
July 15: Three Muslim men were arrested for allegedly harassing a Dalit man and beating him and his family members in Bangaruguda village of Adilabad rural mandal.
July 16: In yet another case, a Dalit groom and his wedding procession were beaten up with rods and sticks by members of upper caste men for passing through their village in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. The upper caste men objected to the songs played by the DJ in the wedding procession. The groom was forced to dismount from a horse and humiliated.
July 17: A young Dalit man was beaten up by a group of upper caste men in Gujarat allegedly for uploading his picture wearing a traditional headgear (safa) and sunglasses on his social media account. “They told me that only people from the Darbar community can wear safa and sunglasses. They beat me up and told me to remove the picture,” the young man stated.
July 23: A nine-year-old Dalit boy was locked inside the classroom and thrashed mercilessly by his teacher when the child refused to pluck jamuns for her. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh in Bareilly. The child returned home with several injuries on his shoulder and back.
July 24: A Dalit man from the Valmimki community was allegedly thrashed by police officers after he overtook their vehicle in Madhya Pradesh.
July 28: In yet another caste of caste violence, a 25-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death by his in-laws after he married their 18-year-old daughter in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district.
July 28: Two rowdy-sheeters allegedly attacked and severed the hand of a Dalit youth in Karnataka. The victim was walking on the road with his uncle when one of the accused, who was chatting with his friends, confronted him about his caste. A heated argument took place. Later, the accused barged into the victim’s house and chopped off his hand.
August
August 4: A Dalit woman was allegedly subjected to third-degree torture in the presence of her minor son under the Cyberabad commissionerate of Telangana during a probe into a theft case at a house. “I was stripped by the policemen, mostly men. My hands and legs were tied with rope to a lathi. The policemen kept on hitting with a rubber belt,” the Dalit woman said.
August 7: A 22-year-old Dalit student died by suicide at his residence in Hyderabad after being assaulted by his paramour’s family, who rejected the relationship due to his lower caste status.
August 7: A six-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly forced to clean toilets and locked inside the classroom by his teachers in Uttar Pradesh. The boy’s mother alleged that the teachers frequently instructed the child to clean the toilets as they had hatred towards Dalit children.
August 14: A 57-year-old government employee from the Uttar Pradesh government’s agricultural department was arrested for allegedly raping a 10-year-old Dalit girl and committing bestiality in a village. The incident took place at the girl’s house.
August 18: A section of caste Hindus demolished a Kaliamman temple in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu after Dalits of the village defied their decision to disallow people from Scheduled Caste (SC) communities from participating in the temple’s Aadi month festivities.
August 19: A Dalit nurser was allegedly raped by a Muslim doctor in Uttar Pradesh. The nurse, who was working in the hospital for the last seven months, had reported to duty on the day of the rape at 7 pm. She was informed by a ward boy named Mehnaz to visit Dr Shahnawaz in his room. When she refused, Mehnaz along with another man Junaid dragged her into the doctor’s room and raped her.
August 24: A Dalit head constable took his life by hanging after he was unable to bear caste discrimination by his seniors in Uttar Pradesh. In his six-page-long suicide note, the Dalit head constable, with over two decades of service in the police force, held four people responsible for his death: three police officers and a journalist.
August 27: A 21-year-old Dalit woman was murdered by her in-laws in Karnataka. The deceased, who belonged to the Madiga community was subjected to untouchability. She was allegedly made to live in a shed outside the house and sleep on muddy ground. She was also given another hut to live and cook in, and her in-laws refused to eat what she cooked.
September
September 4: A five-year-old Dalit girl was gang raped and murdered in Bihar’s Gaya district. The little girl was sleeping with her mother at her home when the two accused, who were later arrested, took her away and committed the gruesome crime. Upon knowing her daughter was missing, the mother alerted the neighbours. Her body was found 500 meters away from her house.
September 5: Shiv Sena leader Vikas Repale, believed to be close aide of Maharashtra deputy CM Eknath Shinde, and several others were booked for allegedly attacking Dalit people and preventing them from entering a temple. The group also threw stones when the complainant was going to the police station to file a complaint.
September 9: A 14-year-old girl was raped by two men and then hit in the face with bricks intending to kill in Uttar Pradesh. The teenager was on her way to a food outlet when she was was abducted by the men who raped her in a secluded area.
September 13: Dalits were ostracised in a village after a family from their community reported the rape of their 15-year-old daughter by an upper caste man in Karnataka. Following an FIR, the upper caste family asked the Dalit family to compromise. When the family refused, the upper caste leaders ordered shop owners to boycott Dalits in the village. The shopkeepers refused to sell basic stationery items such as pens, notebooks and pencils to children belonging to the Dalit community. Dalits were not sold daily ration and were forced to fetch it from a distant place.
September 14: A 12-year-old Dalit boy, who was caught stealing by upper caste men, was forced to strip down naked and dance to popular songs with a smile. His harassers recorded a video of the act and posted it on social media. The incident occurred in Rajasthan.
September 14: A Dalit woman was tied to an electric pole and beaten mercilessly after her son eloped with a girl from another community in Andhra Pradesh.
September 16: A Dalit woman working as a sanitation worker in the recently inaugurated Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya was gang raped by three men. It is alleged that that girl had a relationship with one of her rapists. She was raped multiple times by the men between August 12 and August 25.
September 19: Around 80 Dalit homes were torched by the upper caste community in Bihar over a land dispute. No injuries were reported.
September 24: In Medak district, Telangana, 16 villagers were arrested for allegedly enforcing a social boycott on a Dalit family from the Madiga community. The family was ostracized after refusing to play the traditional percussion instrument, Dappu, during village ceremonies, including funerals. Despite being postgraduates employed in Hyderabad, the two brothers faced pressure from villagers, including members of their own community, to continue the traditional occupation. The deputy sarpanch also allegedly denied the family permission to construct a house and access a water connection.
October
October 1: In Tamil Nadu, caste Hindus objected to the funeral procession of a 70-year-old Dalit woman on the main road. The Dalit community chose this route due to the poor condition of their traditional muddy path, which had become unusable due to neglect and encroachments.
October 5: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh protested after a statue of Dr BR Ambedkar was found vandalised by some miscreants.
October 10: Three Dalit boys, aged between 12 and 14 years, were thrashed, tonsured and paraded with their faces blackened after they were suspected of stealing 5 kg of rice from a poultry farm. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
October 14: In Madhya Pradesh, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly set on fire by the son of a man she had accused of harassment. The incident occurred days after she filed a police complaint against 48-year-old Mangilal for attempting to assault her in a field. Upon his release on bail, the accused allegedly attacked her by pouring petrol and setting her on fire. She suffered 27 percent burns and was critical.
October 19: A 24-year-old man was allegedly beaten up by upper caste men after he drank water from a hand pump located in a temple in Uttar Pradesh. As per the complaint, the attackers pressed his neck with their feet “until his tongue protruded”
October 20: A 16-year-old Dalit boy was assaulted by his classmates and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram. No arrests were made.
October 31: A controversy arose after Neha Kumari Dubey, the collector of Gujarat’s Mahisagar district, made controversial remarks in her office, which were caught on video. She allegedly claimed that 90 per cent of atrocity cases are used for blackmail, most women file false cases under Section 498A, and lawyers deserve to be “hit with slippers.” These comments have angered the Dalit community and sparked outrage on social media, with people demanding her suspension and action against her under the Atrocities Act.
November
November 8: A case of caste-based discrimination emerged from Rajasthan where a Salvi family belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community was attacked by upper caste individuals during a funeral. The Dalit family was performing last rites of a passing member when persons from the Rawat community allegedly attempted to stop the SC family from using the land, which led to tension between the two groups and incidents such as stone pelting.
Nov 8: A Dalit contractual worker at Haryana’s public health department charged a state civil services officer of sexually exploiting him at gunpoint.
November 9: A Dalit farmer alleged caste discrimination after wedding halls and venues refused to rent out for his daughter’s wedding.
November 10: In Odisha, Dalit women protested against caste-based discrimination by staging a sit-in outside a temple alleging that priests and upper-caste individuals prevented them from offering milk to the deity during the holy month of Kartik, a ritual they traditionally performed.
November 11: Tensions prevail in Karnataka after Savarna Hindus removed the diety from Sri Kalabhairaveshwara Swamy temple in a village in Mandya, in protest of the government providing temple entry for Dalits.
November 16: In Madhya Pradesh, a Dalit youth faced caste-based harassment while he sat on a chair outside his own house. He was apparently told by an upper caste fellow villager, “You have no right to sit on a chair as a person from a low caste.” Despite the Dalit man Ashok defending his right to sit on his property, the abuser continued his verbal harassment.
November 19: A Dalit student of Delhi University filed a police complaint alleging that his principal hurled casteist slurs and assaulted him. The student said that he had been falsely accused and pressured to take responsibility for some obscene messages that had surfaced on the official Whatsapp group of his department. After this, the student said that he was mentally harassed by the principal.
November 26: In Kerala, a caste-based discrimination incident at a school sparked outrage when a six-year-old Dalit student was humiliated when his Christian teacher singled him out to clean a classmate’s vomit, despite his reluctance.
November 28: A 21-year-old Dalit student from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut was found dead on a medical college campus under mysterious circumstances, raising concerns of possible revenge killing linked to a caste-based humiliation he suffered last year.
December
December 5: A Dalit professor of Sri Venkateswara University in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati was allegedly beaten up by a right-wing group reportedly associated with Bajrang Dal. The confrontation began when the assailants barged into the office of the professor and questioned his views on Dalit rights. The confrontation escalated into a violent attack that left him injured.
December 12: A wedding celebration for a Dalit groom reportedly turned violent after upper caste members attacked attendees and vandalised a horse-drawn carriage. The incident unfolded in Madhya Pradesh. The groom who was riding on a horse-drawn carriage received animosity from some influential upper caste groups who vandalised the buggy.
December 14: A Dalit young man was tortured and killed in Karnataka after being accused of stealing cigarette packets.
December 14: A 17-year-old Dalit girl was found dead in a barely clad state in her house here in Uttar Pradesh. The girl was found bare-chested with the presence of “sex enhancement drugs” in her body, they said.
December 16: A Dalit constable’s wedding procession was allegedly attacked by upper caste men, who objected to loud DJ music and vandalised the vehicle, pelted stones, forced the groom off his horse, and injured several guests. The incident occurred in Uttar Pradesh.
December 20: A principal and a teacher from a government primary school in Uttar Pradesh allegedly assaulted a Class V Dalit student after he arrived late. Although the incident occurred on September 20, it came to light after the boy’s family approached the local court due to inaction from local authorities.
December 22: In Tamil Nadu, a nine-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly tied up and beaten by a 26-year-old man from the Gounder community for scribbling on the dust settled on the man’s car. The boy was dragged tied up and beaten for an hour.
December 22: In Tamil Nadu, a 36-year-old Dalit man was assaulted for sipping tea in front of an upper caste man. “Senniyappan (the accused) arrived at the bakery, sat down, and ordered tea. After finishing, he allegedly stared at Karuppusamy and left,” a police source said. The following day, the accused confronted the Dalit man and attacked him. “The attack seems to have been triggered by the belief that Karuppusamy (the Dalit victim) should have stood up or moved away when Senniyappan sat down at the bakery,” the police source said.
December 24: A Dalit man was tied to a tree and beaten up mercilessly by bamboo sticks after he was suspected of stealing rice in Chhattisgarh.
A nationwide failure to uphold equality and justice
These are incidents that came to light and were reported. There are several that did not see the day. No Indian state is unique when it comes to religious and caste-based violence. From Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan to Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, systematic attacks on Muslims, Christians and Dalits threaten the basic rights to freedom and religion.
Despite constitutional protections ensuring equality and secularism, the reluctance to accept these injustices reflects a collective societal failure.
(With inputs from Sayima Ahmed)
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