India Tomorrow
New Delhi, Jan 21— In a period of nine years, from 2009-2018, as many as 278 religious hate crimes took place in the country in which 99 people were killed and 687 were injured, says a report in Fact Checker. Muslims, who account for 14% of India’s population, were victims in 58% incidents. But if 32 incidents out of 278 where religion of the victim was not reported are kept aside, then the percentage of Muslim victims will touch 66%.
“Muslims–14% of India’s population–were victims in 58% incidents. Christians–2% of population–were victims in 15% cases. Hindus–80% of population–were victims in 14% cases. In 12% or 32 incidents, religion of the victim was not reported. Considering only the 246 incidents where the religion of the victims was known, Muslims were victims in 66% attacks, Christians in 17% incidents and Hindus in 15% cases,” says the website which has prepared a Citizen’s Religious Hate-Crime Watch database in collaboration with Aman Biradari and newsclick.in.
Regarding the perpetrators, the report makes startling revelation.
“Of the 191 incidents for which religion of the alleged perpetrator has been reported, 82% or 156 cases involved Hindus, 17% involved Muslims (33 cases). Sikhs were perpetrators in 2 incidents. In 87 cases, the identity of the perpetrator was not known.”
The report says that Uttar Pradesh, country’s largest state, has reported the largest number of hate crimes since 2009. In 2018, nearly a third (29%) of hate crimes occurred in the state.
Since May 2014 when BJP came to power at the centre with absolute majority, there has been sharp rise in hate crimes various parts of the country, particularly in BJP-ruled states. Dozens of incidents of lynching in the name of cow smuggling, cow slaughter or beef consumption took place in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam. Some of the incidents, like Dadri (UP) lynching and Alwar (Rajasthan) lynching where Mohammad Akhlaq and Pahlu Khan were beaten to death by a mob respectively hit national and international headlines.
The Supreme Court of India took the incidents of mob violence and lynching very seriously and framed a comprehensive guideline in July last year to check recurrence of such crimes. In the light of those guidelines, Manipur has recently passed a tough anti-lynching law.
