Hindu Extremist Violence Widens in India as Christians Join Muslims in the Crosshairs

As religious hate deepens across India, Hindu extremist groups are increasingly turning their attention toward Christians, adding to years of intensifying violence and rhetoric targeting Muslims under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

On Christmas Eve, hardline Hindu groups affiliated with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a shutdown in the central Indian city of Raipur, citing allegations of “forced” religious conversions by Christians — claims frequently made against the community despite little evidence.

The same day, groups of men armed with wooden sticks stormed a shopping mall in Raipur, vandalising Christmas decorations and disrupting celebrations. Police registered a case against 30 to 40 unidentified attackers but arrested only six. All were released on bail within days and were later welcomed outside the jail with garlands, processions and chants, scenes widely shared on social media.

On Christmas morning, Modi visited a Catholic church in New Delhi to mark the holiday but did not condemn the violence.

The Raipur attack was not an isolated incident. A new report shows that religious hate speech and violence in India are intensifying, with the country’s small Christian minority emerging as an increasingly visible target alongside Muslims, amid a climate of rising Hindu majoritarian rhetoric.

Research by India Hate Lab, a project of the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), recorded 1,318 hate speech events across India in 2025 — an average of more than three per day.

The report found that these events, largely organised and led by Hindu majoritarian groups and the governing BJP, targeted Muslims and Christians, marking a 97 percent increase in hate speech since 2023 and a 13 percent rise over 2024. While Muslims remained the primary target, anti-Christian rhetoric surged sharply, with incidents rising from 115 in 2024 to 162 in 2025 — a 41 percent increase.

This escalation was reflected in widespread violence and intimidation during Christmas celebrations last month. Incidents were reported in Delhi and in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Raipur, where the mall was attacked, is the capital of Chhattisgarh.

In Madhya Pradesh, a BJP leader led a mob that disrupted and attacked a Christmas lunch for visually impaired children. In Delhi, women wearing Santa caps were intimidated by Hindu supremacists. In Kerala, some schools reportedly received threats from officials linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the ideological parent of the BJP — warning against Christmas celebrations. The state government later announced a probe, following an attack by an RSS worker on teenage carollers.

Christians make up just 2.3 percent of India’s population, while Muslims account for 14.2 percent. Hindus comprise about 80 percent.

Experts say Hindu supremacists have fuelled suspicion, anger and hostility toward religious minorities through conspiracy theories and misinformation.

An escalation

According to analysts, the latest figures represent a new phase in the religious hostility that minorities have faced since the BJP came to power in 2014.

The BJP’s ideological mentor, the RSS, founded in 1925, promotes the idea of India as a “Hindu nation”, in opposition to the constitutionally enshrined principle of secularism. Prominent Hindu nationalist ideologues such as Vinayak Savarkar and MS Golwalkar — both publicly honoured by Modi — described Muslims and Christians as “unwanted” and “internal enemies”, and advocated a “permanent war” against them.

Raqib Naik of the CSOH said the hate speech documented in the report mirrors this ideology, portraying Muslims and Christians as “dual threats” and as “foreign, demonic forces” seeking to harm Hindus.

“At the centre of this is the ‘forced conversion’ narrative, which frames every act of Christian charity, education or healthcare as a covert attempt to convert Hindus,” Naik said. “The most pervasive theme across the 2025 incidents is the allegation that Christian missionaries are converting Hindus through inducement.”

This persists despite census and Pew Research Center data showing that Christians have never made up more than 3 percent of India’s population between 1951 and the 2011 census.

Within the Christian community, the rise in attacks has created fear and deep unease, said John Dayal, former president of the All India Catholic Union and a former member of India’s National Integration Council.

“In Raipur, the archbishop was forced to advise all churches and Christian institutions to seek police protection during Christmas,” Dayal said. “I couldn’t believe such a letter had to be written.”

Attacks on Muslims also surge

The report also highlights a sharp rise in anti-Muslim hate speech. Of the 1,318 hate speech events recorded in 2025, 1,289 included hateful or violent references to Muslims.

This compares with 1,147 such incidents in 2024 and 668 in 2023 — a 93 percent increase between 2023 and 2025.

Speakers, often from the BJP or affiliated Hindu supremacist groups, promoted conspiracy theories ranging from “land jihad” and “population jihad” to claims that Muslim men lure Hindu women to convert them through “love jihad”.

The report found that most of these events ended with calls for violence, including boycotts of Muslims, destruction of places of worship and armed attacks.

“These narratives are designed to portray minorities as organised aggressors intent on destroying Hindu culture, demographic dominance and wealth,” Naik said. “Their mass dissemination manufactures a sense of perpetual Hindu victimhood and enables the passage of anti-minority laws to address these imagined threats.”

Since the BJP assumed power, several states have enacted laws criminalising coercive religious conversions, which critics say are aimed at curbing interfaith marriages. Some state ministers have openly described the laws as measures against “love jihad”.

In November 2025, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom flagged what it called “several discriminatory pieces of legislation” in India, including laws related to citizenship and religious conversion.

The BJP link

The report found strong links between hate speech and the ruling party. Nearly 88 percent of hate speech events occurred in states governed by the BJP or its allies. Five of the top 10 individuals involved in the most hate speech were linked to the BJP, including Home Minister Amit Shah, widely regarded as the country’s second most powerful figure after Modi.

The chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, and Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, were also named. Dhami topped the list with 71 hate speech incidents.

Ram Puniyani, author and president of the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism, said the rise in hate is closely tied to the BJP’s political trajectory. Although Modi returned to power after the 2024 elections, the BJP lost its parliamentary majority and now governs with allies.

“The Hindutva foot soldiers have become more emboldened by the party’s return to power, and attacks on religious minorities are increasing,” Puniyani said.

He added that targeting Christian missionaries is also aimed at consolidating BJP support among tribal and Dalit communities, where missionaries are active. Dalits, historically marginalised under India’s caste system, have faced centuries of discrimination.

“All this is extremely dangerous,” Puniyani warned, “because hate speech eventually leads to violence.”