By Raqeeb Raza
In the wake of the terror attack in Pahalgam, where 26 people were killed in the largest number of tourist casualties in recent times in Kashmir, anti-Muslim hate has risen across the country.
From the hills of Himachal to the plains of Madhya Pradesh, grief has found a dangerous companion: hate. What began as national mourning for the 26 killed in the Pahalgam terror attack is rapidly mutating into communal blame — and Muslims are being made the scapegoat for a nation’s pain.
The India Hate Lab (IHL) has documented a significant increase in hate speech events targeting Muslims across India. In the two weeks following the Pahalgam attack, IHL recorded 64 in-person hate speech incidents across 16 states, with Maharashtra reporting the highest number. These events included public calls for economic boycotts, inflammatory speeches, and threats against Muslims.
Among other states were Uttar Pradesh (13), Uttarakhand (6), Haryana (6), Rajasthan (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), Himachal Pradesh (5), Bihar (4), and Chhattisgarh (2). According to IHL, speakers at these events routinely used dehumanising language, referring to Muslims as ‘green snakes,’ ‘piglets,’ keede (insects), and ‘mad dogs.’
This wave of hate speech has been accompanied by a troubling rise in hate crimes and acts of violence, targeting Kashmiris in particular and Muslims more broadly.
In city after city, protest after protest, the slogans have grown sharper and more violent. Hindu nationalist outfits and local trade associations are no longer hiding behind euphemisms. They are calling openly for the economic and social boycott of Muslim communities.
In Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, during a VHP-Bajrang Dal rally on April 25, 2025, a speaker bellowed through a microphone, not condolences, but a call to arms — urging Hindus to take up weapons. We reached out to Sehore administration but didn’t hear back from them.
Sehore was not an isolated incident, in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna, a protest organised by Hindu nationalist organisations saw a speaker calling for a complete boycott of Muslims. In Bhopal, VHP-Bajrang Dal members called Muslims ‘jihadis’ and urged locals to not rent rooms to Muslims. All three incidents happened on April 25th, 2025.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.