Hate crimes in India

Abstract

Violence driven by sectarian hostility is back on the centre stage of India's public discourse. Since 2015, numerous incidents of hate violence have dramatically unfolded on the pages of both old and new media. While we still do not have any official numbers, data drawn from media sources indicates a considerable spike in incidents of individuals being targeted on the ground of their identity. 1 Many of these incidents have involved mobs attacking members of caste and religious minorities, often in the context of cow protection or inter-faith relationships. 2 India has had a long and tortuous history of sectarian mass violence. 3 The country was born in the throngs of the tragic Partition in 1947 that led to more than two million deaths. 4 Since then, there have been hundreds of incidents of what in India are often described as 'communal riots'. 5 Sectarian mass violence is intimately relatedin terms of causes and effects -to political ideologies and ambitions. 6 Violence has M Mohsin Alam Bhat-Associate Professor.

The Supreme Court in Modi’s India

“…While public trust in the judiciary is high (Krishnaswamy and Swaminathan 2019), one might see a somewhat different picture using litigation per capita as a proxy for faith in the law and judiciary. Contrary to the myth of the litigious Indian, the rate of litigation is low in relative terms (Galanter 2009). Recourse to the law-as plaintiff rather than defendant-is often dependent on class, caste, religion, or proximity to the court (see Kulkarni et al 2022).…”

How Costly are Cultural Biases?

“…Several political scientists and sociologists argue this conflict was exacerbated because right-wing political parties, such as the BJP, support Hindu nationalism (see Kaul (2017) among others). For instance, the approval of the Citizenship Amendment Act by the BJP in 2019 has produced a widely covered wave of riots and violence between Hindus and Muslims (Bhat (2020); (Mitra and Ray, 2014)).…”