Nearly 162 incidents of anti-Christian hate speech were recorded in India in 2025, reflecting a 41% increase from 2024, according to a project report released last week by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH).

The India Hate Lab, a project of CSOH, in its annual report documented 1,318 in-person hate speech events targeting religious minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians, across 21 states, one Union Territory, and the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in 2025.

A total of 1,289 speeches, or 98%, targeted Muslims, either explicitly in 1,156 cases or alongside Christians in 133 cases, marking a nearly 12% increase from 2024 in the total hate speeches targeting the minority communities.

“The implication is clear: while anti-Muslim incitement remains the ideological core of this ecosystem, hate against Christians is being normalised more openly and more frequently,” Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), a human rights watchdog, said in an editorial. “The most disturbing insight is not only the rise in numbers. It is the pattern the numbers reveal: hate speech is no longer confined to election campaigns or sudden flashpoints. It is beginning to resemble a routine instrument of mobilisation, used repeatedly across public gatherings — political rallies, religious processions, protest marches, and nationalist events — without consistent institutional consequence.”

Of the 1,318 hate speech events, 1,164 incidents (88%) occurred in states governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), either independently or through coalition partners, as well as in BJP-administered Union Territories. This is a 25% increase from the 931 incidents recorded in BJP-ruled jurisdictions in 2024.

By contrast, the IHL report notes that seven opposition-ruled states recorded 154 hate speech events, a 34% decrease from the 234 incidents documented in those states in 2024.

The five highest reporting jurisdictions were Uttar Pradesh (266), Maharashtra (193), Madhya Pradesh (172), Uttarakhand (155), and Delhi (76), together accounting for roughly two-thirds of all incidents.

Political leaders heading state governments and influential lawyers have been recorded spewing venom against the minorities without any fear of the law.

The IHL has identified more than 160 organizations and informal groups as organizers or co-organizers of hate speech events in 2025. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal emerge as the most frequent organizers, linked to 289 events (22%), followed by Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (138 events).

IHL recorded that 308 speeches (23%) contained explicit calls for violence; 136 speeches contained direct calls to arms; 120 speeches called for social or economic boycotts (an 8% increase from 2024); 276 speeches called for removal or destruction of places of worship, including mosques, shrines, and churches; 141 speeches used dehumanizing language — calling minorities “termites,” “parasites,” “insects,” “pigs,” “mad dogs,” “snake-lings,” “green snakes,” and “bloodthirsty zombies.”

When such language becomes familiar in public life, it does not remain “speech.” It becomes permission — permission to harass, exclude, attack, and deny belonging, the CJP noted.

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