India’s Muslim Minority Under Pressure: Fear, Discrimination and the Crisis of Equal Citizenship

FROM BULLDOZED HOMES TO HATE SPEECH AND TARGETED VIOLENCE, MUSLIMS ACROSS INDIA INCREASINGLY FACE INSECURITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE.
Across India, concerns over the condition of the Muslim minority have intensifed as reports of hate crimes, discriminatory policies, demolitions, mob violence and religious restrictions continue to emerge from multiple states. Human rights organizations, researchers, journalists and international observers increasingly warn that these incidents are no longer isolated episodes but part of a wider climate of hostility and institutional exclusion. 


The scale of this crisis becomes visible through recent statistics and documented incidents. According to testimony presented before the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in May 2026 by rights expert Raqib Hameed Naik of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), at least 1,318 hate speech incidents targeting Muslims and Christians were recorded across 21 Indian states in 2025, representing a 97 percent increase since 2023.

The testimony further warned that minorities were increasingly being described with dehumanizing language such as “termites,” “snakes,” and “pests,” while vigilante groups openly circulated videos of assaults online. The violence extends beyond speech. In the first four months of 2026 alone, at least 13 Muslims were reportedly killed in religiously motivated hate crimes across eight Indian states. Among the victims were women, an elderly man and a 15-year-old boy.

Reports also documented deaths in police custody and so-called “fake encounters.” These incidents create fear not only through physical violence but through the message they send to entire communities. Economic insecurity has also deepened through widespread demolition drives targeting Muslim-majority neighborhoods. In Assam, testimony before USCIRF stated that between 2021 and 2026, authorities conducted at least 33 eviction operations, demolishing over 22,000 homes and structures and displacing nearly 100,000 people, most of them Bengali-origin Muslims.

Around 40 percent of these demolitions occurred in 2025 alone. Similar fears emerged in Delhi’s Jaitpur and Varanasi’s Dalmandi localities, where bulldozers razed homes, shops and threatened
centuries-old mosques under development campaigns. The violence extends beyond speech. In the first four months of 2026 alone, at least 13 Muslims were reportedly killed in religiously 


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