january 2023
The second edition of the India Persecution Tracker reports incidents against religious minorities in India, with a focus on Muslims and Christians, from 15th September to end December 2022. These include physical attacks and acts of discrimination and incitement by both state and non-state actors, many of the latter continuing with tacit or acknowledged support of state actors. The bulletin relies on media reporting, other secondary sources and a limited amount of primary sources. They report is not exhaustive.
In the period under review, attacks on life and liberty continued, with an increase in attacks on economic and housing rights by state actors through evictions and demolitions, and by non-state actors through threats targeting livelihoods and acts of violence. Muslim and Christian religious places were also targeted by non-state right wing groups. Hindu religious
festivals were used to further a climate of political and social divisions against minorities, feeding the polarization rhetoric, leveraged by the BJP in its electoral campaigns in several states.
During this time, India’s human rights record was also reviewed at the UN Human Rights Council, at Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on 10 November 2022. Of those present at the UPR, 21 countries urged India to improve its protection of freedom of religion and right of religious minorities, with several raising concern over increasing violence and hate speech and discriminatory policies.
Below is a catalogue of some of the more serious incidents of violations. We follow the international Human rights law framework, to report these.