WASHINGTON: Instances of hate speech against minorities in India such as Muslims increased 74 percent in 2024, a Washington-based research group said on Monday, with incidents ballooning around last year’s national elections.
India Hate Lab documented 1,165 instances of what it considered to be hate speech in 2024, compared with 668 a year earlier, that it observed at events such as political rallies, religious processions, protest marches and cultural gatherings.
“The fact that 2024 was a general election year in India, with polling held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, played a crucial role in shaping the patterns of hate speech incidents compared to 2023,” the group said in a report.
India’s embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
The report comes days before a White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government is blamed by rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for the mistreatment of minorities in India.
Modi’s government and party have denied being discriminatory and said their policies, such as food subsidy schemes and electrification drives, benefit all Indians.
India Hate Lab said a third of hate speech incidents last year occurred from March 16 through June 1 during the height of election campaigning, with May being a “notable peak.”
The group cited remarks by Modi in April in which he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children.”
Modi won a third successive term and denied stoking divisions. His Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win a majority and relied on coalition allies to form a government.
India Hate Lab said 80 percent of hate speech incidents last year occurred in states governed by the BJP and its allies.
The group, founded by US-based Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik, is a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington. The BJP has said the group presents a biased picture of India.
Rights advocates, in noting the plight of Indian minorities, point to a 2019 citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory,” anti-conversion legislation that challenges the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief, and the 2019 revoking of Muslim majority Kashmir’s special status.
They also highlight the demolition of properties owned by Muslims that authorities said were illegally constructed, and a ban on the hijab head covering — commonly worn by Muslim girls and women — in classrooms in Karnataka in line with new school uniform rules when the BJP was in power in that state.
India Hate Lab said it used in its report the United Nations’ definition of hate speech: prejudiced or discriminatory language toward an individual or group based on attributes including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender.
Anti-minority hate speech in India rose by 74% in 2024, research group says
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Anti-minority hate speech in India rose by 74% in 2024, research group says
- India Hate Lab said a third of hate speech incidents last year occurred from March 16 through June 1 during the height of election campaigning
- Group cited remarks by Modi in April in which he referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children”
Indian FM starts week-long EU trip in new cooperation push
- Jaishankar will inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
- India and EU are negotiating a free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year
NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has embarked on Sunday a week-long trip for talks with the top diplomats of the EU, France and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe, his office said.
Jaishankar is set to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot, and “will be holding a Strategic Dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
“The visit of EAM is expected to further deepen India’s friendly relations with the European Union, France and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas.”
The foreign minister will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.
The Raisina Dialogue is a premier multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and non-government officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU committed to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.
During last week’s talks in Paris, nearly half the agenda — covering areas like customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property — has been agreed on.
“The partnership between India and France, and India and the EU continues to evolve dramatically,” Pant said, adding that Jaishankar’s trip is also about conveying “how India feels about the changing strategic realities, as well as what has happened with Pakistan.”
Last month, India and Pakistan engaged days-long cross-border fire. Indian forces launched a series of strikes across the Line of Control — the de facto border that separates the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of the disputed Kashmir territory. They also hit other sites on the Pakistani mainland, targeting what New Delhi claimed were militant positions.
Pakistan retaliated with strikes on Indian military targets before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on May 10. According to the Pakistani military, its forces had downed six Indian warplanes, including several French aircraft Rafale and a Mirage 2000.
The escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors took place as India blamed Pakistan for a deadly militant attack, in which 26 tourists were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir — Islamabad denied any involvement.
Indian FM begins week-long EU trip in new cooperation push
- Jaishankar will inaugurate first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
- India, EU negotiating free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year
NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar set out on Sunday to begin a week of talks with leading diplomats of the EU, France, and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe.
Jaishankar is due to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot during the trip. He will also hold “a strategic dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The visit is expected to “further deepen India’s friendly relations with the EU, France, and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas,” the ministry added.
Jaishankar will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.
The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and nongovernment officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU agreed to finalize negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.
Talks in Paris last week resulted in agreement on almost half the agenda, covering areas such as customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property.
Tens of thousands join anti-government protest in Madrid
MADRID: Tens of thousands of people rallied Sunday in an opposition-organized demonstration in Madrid accusing the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of corruption.
Protesters, many waving red and yellow Spanish flags, massed in the Plaza de Espana, a large square in the center of the Spanish capital, and chanted “Perdo Sanchez, resign!.”
The Popular Party (PP) called the rally after leaked audio recordings allegedly documented a member of the Socialist party, Leire Diez, waging a smear campaign against a police unit that investigated graft allegations against Sanchez’s wife, brother, and his former right-hand man.
Diez has denied the allegations, telling reporters on Wednesday that she was conducting research for a book and was not working on behalf of the party or Sanchez. She also resigned from Sanchez’s Socialist party.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has accused the government of “mafia practices” over the affair, and said Sanchez is “at the center” of multiple corruption scandals.
“This government has stained everything — politics, state institutions, the separation of powers,” he told the rally, going on to urge Sanchez to call early elections.
The PP estimated that more than 100,000 people attended the rally, held under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy.”
The central government’s representative in Madrid put the turnout between 45,000 and 50,000.
“The expiry date on this government passed a long time ago. It’s getting tiring,” Blanca Requejo, a 46-year-old store manager who wore a Spanish flag drapped over her back, told AFP at the rally.
Sanchez has dismissed the probes against members of his inner circle as part of a “smear campaign” carried out by the right wing to undermine his government.
He came to power in June 2018 after ousting his PP predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in a no-confidence vote over a corruption scandal affecting involving the conservative party.
Recent polls show the PP holding only a slim lead over the Socialists. The next general election is expected in 2027.
Russia continues to accuse Ukraine of delaying planned exchange of dead fighters
- Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action
Russian officials said Sunday that Moscow is still awaiting official confirmation from Kyiv that a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action will take place, reiterating allegations that Ukraine had postponed the swap.
Russian state media quoted Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating group, as saying that Russia delivered the first batch of 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the exchange site at the border and is waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian side, but that there are “signals” that the process of transferring the bodies will be postponed until next week.
Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, which was agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress toward ending the war.
Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post on Saturday, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came.
In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts.
According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement on Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday.
It wasn’t immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims.
In other developments, one person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeted the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, on Saturday. Regional police in Kharkiv said on Sunday that the death toll from Saturday’s attacks had increased to six people. More than two dozen others were wounded.
Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital.
Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region.
Against traditional norms, more Filipinas opt out of motherhood
- Percentage of childfree women in Philippines increased from 6% in 2013 to 11% in 2022, study shows
- Parenthood is seen as part of identity, with Constitution recognizing family as ‘foundation of the nation’
MANILA: When Jarrah Brillantes first realized she did not want children, the decision stemmed from her community development work — a mission she was unwilling to set aside. Over the years that choice only strengthened, shaped by the lifestyle she chose for herself.
A policy researcher from Iloilo City, Brillantes has been working with children in conflict zones, where she has seen how the environment affects a child’s development. Raising her own while continuing work, she felt, would not support their full potential.
“It would be unfair,” Brillantes, 38, told Arab News. “The change of residence. The change of career track. Studying again (in) my thirties. These would be challenging and probably selfish if I have a child.”
While Brillantes sometimes engages in babysitting for her family members, she never regrets her choice to be childfree.
“Having a typical Filipino family, children are raised as a tribe. Whenever I have to play the part of the temporary guardian to my niece and nephews, I see that is not the role I want to undertake,” she said.
“While some are (in) the parenting phase of their adult life, there are other things that we undertake too. We put in the work on our career, on our advocacies, our big goals. The most basic and affirming is, that my days go according to my needs and wants.”
Brillantes is one of the growing numbers of Filipino women who choose to have no children, marking a significant shift in a nation where motherhood is deeply tied to a woman’s identity.
A study published earlier this year by Dr. Anthony Luis B. Chua from the Cebu Institute of Medicine and two researchers from Michigan State University shows the prevalence of childfree women in the Philippines has increased dramatically over the past few years.
Childfree women are defined as those who “do not have children and do not want to have them in the future.”
The research, “Trends in the Prevalence of Childfree Women in the Philippines, 1993-2022,” indicates that the number of Filipinas making such a choice has jumped from nearly 4.2 percent in 2013 to 11.1 percent in 2022.
While the researchers linked the sharp rise with the passage of the 2012 Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, and provided universal access to sexual education and contraception, women say it is in the first place a matter of personal choice.
“I do believe kids need both a father and a mother. When I decided not to marry, I knew I also preferred to remain childfree,” said Jeamma Claire Sabate, a 56-year-old government employee from Cainta, Rizal.
“In the 21st century, people recognize that women have the right to make choices that align with their preferences.”
In the deeply Catholic Philippines, the Constitution prohibits abortion and recognizes “the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation.”
Dr. Diana Veloso, associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences of De La Salle University, argues that this dominant cultural linking of womanhood to motherhood is a result of the colonial past that brought patriarchy to the Philippines.
“Precolonial culture was more egalitarian and gender inclusive. The increasing choice in favor of being childfree is a welcome change in that it is reversing the impact of such patriarchal gender norms that were brought about by colonialism. This is also a way of reclaiming our culture’s more inclusive gender norms in precolonial times,” she said.
“This also illustrates that parenthood is more intentional, rather than something that simply happens due to conformity to traditional gender norms.”
The visible social change does not mean, however, that women no longer face pressure to get married and have children.
“That is still the case in Philippine society. However, women have more options and people recognize that there are multiple avenues to fulfillment in this day and age — and that having children is not meant for everyone,” Veloso told Arab News.
Farah Decano, a law school dean from Pangasinan province, remembers experiencing pressure on motherhood from those around her.
“But I didn’t mind. I am cool about it,” she said, adding she prefers channeling her nurturing instincts elsewhere — looking after her nephews, nieces, and aging mother.
“It is fun because I can spoil them without having to worry about shaping their behavior,” she said. “And I get to enjoy a limited authority similar to a mother, too. I am already living the life. I cannot ask for more.”
