India’s Muslims Face Growing Discrimination Amid Rise of Hindu Nationalism
India’s Muslims Face Growing Discrimination Amid Rise of Hindu Nationalism
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India is home to an estimated 230 million Muslims, about 14.6% of the population, making them the country’s largest religious minority and the world’s third-largest Muslim community after Indonesia and Pakistan. In recent years, however, this demographic weight has coincided with rising concerns over discrimination, communal tensions, and policies associated with the Hindu nationalist agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rights groups have criticized several measures adopted over the past decade, including the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act, which fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries while excluding Muslims. The proposed National Register of Citizens in Assam has also drawn scrutiny, amid fears it could disproportionately affect Muslims unable to produce decades-old documentation.
Communal incidents continue to reinforce these concerns. On Sunday, police in the northern state of Uttarakhand registered a case after members of a Hindu group allegedly demolished a more than 100-year-old Baba Bulle Shah mazaar, a Muslim shrine located on private land in Mussoorie. Authorities said slogans were raised and the structure vandalized, prompting the filing of charges related to disturbing communal harmony and defiling a place of worship.
In Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the overnight “pushback” of 15 alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, reiterating a zero-tolerance policy on infiltration. Critics argue such actions, alongside inflammatory rhetoric, contribute to an atmosphere of insecurity among Muslims.
Despite constitutional guarantees of equality and religious freedom, analysts warn that the growing influence of Hindu nationalism is increasingly shaping policy and public discourse, raising questions about the protection of minority rights in India.
