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Citation

“Fight, Die, and If Required Kill”: Hindu Nationalism, Misinformation, and Islamophobia in India

Author:
Amarasingam, Amarnath; Umar, Sanober; Desai, Shweta
Publication:
Religions
Year:
2022

This article provides a deep dive into several recent cases of majoritarian hate speech and violence perpetrated against Muslims in India. We first provide an introduction to Hindutva as a social movement in India, followed by an examination of three case studies in which Islamophobic hate speech circulated on social media, as well as several instances of anti-Muslim violence. These case studies—the Delhi riots, the Love Jihad conspiracy theory, and anti-Muslim disinformation related to the COVID pandemic—show that Hindu nationalism in India codes the Muslim minority in the country as particularly dangerous and untrustworthy.