Instances of hate speech against minorities jumped 74% in India in 2024, peaking during the country's national elections, according to a new report.

India’s religious minorities have faced a “staggering” rise in hate speech over the past year, including from top leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report released Monday.

Instances of hate speech against minorities in India such as Muslims increased 74% in 2024, a Washington-based research group said on Monday, with incidents ballooning around last year's national elections.

The country recorded 1,165 hate speech events last year, a 74.4 per cent increase from 2023, the report by India Hate Lab said. As many as 98.5 per cent of these events targeted Muslims, either explicitly or in combination with Christians, while almost 10 per cent targeted Christians in some capacity.

Hate speech in India targeting the country's religious minorities saw a "staggering" surge in 2024, a US-based think tank said on Feb. 10. The alarming rise was "deeply intertwined with the ideological ambitions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindu nationalist movement," the India Hate Lab (IHL) said in a report.

Research group India Hate Lab found that six of the 10 most frequent purveyors of hate speech were politicians, led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath.

Surge “deeply intertwined with ideological ambitions of ruling BJP, broader Hindu nationalist movement", US-based think tank says.