Anti-Hindu speech: Leftist group falsely denigrates Hindutva and calls for destruction of Ram Janmabhoomi temple
Sonipat, Haryana, India 
6 February, 2024
Case Summary
In Sonipat, Haryana, leftist students at OP Jindal Global University engaged in anti-Hindu speech targeting the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya. The accused also denigrated the Hindutva movement, equating it with “fascism.” According to reports, on 7th February 2024, the Revolutionary Students’ League (RSL), a front organisation of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), organised an event at OP Jindal Global University titled “Ram Mandir: A Farcical Project of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism.” At the event, left-wing students affiliated with the organisation advocated for the demolition of the Ram Mandir and the construction of a mosque in its place. The organisers insisted that the Ram Mandir is linked to hate crimes against Muslims and Dalits across India, alongside a broader pattern of saffronisation within educational institutions. They claimed that the January 22, 2024, ceremony marking the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla at the grand Mandir exposed the “inherent brutality and anti-people nature” of what they called the ‘Brahmanical Hindutva fascist regime.’ The event brochure urged attendees to read Varavara Rao’s anti-Hindu book, “Fight Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism,” written by an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Excerpts from Varavara Rao’s book, cited at the event, made several inflammatory statements. The text framed the killings of individuals such as Mohammad Akhlaq, Professor M.M. Kalburgi, and Yakub Memon as emblematic of the situation under the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government. It described these murders as orchestrated by “Hindutva fascists” and characterised the regime as punishing acts of personal choice, dissent, and association with minorities through violence. The book depicted ongoing attacks across multiple social and political spheres, facilitated by lethal and non-lethal means. Furthermore, Rao accused Hindutva forces of targeting not only revolutionary, secular, and patriotic groups but also Muslims, Christians, Adivasis, Dalits, women, oppressed genders, and opposition elements in parliament. This incident is not isolated within OP Jindal Global University’s controversial history. The university previously faced criticism for academic harassment and providing platforms for antisemitic and anti-Hindu views. In November 2023, Professor Achin Vanaik, during a lecture on Palestinian history, made several antisemitic and anti-Hindu remarks while expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians in Gaza. He also criticised the Indian government’s stance on the conflict. Following outrage, the university issued a warning to Vanaik for discrimination against Hindu students. In addition, the university faced backlash over its Political Science syllabus, which contained content portraying the Indian state as “oppressive” during revolutionary struggles and alleged a “Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism.” In 2021, Associate Professor Shruti Pandey sparked controversy for claiming all Hindus practise untouchability and praising Islam for allowing widows to remarry during an online lecture.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case is a clear instance of anti-Hindu hate speech, as the leftist students affiliated with the Revolutionary Students’ League openly advocated for the destruction of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple and the erection of a mosque in its place. It is important to understand that the Ram Janmabhoomi temple is a sacred Hindu shrine built at the birthplace of Lord Rama, which was historically destroyed by the Mughal emperor Babur, a tyrant, who constructed the Babri Mosque over it. After centuries of legal and social struggle—central to a broader Hindu renaissance movement—the Hindu community reclaimed the site and reconstructed the Ram Janmabhoomi temple where it was previously desecrated. The accused's suggestion to demolish this temple and build a mosque instead reveals profound animosity toward Hindu religious identity and an intent to humiliate and provoke the Hindu community. Their endorsement of rebuilding a mosque on the temple site supports the historical desecration and perpetuates the pain inflicted during Babur’s era. This act is a blatant religiously motivated crime targeting Hinduism’s core symbols and faith. Additionally, the accused specifically targeted the entire Hindutva movement by equating it with fascism. Contrary to defamatory claims, Hindutva is a political and social movement dedicated to protecting Hindus and Hinduism from anti-Hindu elements such as Islamic extremists, Christian extremists, Khalistani Sikh extremists, and a hostile left-wing ecosystem. It is not an extremist ideology but rather a unifying movement transcending caste and class divisions that encourages Hindus to identify with their faith and protect it from external threats. The persistent portrayal of Hindutva as a fascist movement is a deliberate semantic distortion by anti-Hindu forces to justify the persecution of Hindus. The fact that the use of 'Hindutva' is merely to mask animosity towards Hindus was evident from the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference held in the USA in 2021, where the leftist speakers unabashedly spoke about how Hindutva and Hinduism are indistinguishable and therefore, to "dismantle Hindutva" one would have to "dismantle Hinduism". Therefore, even in this case, the malicious vilification of Hindutva showcases deep-seated religious animosity directed against the Hindu community. Furthermore, the accused introduced and encouraged the reading of Varavara Rao’s anti-Hindu book, ‘Fight Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism,’ thereby attempting to indoctrinate Hindu youth with hatred against their own faith. This intellectual assault on Hinduism through such inflammatory literature not only fosters division but also amounts unmistakably to anti-Hindu animosity. Considering the university’s history of controversies involving anti-Hindu remarks and ideologies, including academic harassment and the promotion of anti-Hindu views, the incident clearly forms part of a deliberate pattern aimed at denigrating Hinduism and the Hindu community. These actions represent a sustained campaign of religious animosity. Given that this case meets all criteria of religiously motivated hate speech, it has been recorded in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.
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