Hindu religious sentiments outraged as Muslim politician in Indore derides sacred Hindu cremation rites
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
7 April, 2026
Case Summary
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Hindu traditions and faith were mocked by Congress Muslim politician Rubina Iqbal Khan. She made derogatory and deriding remarks against the Hindu cremation rites of pouring ashes of a dead person's body into sacred rivers. Meanwhile, she praised the Islamic rituals of burying their dead. According to reports, this occurred when a controversy broke out in Indore after Congress councillors Fauzia Sheikh Alim and Rubina Iqbal Khan refused to sing Vande Mataram during a municipal corporation budget discussion at the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) House, citing Islamic beliefs. Their refusal on 8 April 2026 triggered protests from Bharatiya Janata Party councillors, who rushed to the chairman’s podium and raised slogans, leading to a disruption in the House. Amidst the uproar, Chairman Munnalal Yadav asked Fauzia and Rubina to leave the proceedings. Outside the IMC, the controversy intensified further when Rubina Iqbal made anti-Hindu statements to the media. In her media bytes, she mocked Hindu cremation rites by saying, "We Muslims have more rights over India even more than Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. This is because we Muslims are buried here in the land of India, whereas in the case of Hindus, their dead ashes are dumped in rivers and they flow away to the Arabian Sea." She further declared, "All the remains of Muslims would be found in India while Hindus would be found in the Arabian Sea." She also declared, "We (Muslims) do not bow down to anyone's bullying, not even their father's." She went on to justify her stand on not singing Vande Mataram based on religious grounds, stating, "In our Islamic faith, the singing of Vande Mataram is prohibited. However, this does not mean we do not sing 'Sare Jahan Se Achha, Hindustan Hamara'." "Our Quran forbids Vande Mataram because for us, Allah alone is Supreme. 'Vande' means to worship, and 'Mataram' refers to the mother. We worship only Allah, so why should we worship anyone else?" she added. Rubina also claimed, "Many Bharatiya Janata Party members do not allow Muslims to set up shops. If that is the case, they should also stop importing oil and gas from Iran." She also targeted her own party leadership, saying, "This is my third term, and for the first time I have seen a chairman who remains completely silent. To hell with the Congress party; they treat Muslims merely as a vote bank." Furthermore, she declared, "If the Congress expels us, we will contest as independent candidates, and we will win. We can also join (Asaduddin) Owaisi's party." The Bharatiya Janata Party, too, refused to back down. Party leaders stated that a First Information Report will be filed, with consultations underway between Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav and Chairman Munnalal Yadav.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is 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 exemplifies a religiously motivated hate speech through the deliberate denigration of Hindu traditions by the Muslim councillor, Rubina Iqbal Khan, during a political debate sparked by her refusal to chant Vande Mataram on Islamic grounds. Her mockery targeted the Hindu practice of cremating the deceased and immersing the ashes in sacred rivers, contrasting it unfavourably with Islamic burial rites. The accused tried to assert the superiority of her faith over Hindu practices, directly inciting division by belittling core religious rituals in front of councillors and the media, amounting to an anti-Hindu hate speech. Hindu scriptures, such as the Garuda Purana and Rig Veda, prescribe cremation, known as antyesti, as a sacred rite essential for liberating the soul, or atman, from the physical body and facilitating its journey towards the afterlife or ultimate moksha, the liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Fire, embodying Agni, the fire god, plays a central purifying role by consuming the body and reducing it back to the five primordial elements, or pancha bhuta: earth, water, fire, air, and space. This prevents the soul's lingering attachment to earthly remains and allows it to ascend unhindered. The subsequent immersion of the ashes, referred to as asthi visarjana, in sacred rivers is profoundly significant, as these rivers are revered as eternal flowing conduits of divine purity and amrita, the nectar of immortality, which cleanse accumulated karmic impurities from the departed soul while bestowing spiritual merit, peace, and ancestral blessings upon the living family. These rivers embody cosmic deities, often representing the divine feminine energy that nurtures life and dissolves sins, making the ritual a bridge between the mortal realm and the divine, ensuring the soul's harmonious integration into the universal order as outlined in several Hindu texts like the Smritis and Puranas. Therefore, any act of mocking this sacred tradition of cremation and immersion of ashes in sacred rivers showcases the deep-seated religious animosity that the Muslim councillor held towards Hindu beliefs and practices, transforming her statements into a clear case of religiously motivated hate speech. She glorified Islamic burial rituals by declaring that Muslims have more rights over India because their dead are buried permanently in Indian soil, whereas Hindu ashes from sacred rivers flow away to the Arabian Sea, implying a superior, enduring claim to the land for Muslims while portraying Hindu rites as fleeting and insignificant. This not only ridicules the transient yet spiritually profound nature of Hindu practices but also establishes Islamic supremacism, using a mocking tone explicitly aimed at hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community by elevating one faith's burial as authentically Indian and denigrating the other as disconnected and inferior. When such Hindu traditions are mocked by a politician at the councillor level during an official municipal budget session, it sends a wider message to the Hindu community that their faith can be openly denigrated and trivialised anytime without repercussions, thereby normalising prejudice and eroding communal harmony at institutional levels. This public platform amplifies the harm, encouraging other anti-Hindu elements in society to mock and belittle Hindu traditions with impunity, fostering a culture of religiously motivated hostility that undermines social cohesion and invites further incidents of targeted vilification. Given that this case meets several parameters of a religiously motivated hate speech, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
