Pakistani Hindu cricketer hounded by Muslims on social media for writing "Jai Shree Ram" while wishing Eid Mubarak

Case ID : 45b8e9a | Location : Pakistan | Date of Incident : Fri, 21 April, 2023

Case ID : 45b8e9a

Pakistan

21 April, 2023

Pakistani Hindu cricketer hounded by Muslims on social media for writing "Jai Shree Ram" while wishing Eid Mubarak

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Violent threats

Case Summary

Former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria was hounded online by Muslims after he wished people on Eid while also writing Jai Shree Ram in the caption. On 22 April 2023, Danish shared an Eid Mubarak post on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption "Jai Shree Ram." The post went viral within hours and triggered outrage among Muslims. Propaganda journalist Ali Sohrab shared Danish's post and wrote, "A Pakistani Hindu is insulting and abusing Muslims on Eid-ul-Fitr by writing JSR, and Indian Hindus are praising him." Journalist Mir Faisal added, "A Pakistani Hindu is insulting and abusing Muslims on Eid by using this war cry. The RSS supporters are laughing about it." Along with Sohrab and Mir Faisal, several other Muslim extremists attacked Danish online, questioning his intentions and accusing him of provocation. Saaneef Sultan, a Muslim user, threatened Danish by writing, "Don't test the patience of Pakistanis, Danish." Another Muslim user named Urwa commented, "Just imagine what would happen if a Muslim shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during a Hindu festival. He would definitely be arrested under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) or even lynched by a Hindu mob. Danish Kaneria is making such offensive statements because he lives in Pakistan."

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Hate Speech against Hindus. Within this, 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. The other subcategory selected is- Violent Threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. This incident amounted to a hate crime against the Hindu victim due to his religious identity. The Muslim perpetrators were offended by the fact that Danish Kaneria, while wishing Eid Mubarak, also upheld a pluralistic approach by expressing his own faith through writing Jai Shree Ram. For merely writing this revered Hindu slogan, Muslim journalists such as Ali Sohrab and Mir Faisal mocked him, calling Jai Shree Ram an insult and a "war cry." By equating a sacred Hindu invocation with abuse, they were in effect insulting Hinduism itself. This amounts to anti-Hindu slurring, since Jai Shree Ram is not derogatory but an expression deeply cherished by Hindus as it is dedicated to Lord Ram, one of the most revered Hindu deities. The reaction of these Muslim journalists, along with others, clearly displayed deep-seated animosity towards Hindu identity. They interpreted Jai Shree Ram—a religious expression of devotion—as an "attack" on Muslims, thereby undermining not only the slogan but the Hindu faith at large. Where is the insult in a Hindu writing Jai Shree Ram while wishing Muslims well on their festival? Far from being anti-Muslim, this was an act of goodwill that embraced both communities. The attempt to twist it into a provocation reveals a discriminatory narrative designed to denigrate Hinduism. At the same time, some Muslim extremists went further by threatening Danish for writing his religious slogan. Saaneef Sultan told him, "Don’t test the patience of Pakistanis, Danish," a direct threat carrying undertones of violence. This revealed the hostility and dangers Hindus face in Pakistan, where accusations of blasphemy frequently lead to mob lynchings. Another Muslim user, Urwa, compared Jai Shree Ram to Allahu Akbar, claiming that if Muslims were to use Allahu Akbar on a Hindu festival, they would face arrest or lynching. This comparison is flawed and disingenuous. Jai Shree Ram is a devotional chant praising Lord Ram and does not carry supremacist connotations. In contrast, Allahu Akbar is explicitly supremacist in meaning, asserting that "none is greater than Allah, and there is no God other than Allah." A Hindu proclaiming Jai Shree Ram alongside Eid Mubarak shows pluralism and coexistence, while a Muslim writing Allahu Akbar on a Hindu festival would indeed express the supremacy of Islam alone. Urwa also accused Danish of making "offensive statements" and said he was emboldened only because he lived in Pakistan. This statement clearly aimed to incite Muslims against Danish, despite the well-known reality that Hindus in Pakistan face routine persecution and even lethal violence under fabricated blasphemy allegations. These actions—mocking a revered Hindu slogan, equating it with abuse, questioning Danish Kaneria’s intentions as a Hindu, and issuing open threats—amount to religiously motivated hate speech. It targeted both Jai Shree Ram, a sacred Hindu invocation, and Danish Kaneria, a Hindu former Pakistani cricketer, solely on the basis of his faith. This case, therefore, is being recorded in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: Media reports stated that multiple Muslims had hounded Danish Kaneria. However, as the reports did not specify the exact total number of perpetrators but did individually mention four Muslim persons by name. Therefore, for the purpose of documentation we are using a conservative estimate and recording the perpetrator count as '4'.