Hindu man humiliated and denied food at Muslim wedding due to his tilak in Bengaluru, Karnataka

Case ID : 8da162b | Location : Bangalore Rural, Karnataka, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 25 October, 2025

Case ID : 8da162b

Bangalore Rural, Karnataka, India

25 October, 2025

Hindu man humiliated and denied food at Muslim wedding due to his tilak in Bengaluru, Karnataka

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

A Hindu man was denied lunch at a Muslim wedding ceremony in Karnataka’s North Bengaluru district on 26th October 2025, because he had a tilak on his forehead. The man, identified as Raju, a barber by profession, was asked to leave the event. The incident occurred in Nelamangala town, where the victim had been invited by the bride’s family. After the ceremony, when he sat down for lunch, a few attendees approached him and told him to leave upon noticing the tilak. Media reports stated that the groom’s father insulted Raju, saying that Hindus would not be served food. The episode was caught on camera, and the video quickly went viral online. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later shared the footage on its official X account, criticising the Siddaramaiah-led government. The BJP post read: “So-called secularists who preach tolerance to Hindus, watch this video once. In Nelamangala, Muslims invited Hindus to a wedding, and when they sat down to eat, they humiliated them by saying, ‘We do not serve food to those who have applied a tilak.’ Mr CM @siddaramaiah, is this your idea of a garden of universal harmony?”

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the first primary category: Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The second primary category selected is: Hate speech against Hindus. With the sub-category: 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 from 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 has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man was humiliated and denied food at a Muslim wedding solely for his religious identity. The man was first singled out and humiliated due to donning a tilak on his forehead. It is important to understand here that the tilak is not merely a decorative thing; it holds profound spiritual and cultural significance for Hindus. It is a part of Hindu religious identity, often worn during prayers, rituals, and as a daily affirmation of faith. Pointing out a man's Hindu identity and then denying him food because of the tilak on his forehead is a deliberate effort to restrict his religious expression. Such an act is deeply disrespectful and is an attack on the core values and practices of Hinduism. Also, the Muslims didn't mince words and directly stated that "we don't serve food to Hindus". The aggression was not targeted towards the man, but the community he belonged to, and was intended to shame the victim for his religious affiliation. This open display of disdain against Hinduism and inclination towards communal segregation originating from a misplaced sense of Islamic superiority is proof enough to categorise this incident as a hate crime, warranting inclusion in the tracker.