Dalit Hindu youth assaulted by Muslim men, targeted with caste slurs after road accident in Mahmudabad

Case ID : aa4afd7 | Location : Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 22 April, 2025

Case ID : aa4afd7

Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India

22 April, 2025

Dalit Hindu youth assaulted by Muslim men, targeted with caste slurs after road accident in Mahmudabad

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In the Mahmudabad Kotwali area, a private bus and a motorcycle collided. Following this, a group of Muslims attacked the Dalit Hindu youth, causing injuries. They also used caste based slurs against him. The victim, Raj Bahadur, a Hindu and a resident of Tilakpur locality in Ward Imlia, was on his way home on his motorcycle when the collision occurred near the Takiya area. Following the accident, the bus owner, Amir Hasan, Rasool, Samir, and one unidentified individual stopped Raj Bahadur and brutally assaulted him. The accused not only beat Raj Bahadur severely, but also used caste based slurs against him. Kotwali police, upon receiving the information, promptly arrived at the scene and took Raj Bahadur to a local hospital. Based on a complaint filed by Raj Bahadur’s sister, Julie, an FIR was registered against the three named accused and one unidentified person under appropriate sections for assault, caste-based abuse, and property damage. At of the date of writing this report, the three named individuals were subsequently arrested and have been sent to judicial custody.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - 'Hate speech against Hindus'. The sub-category 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. In this case, the Hindu-Dalit man was beaten by a group of Muslims after the accident. However, the religious motive and animosity towards the Hindu man are indicated by the caste slurs that were hurled at her. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while Muslims hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the vehicle collision, as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim.