Fake news of caste-based boycott spread to target Hindus
Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 
12 January, 2025
Case Summary
Social media account- The Dalit Voice published a post claiming that Hindus ostracised 20 Dalit families in Madhya Pradesh for eating prasad distributed by a Dalit person. The post stated, “20 families were ostracised by Hindus for eating prasad from the hands of a Dalit person, incident took place in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh.” The claim, amplified by others like Nadya and Dr Sylvia Karpagam, cited unverified sources, including Maktoob Media, which alleged that the village sarpanch enforced a social boycott against Hindu families who consumed the prasad. The allegations originated from a complaint filed by Jagat Ahirwar, a Dalit man from Atrar village. He claimed that after distributing laddoos as prasad at a local temple in August 2024, the sarpanch, Santosh Tiwari, ostracised his family and five others, preventing them from participating in social events. Ahirwar accused Tiwari of using caste divisions to impose the boycott. However, the police denied these allegations after investigating the matter. Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Shashank Jain stated that they found no evidence of ostracisation and linked the issue to political rivalry. According to the police, the dispute arose from tensions between two factions following contested local elections, with Ahirwar representing the former sarpanch group and Tiwari leading the current one. Tiwari dismissed the accusations as baseless and politically motivated, stating they were attempts to defame him after Ahirwar’s electoral defeat. A report from The Times of India revealed that the alleged boycott involved families from both Dalit and upper-caste communities. They mentioned that the prasad had been distributed among over 20 villagers of various castes, but the claim of a boycott due to caste discrimination lacked verification.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The incident has been added to the tracker under the category of- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu subversion and prejudice. The tertiary category selected under this is- Anti-Hindu fake news or downplaying. Hate speech is defined as any speech, gesture, conduct, writing, or display that is prejudicial against a specific individual and/or group of people, which is leading to or may lead to violence, prejudicial action or hate against that individual and/or group. Media plays a specific and overarching reach in perpetuating prejudicial attitudes towards a community owing to unfair, untrue coverage and/or misrepresentation/misinterpretation, selective coverage and/or omission of facts of/pertaining to issues affecting a specific religious group. This type of bias can dehumanise the victim group, making it easier for others to justify harmful actions against them, which aligns with the objectives of hate speech laws aimed at preventing such harm. It is often observed that the media takes a prejudicial stand against the Hindu community driven by their need to shield the aggressor community which happens to be a numeric minority, however, is the one perpetrating violence against Hindus. For example, the media is often quick to contextualise religiously motivated crimes against Hindus, omit or misrepresent facts that point towards religiously motivated hate crimes, justify and/or downplay religiously motivated hate crimes or simply present fake news to stereotype Hindus. Such media bias leads to the denial of persecution and is often used to dehumanise Hindus, leading to justification for violence against them. For example, the media covered several fake allegations of Hindus targeting Muslims and forcing them to chant Jai Shree Ram. Most of these cases were proved false and fabricated after police investigation. These fake news reports were subsequently never retracted or clarified. Such fake news led to the justification of violence and dehumanisation of Hindus based on the argument that since Hindus targeted Muslims and forced them to chant Jai Shree Ram, the dehumanisation of Hindus and violence against them was par for the course and merely a retaliation. Such media bias leads to prejudicial portrayal of Hindus and offers a justification for violence against them and therefore, is considered hate speech under this category. In this instance, some media houses and social media accounts attempted to portray the former sarpanch, an upper-caste Hindu, as the oppressor and the Dalit families as victims of caste-based discrimination, reinforcing a biased stereotype of upper-caste Hindus as inherently oppressive towards the already oppressed lower-caste Hindus. This framing ignored the reality that the conflict stemmed from a political rivalry between two factions rather than religious or caste-based ostracisation. By amplifying unverified claims and associating the alleged ostracisation with Hindu religious practices, the media sought to construct a divisive narrative, leveraging caste dynamics to paint Hindu society in a negative light. Fake news which aims to perpetuate the narrative that ‘upper caste’ Hindus are tyrannical towards disadvantaged sections of the Hindu society is essentially anti-Hindus in nature owing to the intention behind spreading disinformation of this nature. It is often claimed that even such disinformation cannot be term anti-Hindu in nature since both the purported victim and aggressor are from the Hindu community, however, the disinformation is spread with the specific intention of discrediting the Hindu society and their faith by branding it oppressive and tyrannical. The intent of spreading such disinformation is to signal that Sanatan Dharma itself is discriminatory in nature and that it is a faith that is only meant for the practice of a specific class of Hindus who are considered ‘upper caste’. Such a false narrative is perpetuated in order to discredit and delegitimise the faith and dehumanise its followers. The direct consequence of the creation of such false ‘atrocity literature’ is an increase in violence against specific sections of Hindus and, exertion of pressure on another section of Hindus to alienate themselves from their professed faith, as it seeks to convince them on how the faith itself discriminates against them. Since such narratives attack the core of the faith with the intention of delegitimization, dehumanization and alienation of Hindus, it is considered a hate crime against Hindus and the faith they profess.
Case Status
Unknown
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Perpetrators
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