Hindu man subjected to death threats for opposing denigration of Hindu deities by Muslim man

Case ID : d326e31 | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 3 January, 2026

Case ID : d326e31

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

3 January, 2026

Hindu man subjected to death threats for opposing denigration of Hindu deities by Muslim man

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Violent threats

Case Summary

In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, derogatory remarks against Hindu deities were made by a Muslim man named Chand Khan. The accused also made several anti-India remarks. When a Hindu man, Vijay Kumar, opposed this denigration of Hindu gods and goddesses, he was subjected to death threats by the Muslim accused. According to media reports, this incident came to light when Vijay Kumar, a resident of Rongaon village, filed a police complaint, stating a Muslim man from his village repeatedly abused him, posted obscene comments on Hindu deities and Hinduism, and posted anti-India content on Facebook. He further stated that the accused had been doing this for a long time. He also stated that Chand Khan's actions not only disturbed his mental peace but also created an atmosphere of tension in the village. When Vijay Kumar opposed the accused and advised him to refrain from such behaviour, Chand became aggressive and threatened to kill him. As per the Hindu victim, videos and messages related to this threat were available to him. Vijay demanded an impartial investigation into the matter from Makanpur Police Station in-charge Vishal Sharma and strict legal action against the accused, Chand Khan. He also stated that his family lived in fear after he received this threat. Station House Officer Janardan Singh stated that he had been informed of the case. Outpost in charge, Vishal Sharma, began investigating the matter. According to the Outpost In-charge, the accused youth had been brought to the police station for questioning. Police were examining social media posts and call records, based on which further legal action would be taken.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been 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. 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 case stands as a clear instance of religiously motivated hate speech, as the Muslim accused unleashed derogatory remarks against Hindu deities on social media. For Hindus, their deities hold profound religious significance as manifestations of the divine, woven into their faith, rituals, and identity. Such attacks on Hindu deities arise from deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community. This denigration assaults Hindu faith at its core, inflicts deep hurt on Hindu religious sentiments, constitutes a case of blatant religious slurring and anti-Hindu vitriol, and marks it unequivocally as a religiously motivated offence. The accused also spewed anti-India comments. Given his evident hatred for Hinduism and the Hindu community, demonstrated through his abuse of Hindu deities, his anti-India rhetoric reveals loathing for Hindus rather than mere political dissent. Muslim extremists view India as a Hindu collectivity at its heart, so the accused's anti-India remarks spring from the same prejudice targeted at the Hindu community as a whole. This fuels his statements, grounded in profound communal bigotry. When a Hindu man named Vijay Kumar opposed this denigration and advised the accused to stop making such anti-Hindu and anti-India comments, he faced death threats. Issuing violent threats like this to a Hindu individual simply for challenging anti-Hindu denigration of sacred deities and insults to his homeland, India, reveals the perpetrator's deep-seated hatred for the Hindu community. These threats did not arise from random crime or opportunity. Instead, they were driven by religious animosity towards Hindus, making this a clear case of religiously motivated crime. Since this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated offence, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurs, not when the media reports it. However, in this case, the exact date of the accused's crime remains unspecified. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the date of media reporting, 4 January 2026, is being recorded as the indicative date of the incident.