Dalit Hindu man subjected to physical assault, casteist slurs, and death threats by Muslims

Case ID : e27485b | Location : Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 31 December, 2010

Case ID : e27485b

Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India

31 December, 2010

Dalit Hindu man subjected to physical assault, casteist slurs, and death threats by Muslims

Attack not resulting in death

Communal clash/attack

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Tamra village, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit Hindu man was physically assaulted by Muslims, subjected to casteist slurs, and threatened with death. According to reports, the victim was identified as Nand Kumar Pasi, while the accused were named as Idris, his brother Yasin, and his son Niyaz. In 2011, Pasi was attacked by these individuals. They blocked Pasi’s path, hurled casteist slurs at him, physically assaulted him, and threatened to kill him. Following the incident, the victim went to the Inayatnagar police station and filed a complaint. The police registered a case under the SC/ST Act and other relevant sections of the law. The case was subsequently heard in the Ayodhya court, where four eyewitnesses were presented. The prosecution also submitted facts and evidence. On the basis of this evidence, on 9th June 2025, the court found all three accused guilty and sentenced them to 4 years and 3 months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 9000. The victim’s side welcomed the judgment and called it justice, while the accused’s side stated they would challenge this verdict in a higher court.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been 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. In this case, the assault on a Dalit Hindu man by members of the Muslim community in Tamra village, Ayodhya, stands as a textbook example of a religiously motivated hate crime. A hate crime is defined as a criminal act committed against an individual or group because of their identity, such as religion, caste, race, or ethnicity, driven by prejudice, bias, or hatred towards that identity. In this case, the physical attack on the victim was not a random act of violence but was specifically targeted due to his identity as a Hindu. The accused, identified as Muslims, confronted the victim, blocked his path, and assaulted him. During the assault, the perpetrators used casteist slurs against the victim. While some may argue that the attack was motivated by the victim’s Dalit status, it is important to recognise that for adherents of the Abrahamic faiths, a Hindu’s religious identity often supersedes other micro-identities such as caste or language when it comes to targeted hatred. In this instance, the Muslim perpetrators religiously profiled the Hindu victim and then used caste-based abuse as part of the attack. The attack, however, was motivated by hatred for his religious identity rather than his caste identity. Therefore, even though the immediate trigger of the violence could be anything, as it is not clearly 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. Disclaimer: Media reports do not specify the exact date when the crime occurred; they only mention the year, 2011. Therefore, we have used an indicative date—1st January 2011—even though the incident was reported in the media on 14th June 2025. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date when the crime occurred, rather than when it was reported.