Hindu family violently attacked and subjected to casteist slurs by armed Muslim mob

Case ID : ea34b3e | Location : Garhwa, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 10 May, 2025

Case ID : ea34b3e

Garhwa, Jharkhand, India

10 May, 2025

Hindu family violently attacked and subjected to casteist slurs by armed Muslim mob

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In the West Tola of Amar village, Garhwa district, a Hindu family, father, mother, and son, were violently attacked and abused with casteist slurs by a Muslim mob over a trivial dispute. On the morning of May 11, when Sudhir Vishwakarma (23) stepped out of his house, he saw Saif Ali Khan along with several others standing outside his house with sticks and guns. When Sudhir asked whom they were looking for, they became aggressive and hurled caste-based slurs at him and threatened him. Though they initially left, Saif Ali Khan later returned, along with Ibrar Khan, Mustakim Khan, Haka Khan, and 8–10 others, in the evening, armed with weapons. They barged into Sudhir's house and brutally assaulted Sudhir, his father Awadh Vishwakarma (58), and his mother Sushila Devi (55). Locals rushed them to the Majhiaon police station, from where they were taken to the hospital for treatment. According to Awadh Vishwakarma, the attack was in retaliation for a minor altercation that took place at the wedding the previous day. During the wedding, a clash erupted between the wedding guests and the DJ operator. Saif Ali Khan, who works as a Scorpio driver, supported the DJ and was beaten up by some members of the procession. Although Sudhir had no involvement in that altercation, Saif Ali Khan and his associates still targeted his family out of vengeance. As of the date of writing this report, the police have registered a case, and the investigation is ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Hate speech against Hindus. With it, 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 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 the Muslim mob went with the clear intention to intimidate and harm the Hindu family. Standing outside Sudhir Vishwakarma’s house armed with weapons was a deliberate act meant to instil fear and threaten them. When Sudhir questioned their presence, they responded with caste-based slurs and threats, further demonstrating the hostile intent behind their actions. It can be argued here 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 the Muslim men hurled caste abuses at the victim's family, the animosity was driven by their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the "wedding dispute" 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.