Hindu Students at IIT Gandhinagar pressured not to condemn Pahalgam Hindu massacre amidst promotion of Islamic theology
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India 
27 April, 2025
Case Summary
The prestigious IIT Gandhinagar Humanities department ignited a massive controversy for promoting and imposing Islamic theology on the students. As per some leaked WhatsApp chats of students, a second-year student, Mohammad Luqman, had proposed an AI research topic centred on Islamic theology. Amidst this, even Hindu students were hounded and threatened not to speak out against the Pahalgam Hindu massacre by Islamic terrorists, citing the fear of 'Islamophobia'. According to news reports, the controversy arose after a social media user revealed PhD thesis topics centred around Islamic studies being undertaken at the IIT Gandhinagar's Humanities department. These topics included “Fishing With Faith: Islam, Indigenous Knowledge, and Ecological Sustainability in Lakshadweep”, “Robes of Authority: Sunni Ulama, Sartorial Tradition, and Embodied Piety in Malabar”, “From Gods to Jinn: Ontological Rewriting and the Islamization of Spirits in Kerala”, “Beyond Cultural Brokers: Speech Mediation and Ritual Efficacy in Mosque Speeches in Kozhikode.” These PhD thesis topics appeared less like a neutral social science study on Islamic theology and more like an imposition of Islam and its theology on students. This was carried out under the garb of social science education. This instance raised concerns over the hijacking of Humanities departments by Leftist and Islamist groups. Amidst this, Nishaant Choksi, the associate professor of IIT Gandhinagar, threatened students with disciplinary action and called it a breach of privacy and honour code. In an email, Choksi wrote, “It has come to our attention that someone has been circulating screenshots of internal HSS emails about MASC thesis topics, including the names of students and supervisors, to individuals who are posting them out of context on social media in a derogatory, offensive, and potentially dangerous manner. This is a breach of our honour code, and any students found engaging in such activities will be reported to SSAC.” Amid these developments, a WhatsApp chat from a Hindu student surfaced on Twitter. It revealed that Hindu students were being threatened not to speak out against the Pahalgam terror attack, where Islamic terrorists murdered Hindu tourists after confirming their religion. Students were threatened with disciplinary action if they raised their voices against the Pahalgam terror attack, while candle marches were being organised in support of Palestine. The chats also pointed out that just seven days after Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic terror outfit, carried out a terror attack in Israel on 7th October 2023, a 'Sham-e-Azadi' march was held at IIT Gandhinagar to extend support and solidarity to Palestine. One of the students stated, “Our Language Aesthetics professor, V. Nishant Choksi, is threatening us with consequences if we even speak about the Islamic AI research paper with anyone outside the class. They’ve already warned us that if we talk about it, they’ll fail Hindus in their paper.” The student added, “They also told us not to post on the recent attack on Hindus in Kashmir. Bol rahe the Islamophobia hota hai ese openly outrage karne se. Uske liye bhi bola ki results and disciplinary action lenge if the code is violated. Palestine ke liye 2023 aur 2024 mein candle march and reading session hua tha. Entrance exam mein haar saal Palestine pe passage aata hai. Lekin Kashmir pe Instagram stories lagana bhi mana kar diya. Ek Adrija hai vo sab toh open Hinduphobes hai.” Following this incident, there was outrage and demands raised at the IIT Gandhinagar’s director to initiate an investigation into this matter. The people also demanded that the government to intervene into this matter as early as possible.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is - Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution. Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution/ethnic cleansing refers to the act of denying or minimizing the fact of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. This often involves denying the scale, mechanisms, religious intent, or even the occurrence of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. Hate speech of this kind involves the dissemination of falsehoods that deny or distort established historical facts or mock the suffering of Hindus by saying that they deserved the persecution, motivated by Hinduphobia. Denying such atrocities is not only about the denial of facts or rewriting/revising history, but it also delegitimises the religiously motivated persecution of Hindus, the religious hate/motivation/animosity that led to the persecution, and dehumanises Hindus as a religious group. Such denial of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus not only denies the suffering but also paves the way for future/present atrocities and hate speech, inciting prejudice and violence against Hindus. It also provides a justification for violence by delinking religious animosity from religiously motivated crimes committed against Hindus. Since such denial and/or mocking of genocide/ethnic cleansing/atrocities motivated by religious animosity leads to present and future ramifications of creating more hate speech, violence, dehumanisation and delegitimisation, it would be considered hate speech under this category. The other subcategory selected is - Anti-Hindu subversion and prejudice. The tertiary category selected 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. This case has been categorised as hate speech since it meets multiple parameters to be classified as such. Firstly, the accused authorities of the Humanities department threatened the Hindu students not to speak out against the Pahalgam Hindu massacre, where Islamic terrorists killed Hindu tourists after confirming their religion. The authorities claimed this would cause a lot of 'Islamophobia'. The fact that the authorities are downplaying and suppressing any conversation about the Hindu massacre at the hands of Islamic terrorists is not an isolated case, it highlights deeper animosity and bias that the leftist Islamist groups have against Hindus and Hinduism. Hindu students being threatened with 'disciplinary action' for speaking out against the Pahalgam Hindu massacre shows the malicious intent of the said authorities, who exercised their control over the vulnerable Hindu students. The authorities of the Humanities department were well aware that they were in a position of power and hence could dictate terms to the vulnerable students. Some might make the case for the authorities that educational institutions were preventing any sort of political activism; however, if that were the case, why would the Humanities department carry out solidarity events for the Palestinian issue?? This glaringly depicts a consorted attempt at stifling Hindu voices who speak up against the atrocities faced by Hindus at the hands of Islamists. The accused authorities were actively involved in pressuring the Hindu students from speaking out against the Pahalgam terror attack in which Hindus were religiously profiled, targeted, and killed. The Islamic terrorists explicitly identified victims by religion, asking them to recite the Islamic Kalma and checking for circumcision to single out Hindus before shooting them. It is confirmed by survivor testimonies and forensic evidence showing victims’ trousers were unzipped or pulled down to verify their religion. The authorities deliberately tried to suppress Hindu students from speaking against the religiously based terror attack in Pahalgam. This denial and suppression de-legitimise the suffering of Hindu victims and erase the religious motivation behind the attack. It dehumanises Hindus as a group and fosters an environment conducive to future violence against them. Another point to highlight is that prior to all the chaos, the Humanities department was actively promoting Islamic theology under the guise of social science education. This clearly shows that the department had a clear Islamic bias, and their bigotry was therefore displayed against the Hindu students. This is not just an instance of an educational institution intimidating students, but it reveals the religious animosity that the leftist Islamist groups hold against Hindus, in this case, the Hindu students. This animosity puts Hindu students in vulnerable situations and impacts them negatively. This behaviour clearly constitutes hate speech, as it legitimises hostility and prejudice towards Hindu students, further endangering their safety and rights. Since this case involves religious animosity against Hindus, therefore, it has been categorised as a hate crime.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Others
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
