Hindu minor assaulted by Muslim men over throwing water balloon as part of Holi celebrations; abused with casteist slurs

Case ID : f6648b0 | Location : Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 10 March, 2025

Case ID : f6648b0

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

10 March, 2025

Hindu minor assaulted by Muslim men over throwing water balloon as part of Holi celebrations; abused with casteist slurs

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Communal clash/attack

Case Summary

A 17-year-old Hindu boy belonging to the Dalit community was brutally assaulted by a group of Muslim men in Ambedkar Colony, which falls under the Pratap Nagar police station in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The attack was triggered over a water balloon incident. The victim was throwing water balloons as part of Holi celebrations, and a water balloon accidentally hit the Muslim men, who then barged into the victim's house, abused him with casteist slurs and assaulted him. According to the victim’s mother, her son was watching television when 5-6 members of the Muslim community arrived at their doorstep. As soon as he opened the door, they violently attacked him without warning. Hearing the commotion, his mother rushed out, only to be met with verbal abuse and casteist slurs directed at both her and her son. The attackers questioned how the boy dared to throw a water balloon at them. The assault escalated when one of the perpetrators used a vehicle key to stab the minor in the head. The key remained lodged in the Hindu boy's skull. When the victim's mother tried to intervene, she too was physically assaulted. The situation was brought under control when the victim’s elder brother called for help, prompting neighbours to intervene. This gave the attackers an opportunity to flee. The injured boy was rushed to MDM Hospital in Jodhpur for surgery. An FIR was registered under sections 115(2) and 126(2)/189(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with sections 3(1)(R)(S) and 3(2)(VA) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under two prime categories. The first is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The second sub-category selected is- Communal clash/attack. Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against religious processions and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus under this category. The second prime category under which this case has been placed is- Hate speech against Hindus, and the sub-category selected under this 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. This case has been added to the tracker, as the assault was directly linked to the Hindu victim's participation in Holi celebrations. Holi is a Hindu festival that is celebrated across India during spring, and it involves dancing, singing, and throwing coloured water and powdered paint. Holi brings people together from diverse backgrounds and communities; however, here, the joyous festival turned brutal when the Muslim perpetrators displayed their religious intolerance, leading to a violent reaction. The perpetrators reacted to a simple Holi tradition—throwing water balloons—by launching a violent, premeditated attack on the victim. The attackers stormed into the victim’s house, used anti-Hindu slurs, and subjected the minor and his mother to physical and verbal abuse. This extreme act of violence highlights the underlying prejudice and hate the perpetrators harboured against Hindus and their festivals, leading to such violent reactions. Due to the perpetrator's obvious contempt for the victim's faith, this case qualifies for documentation under this hate tracker. Furthermore, the use of casteist slurs further strengthens the religious motivation behind the crime and reinforces the targeted nature of the assault against a Hindu Dalit boy. It may be argued 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 Qadir hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the "throwing of water balloon" as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator further reinforces the religious motivation behind the crime, warranting its inclusion in the Hinduphobia tracker.