Dehumanization
In part four of our Ten Stages of Genocide in India Series, we explain how the fourth process/stage of genocide, Dehumanization, is occurring in India.
Categorizing groups as sub-human or non-human is an integral step in the process of genocide. It allows people to overcome their natural revulsion against murder.
Dehumanizing language, often disseminated through social media, print, or broadcast media, portrays the victim group as pests, evil monsters, diseases, or vermin that need to be eradicated. For instance, during the Genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, RTLM, a popular radio-station, continuously referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches." This dehumanization created a culture of genocide. Because Tutsis were portrayed as non- human, killing them became culturally acceptable.
Throughout Indian history, dehumanization has been an integral step in enabling and justifying violence against Muslims. During the 2002 Gujarat riots, a leaflet titled 'Jehad' described Muslims as "terrorists who come in truck loads," and labeled them as "backward, violent, vicious". Such propaganda likened Muslims to wild animals. It portrayed Muslims as “terrorist” foreign invaders bent on controlling India and forcibly converting Hindus. The “Love Jihad” campaign accuses Muslim men of dishonestly marrying Hindu women in order to make them convert to Islam.
Today, dehumanizing language is prevalent in political speeches by prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and in the popular culture consumed by millions of Hindus. The Hindutva (Hindu supremacist) movement based in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (R.S.S.) now dominates the BJP.
In 2019, in a rally held during India's general elections, former BJP President, Amit Shah, called Muslim immigrants “termites” and infiltrators.” He vowed that the BJP government would "throw them into the Bay of Bengal." Through this dehumanizing language, Shah promoted the expulsion of Muslims from India by every means possible.
Similar dehumanizing rhetoric characterized Modi's 2024 election campaign. Speeches by BJP leaders portrayed Muslims as animals, insects, snakes, diseases, or infections in the body politic. This BJP propaganda was designed to dehumanize Muslims so that Hindus could overcome their human inhibitions against murder and violence against other humans.
Current political rallies by BJP politicians and Hindu supremacist groups include inflammatory songs and "bhajans". These songs are increasingly consumed by the public on platforms like YouTube and Twitter (now X). Singer Prem Krishnavanshi is one rising star whose blatantly dehumanizing songs are based on violent Hindutva ideology. One of his songs includes the lyrics, “Insaan nahi ho saalo, ho tum kasaayi” – “You are not human; you (Muslims) are butchers.”
These hate songs are widely shared on the internet and have millions of views on platforms like YouTube. Many Hindutva artists attend BJP rallies and use their social media feeds to support BJP leaders. In return BJP leaders promote these artists and provide their fans with patronage. The IT arm of the BJP promotes these hate songs on the party's official channels. In an interview with The Caravan, the manager of the BJP IT cell in the Ayodhya district explained that music is an easy and accessible medium through which their messages can be propagated. His comments show the power and reach of hate speech in pop music.
Further, in 2017, the National Crime Records Bureau discontinued collecting data on mob lynching and hate crimes against minorities on the grounds that “the data was unreliable as these crimes etc. have not been defined.”
In April 2022, 2023 and 2024, anti-Muslim hate songs were played on radio and television during a surge of communal violence that occurred during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami and the Muslim observance of Ramadan. Anti-Muslim riots occurred in Delhi and in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Jharkhand. Hundreds of people, including a few police officers, were injured. Muslim-owned homes and shops were demolished. Playing these songs during communal riots showed the power of incitement through dehumanizing words in popular music.
Genocide Watch recognizes the inflammatory hate language used in political rallies and pop music, on social media, and in campaigns by the R.S.S. and BJP as a pervasive process of dehumanization against the Muslim population of India.
Genocide Watch recommends:
State governments should conduct information campaigns and community outreach programs to tackle the dehumanizing sentiments behind hate speech.
Data on lynching and hate crimes must again be collected and published, with rigorous definitions of hate crimes.
The Indian government and local Hindu leaders must publicly condemn hate songs and hate speech that encourage violence against Muslims and other minorities.
Police officers should be better trained to identify hate speech.
Political leaders who disseminate hate speech and incite genocide against
Muslims should be arrested and prosecuted.
Read Part One of the series here : The Ten Stages of Genocide in India - Part One
Read Part Two of the series here : The Ten Stages of Genocide in India - Part Two
Read Part Three of the series here : The Ten Stages of Genocide in India - Part Three