Category: India

Truth matters: How misinformation and sensationalism undermines support for victims of human rights violations

Posted on by cswpress in India, International Arenas, Syria

In early March, alarming reports surfaced of the killing of Christians in Syria. As a shocking outbreak of violence claimed the lives of over 1,000 people within just two days, including 745 civilians, many outlets were quick to claim that the country’s Christian community had been the target. 

GB News led with ‘Christians massacred as Syrian jihadist launches killing spree just weeks after toppling Assad’; a writer for the Times of Israel lamented what he identified as the media’s ‘predictable’ disdain for Syrian Christians; the Christian outlet Relevant Magazine claimed that ‘hundreds of Christians’ were among those killed, and countless posts on social media amplified claims of Christians being deliberately targeted and murdered in large numbers. 

Such reporting appeared to confirm the worst fears that many have harboured since December 2024, when President Bashir al-Assad was ousted by a coalition of rebel groups led by the Islamist military organisation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an organisation sanctioned by the US government. In the immediate aftermath of the takeover, many predominantly – though not exclusively – Christian outlets expressed understandable concern over impending threats to the country’s Christian community, with some warning of potential ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘persecution’ and ‘genocide’. 

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‘Hope is resistance’: An interview with CSW’s India Researcher

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, India

CSW relies extensively on the documenters, journalists, experts and activists that gather first-hand evidence of violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in the countries we work on.

Last month, our Advocacy Intern Anna Shannon spoke with CSW’s India Researcher, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, to discuss what her work entails, the state of FoRB in India, and where she sees hope for the future.

As CSW’s India Researcher, what does your work entail?

My work entails documenting and reporting on violations of religious freedom across India, particularly against Muslims and Christians. So, whenever there are any attacks or any instances of discrimination against Muslims or Christians, I speak to victims, eyewitnesses, sometimes the lawyers who are working on these cases and I write the report.

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‘More that unites us’: Bridging the border between Indians, Pakistanis, Hindus and Muslims

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, India, Pakistan

This month marked 77 years since one of the world’s most violent religious conflicts: the partition of India and Pakistan, which claimed more than a million Hindu and Muslim lives and displaced over 15 million people. A people that once lived together were now forced to choose sides. Families were torn apart.  The bloodshed didn’t end there and neither did the hatred, as the countries fought several more wars in the years to come. 

On either side of the border, my generation grew up hearing the worst of each other. Most of the narratives we read in newspapers or watched in the cinema portrayed the other in bad light. The enmity and hatred was and continues to be so deep rooted that it affects religious groups in both nations. 

I cannot count the number of times I have heard an Indian Muslim being called a Pakistani in a derogatory tone. Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first came to power in 2014, these slurs have only become more frequent and toxic.

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India’s Muslims voted for justice and equality, but this remains a distant future

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, India

India is home to more than two hundred million Muslims, one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. However, in a crowd of close to 1.5 billion people, even this large community is reduced to a minority, accounting for just 14% of the population. In recent years, the community has been constantly reminded of this fact, having to fight to prove that they are equals and that they deserve the same rights as the Hindu majority.

Although the majority of India’s Muslims are native to the country, with a very small number of them having emigrated there from the Arab world, most Muslims today would agree that they are not made to feel equal to other Indian citizens.

Their plight has deteriorated significantly since India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Muslims treated largely as second-class citizens by a government that has embraced a dangerous Hindu nationalist rhetoric.

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Reflections on my beloved India in an election year

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, India

India is currently holding general elections in seven phases which are due to run from 19 April to 1 June 2024. CSW’s India Researcher, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, lives in Tamil Nadu state in the south of the country. Here she offers some reflections on what is at stake for the future of the nation.

A day before my state Tamil Nadu went to elections, I was browsing social media when I noticed an image posted by an old friend of mine who studied with me in a Christian school. The image was of a women dressed in a white sari who represented an Indian Hindu. Around her were four other men – a Christian, a communist, a Muslim and a member of the Dravidian political party – all with weapons in their hand trying to stab a visibly scared Hindu woman. The caption said ‘vote wisely’ – an apparent warning message to all the Hindus in his friend list that they are in danger and they need to vote for the party that claims to protect them.

I was quite surprised. Yes, I know thousands of radical Hindus in India genuinely believe that their religion is under threat. But to see someone who I knew, who had his whole education in a Christian school and still remained a Hindu, actually succumb to the false narrative that Hinduism is under threat – that was surprising. In the last few years, I have sadly come across many other Hindu friends and acquaintances who have come to believe that.

Continue reading “Reflections on my beloved India in an election year” →