Council on Minority Rights in India (CMRI), a US-based Human Rights Organization, released a report on 20th November titled the ‘Religious Minorities in India Report’ 2021.
The 236-pages long report contains meticulous and detailed articles written by prominent personalities from various fields, including Afreen Fatima (Muslim Activist), Aditya Menon (Journalist at The Quint) and Vikasan Pillai (Lawyer), as well as research students Mehwish Asim, Mohd Kamran, Tazeen Junaid, Nidha Parveen JA, Nada Nasreen, and Sabah Maharaj.
The report was released on Sunday by CMRI at the Press Club of India. It covers a wide array of topics interconnected with religious minorities like Hate Crimes against religious minorities, Prime Time portrayal of the communities, repression of Educational Institutions established by minority groups, and Hate Speeches against these groups.
“This report is a product of a yearlong effort to document, research and analyse the socio-political status and the personal experiences of minority communities in India. It is a manifestation of an innocent idea of the oppressed charting their own persecution and lived experiences.
The initial idea of this report was to prepare a document charting out the persecution of the Muslim minority in the year 2021, but as some of us started researching and carrying out field travels, it was realized that there are interlinked realities of oppression with the Sikh and Christian minority of India – both in terms of the policies by the state, public rhetoric used to systemically otherwise the three communities by politicians and actions taken by non-state actors. Principally, the report is written by young students who are impacted by the deepening divide in society – with a hope of a better and equal future in the country,”- Press release issued by the authors of the report.
What does the Report Say?
Part A of the report contains three chapters dealing with the documentation of data related to Hate Crimes, Hate Speeches and Media Representations of Muslims, Christians and Sikhs in the country.
The report claimed that there is no official documentation regarding the rising hate crimes against minorities however the reports maintained by the media hint –
“The year 2021 witnessed 221 victims from the Christian community in 95 instances of hate crimes, 606 victims from the Muslim community in 192 instances of hate crimes, and one victim from the Sikh community in 7 cases of hate crimes.”
The data was collected from media organizations and fact-finding reports. The report analysed the number of hate crimes in a month along with the location and the political party ruling the state. It was found that most of these cases were reported in BJP-ruled, or coalition states.
Religious minorities were said to be under-represented in the media. “The newsrooms are dominated by Hindus, the issues discussed on news pertain to the interests of Hindus, and the targeted consumers of these newsrooms are Hindus. Hence, religious minorities are excepted from newsrooms,” it said.
The report makes mentions of Tablighi Jamaat incident during the COVID-19, Love Jihad, and similar news headlines covered by the TV channels during the year. Backed by theories, studies and researches- the document shows Prime Time content of three popular news channels- NDTV, Aaj Tak and India Today.
The report analyzed the negative and positive projections of minorities in Indian newspapers. The data was analysed on monthly basis to show the proportion of negative/positive imagery and its significance.
The monthly analysis of Indian Express and Dainik Jagran combined indicates that the negative projections of Muslims were greater than positive projections throughout the year.
The negative projections of Sikhs was greater than the positive projections for the first four months of the year but for the rest of the year the positive projections were greater in number.
For Christians the negative projections were greater than compared to the positive projections throughout the year with an exception of May and August.
The report concludes by saying that the “deliberate targeting” and “prejudices” against religious minorities lead to the construction and perpetuation of abuse and violent incidents.
Also read: India discrimination report – Why ‘Women’ and ‘Muslims’ earn less in India?
