On June 5, 2022, BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and BJP Delhi media head Naveen Kumar were suspended from the party’s membership due to offensive comments to many Muslims in India.
In May 2022, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya made some public appearances in Australia, including the Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD). He told an audience in Parramatta that the history of Islam is “writ large with bloodshed and violence.”
A report published in the South Asia Citizens Web shows an intensive network of Hindutva-related organizations in the United States responsible for information campaigns and fundraising.
South Asia Citizens Web is an online repository that hosts literature and documents related to fundamentalist politics and the diminishment of secularism. The website has been operating since 1996, according to its description.
Pope Francis declared Devasahayam, also known as Lazarus, a saint on May 16, thus making him the first Indian layman to be canonized.
Devasahayam was born into an upper-caste Hindu family in 1712 in the south Indian town of Kanyakumari. He was baptized in 1745 in Travancore (modern-day Kerela), fought against caste discrimination, and advocated for social equality.
In Kerala, India, a statewide Youth Caravan by Solidarity Youth Movement Kerala, a Muslim organization affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, seeks legislation to prevent Islamophobia by demanding legal protection for Muslims from hate crimes.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese have been photographed wearing saffron scarves bearing a symbol used by right-wing Hindu nationalist groups from India during an event hosted by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Australia.
In Pune, India, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Vichar Manch (The Opinion Forum of Martyr Bhagat Singh), an atheist organization, had members receiving threats on Twitter from Hindu nationalists in objection to their seventh annual conference in April during Ramnavami, the birth anniversary of the Hindu god Ram, which fell on the same day.
A professor at a university in Uttar Pradesh was suspended for a test that asked students about similarities between fascism, nazism, and right-wing Hindutva.
Sharda University, located in Noida in Uttar Pradesh, suspended Waqa Farooq Kuttay, an Assistant Professor, while investigating the matter. The university also issued a show-cause memorandum to Kuttay, asking for an explanation.
In Punjab, India, a university professor was fired over an alleged offensive comment regarding the Hindu god Ram. In an Instagram post published by the university on April 23, the professor was terminated “effective immediately.”
Gursang Preet Kaur is an assistant professor at the Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, northern Punjab. Kaur allegedly referred to Ram as a “cunning person,” putting the Hindu god in a bad light.
On April 21, seven individuals were arrested in Uttar Pradesh, a state in Northern India, concerning the desecration of several mosques. According to the local police, the suspects wanted revenge for the violent clashes in Jahangirpuri during the Hanuman Jayanti parades.
The suspects threw torn pages of the Quran and pig meat, attacking two mosques in Ghosiyana and Kashmiri Mohalla. The suspects also desecrated Gulab Shah Baba, a local Mazar.
Both items used in the attacks are considered offensive by the Muslims.
