Hate speech

Published on 16 Jan 2025

Hate speech is a public comment that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or a group based on their religion, race, caste or gender. Hate speech incidents have been on the rise in India with cases registered increasing by 500% between 2014 and 2020. 

Issues associated with hate speech

• Social

• Religious and communal tension: There have been incidents where speeches sparking religious sentiments have increased tensions and led to communal riots.

• Example: Hate speech elevated the scale of violence in noted religious conflicts like Babri Masjid riot and Gujarat riots

• Targeted action against women: Gender-based hate speech has been used often against women when they voice their opinions in public.

• Example: As per Amnesty International, women politicians on average receive 113 abusive tweets per day.

• Leads to separatism: Hate speech targeting minorities or lower caste groups creates a sense of isolation among them leading to separatist tendencies.

• Example: Incidents like Dadri lynching against minorities have been triggered by the online spread of hate content.

• Radicalization: Hate speeches have been crucial in radicalizing vulnerable people into terrorism and other violent groups.

• Example: Increasing hate speeches referring to Muslims as terrorists make them more vulnerable to radical terror groups.

• Political

• Law and order problem: Hate speeches can lead to violence which can cause chaos, affecting public order.

• Example: Hate speech against CAA protesters led to Delhi riots which resulted in a major breakdown in public order.

• Political polarisation: The use of hate speech by politicians to satisfy their vote banks polarises the public on the political front.

• Example: There were 89 instances of hate crimes in the run-up to 2022 assembly elections across various states.

• Against the secular and democratic fabric of the nation: Feeling of hatred against one another questions the idea of brotherhood and secularism which is the core of our nation.

Challenges in curbing hate speech

• Diversity within society: The multiple religions, castes and linguistic groups have some divergences among one another which is manipulated and instigated by hate speeches.

• Inferior status to women: Traditionally society has targeted women and any attempt from them to reach better status can tilt this balance resulting in hate speech.

• Legal ambiguity: The term hate speech is not well defined in any laws which results in misinterpretations and making enforcement difficult.

• Balancing freedom of speech: Any efforts to counter hate speech shall not have a chilling effect on Article 19.

• Digital age: Spread of content through social media makes it very difficult to censor the content with fake news heavily influencing people.

• Lack of media accountability: Media is mostly focused on improving their viewership rather than checking the authenticity of the content.

• Lack of awareness: People with limited education and awareness fail to understand that they are being manipulated by these speeches and act out of emotion leading to riots.

Way forward

India has provisions under Section 153(A) and Section 295(A) of the IPC to deal with hate speech-related offences. There is a requirement to legislate a defined law on hate speech that imposes minimum restrictions on free speech. The media should be made more responsible for preventing the online spread of hate content. As per Supreme Court observation in the Shaheen Abdulla case, law enforcement should be made stronger with the police force taking Suo moto cases against crimes of hate speech.

Tags:
Polity

Keywords:
Hate speech Law and order problem polarisation freedom of speech

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 2

Topics:
Indian Constitution