Arete Academy Geneva publishes report documenting decade of Anti-Muslim discrimination in India

A Geneva-based human rights institute, Arete Academy, has published a report alleging a decade of systemic discrimination and state-enabled violence against India's Muslim minority, a community it estimates at roughly 200 million people. Titled "Unequal Citizens: Systemic Discrimination and Human Rights Violations Against Muslims in India, 2014–2025" and released in March 2026, the report covers the period since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to national power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has been prepared for review by the United Nations Human Rights Council, international NGOs, academic institutions and legal bodies.

Hate speech rises sharply, report says

Citing data from India Hate Lab as reported by Reuters, the report records 1,318 anti-minority hate speech incidents in 2025, up from 668 in 2023 — an increase it calculates at roughly 97 percent over two years. It states that 1,164 of the 2025 incidents occurred in BJP-governed states, with Uttar Pradesh accounting for the largest single share. The report's authors argue the concentration of incidents in BJP-run states points to a link between political rhetoric and violence against minorities; the BJP has rejected the report's findings, according to the document itself.

Citizenship law and Assam exclusions examined

A central section of the report addresses the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which it says grants an expedited citizenship path to six religious communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan while excluding Muslims. The report notes that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has separately described the law as "fundamentally discriminatory," and that Amnesty International and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have raised similar concerns. It further cites figures indicating that approximately 1.9 million people, disproportionately Bengali-speaking Muslims, were excluded from the final National Register of Citizens in Assam, raising what the report describes as a risk of statelessness.

Delhi 2020 violence and police conduct

The report devotes substantial attention to the February 2020 communal violence in northeast Delhi, in which at least 53 people — the majority of them Muslim — were killed, citing Human Rights Watch documentation. Drawing on an 82-page HRW investigation, the report alleges that police officers participated in or failed to prevent attacks on Muslim residents and subsequently pursued Muslim activists and victims through prosecutions, while officials who made inflammatory remarks before the violence faced no legal consequences. The report also references the earlier 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, during Modi's tenure as the state's chief minister, which rights organizations have estimated killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people, mostly Muslims; the report describes this episode as having established a pattern of violence followed by impunity, citing similar dynamics in Muzaffarnagar in 2013 and Delhi in 2020.

"Bulldozer justice" and demolitions

Among the report's most extensively documented subjects is the demolition of Muslim-owned homes and businesses, a practice known in India as "bulldozer justice." Citing the Housing and Land Rights Network, the report states that more than 740,000 people were displaced and over 150,000 homes demolished during 2022–23 alone, and cites a separate Amnesty International investigation documenting roughly 2,840 demolished properties across multiple states between 2020 and 2022. India's Supreme Court ruled in November 2024 that punitive demolitions were unconstitutional, finding they violated the right to shelter and the presumption of innocence; the report cites subsequent monitoring by civil society groups suggesting demolitions continued into 2025. State governments have defended the practice as lawful enforcement against unauthorised construction.

Detentions, UAPA prosecutions and a low conviction rate

The report also scrutinises India's Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a counter-terrorism law it says has been used against activists, students and journalists. It cites a conviction rate of 2.2 percent for UAPA cases between 2016 and 2019, arguing this reflects prolonged pre-trial detention rather than successful prosecutions. Separately, the report documents the December 2019–January 2020 crackdown on anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh, citing figures of 23 Muslims killed, more than 3,000 arrests, and around 100,000 "unnamed suspects" listed across police cases. It further references a February 2026 statement from UN Special Rapporteurs describing allegations of Indian policing violence as "not sporadic, but systemic," and notes that India has not ratified the UN Convention against Torture.

Rohingya refugees and other vulnerable groups

The report addresses the situation of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India who fled violence in Myanmar that has been documented by the UN as genocide against the group. It states that Indian authorities have pursued deportation proceedings against some Rohingya, which the report argues could breach the international principle of non-refoulement. The study also examines the 2022 Karnataka hijab ban in schools and anti-conversion laws — commonly referred to as "Love Jihad" legislation — which it says have disproportionately affected Muslim women.

India disputes the report's characterisation

India's government has consistently rejected international criticism along these lines. Officials maintain that the CAA is designed to protect persecuted religious minorities from neighbouring countries and does not remove citizenship rights from Indian Muslims, with Prime Minister Modi stating publicly that "Muslims are a part of our nation... with equal rights." India's Ministry of External Affairs has described a related 2025 USCIRF assessment as "malicious," accusing the commission of misrepresenting facts. USCIRF has recommended India be designated a "Country of Particular Concern" for six consecutive years, from 2020 to 2025, though the report notes the U.S. State Department has not acted on that recommendation in any of those years.

Recommendations to Delhi, Washington and the UN

Arete Academy's recommendations call on the Indian government to repeal the CAA's religion-based exclusion, end punitive demolitions, compensate victims, investigate deaths linked to anti-CAA protests and halt deportations of Rohingya refugees. It urges the United States to act on USCIRF's "Country of Particular Concern" recommendation, and calls on the UN Human Rights Council to prioritise India during its next Universal Periodic Review and to request standing invitations for Special Rapporteurs. The report frames its conclusions as part of a broader international debate over whether India's constitutional guarantees of equal citizenship remain effective in practice for its Muslim minority.