India: Hindu Nationalists Use WhatsApp to Harass Christians and Muslims

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A major Hindu nationalist organization has been weaponizing the popular WhatsApp messaging service to persecute non-Hindu religious and ideological communities in India, including Christians, Rest of the World (RW) reports.

Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014, India now ranks 11 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted: before the rise of the BJP, the country had ranked 31 on the WWL.

Rest of the World reported this month that the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has been using WhatsApp to mobilize vigilante members to gather in large numbers at the homes and community events of Christians and Muslims to harass and frighten them into returning or converting to Hinduism.

“Reporting from India […] has laid out how Hindu nationalist groups, including the VHP, use WhatsApp to incite, coordinate, and publicize attacks against religious minorities: destroying Muslim and Christian holy sites; beating and lynching Muslims under the pretext of saving cows, which are considered sacred by dominant-caste Hindus; opposing marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men,” RW said in its report. One particular tactic is to show up at funerals and demand that the family convert to Hinduism if they want their loved one to be buried in Hindu-run areas.

Founded in 1964, the VHP is closely connected to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party which, according to Rest of the World, has also used WhatsApp to consolidate its rise to power. “WhatsApp has also been essential to the BJP and Modi’s political dominance. The party relies on the platform to mobilize voters and disseminate propaganda and disinformation,” RW reports.

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