We are officially entering the second quarter of the 21st century. As every year, this moment has again given us some time to think and reflect. For a country like India, which is embracing a new world, we are constrained to ask; what have we achieved, where have we arrived in our thirst to become a global power; and have we taken the right path?

Amidst all the infrastructure boom, and life itself taking an unimaginable digital turn, 2025 provoked me to ask something more basic, more fundamental, that may alter the very ethical basis of our lives. 

There is no easy way to say this, but the last year, 2025, marked yet another year in which our children, our future generation, saw politics of hate triumphing over voices of conscience in our democracy. 

Many may think that what I call politics of hate is actually a new dawn for Indian nationalism. I don’t disagree with such a hypothesis. But is it perhaps time for all of us to think whether this new majoritarian nationalism has begotten a new wave of hate in our society. Has all the talk of India’s new found muscle united Indian people, like it did during our freedom struggle, or has it only been successful in dividing our society along the lines of faith, caste, ethnicity, and gender? 

We currently have a ruling dispensation that has targeted one whole minority community as an internal enemy of our nation. The gap between the rich and poor has deepened so much that the latest World Inequality Report released in December lists India as one of the most unequal countries; where the richest 10% owns 65% of the country’ wealth of which the top 1% holds 40% of the total wealth. In contrast, the bottom 50% receive only 15% of India’s wealth.

What’s worse is that the ruling party BJP has captained the Indian ship towards more and more hate and discrimination against the powerless, even while speedily handing over the financial reins to the most powerful moneyed elites.

However, what had me worried this year is something that should have us all troubled about the path we have taken. 

A series of events in 2025 showed an extraordinary perpetuation of hate. They showed how we are being nudged, every moment and every day, to become indifferent; indifferent towards our own people’s exploitation and misery at the hands of those who want power at any cost. 

The biggest event of the year was Operation Sindoor. Indian security forces carried out unprecedented air strikes on terror hubs in Pakistan in response to the brutal terrorist attack on innocent tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. But what was supposed to be a strategic war between two states metamorphosed into an internal hate campaign in which Hindutva forces directed their anger and aversion towards Kashmiris residing in India. 

Kashmiri students in various universities were made targets of organised violence; Kashmiri youth were looked at with suspicion in their offices and residences, and were forced to leave their workplaces and universities. Blackouts and the security apparatus pinning down Muslim people in various cities became the order of the day.  

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

Several BJP leaders found in Operation Sindoor an opportunity to embolden their hate campaign against Indian Muslims. One of them in Madhya Pradesh even went on to liken one of our army officers, who happened to be a Muslim, as a “sister” of Jihadis who the Indian government used against Pakistan. 

At the same time, Hindutva online army trolled incessantly perhaps the only voices of conscience in such a situation of hate mongering. 

Remember, Himanshi Narwal, the wife of the 26-year-old naval officer who was killed by terrorists in the Pahalgam attack. Her photo in which she sat in a state of shock beside the dead body of her husband was one of the most powerful images that reminded us of the human costs of a war. But within days, she invited the wrath of Hindutva trolls after she opposed political targeting of Indian Muslims and Kashmiris on Indian soil. 

“People going against Muslims or Kashmiris – we don’t want this. We want peace and only peace,” Narwal said. She said, of course, she wanted justice but only those people who have wronged her husband should be punished.

Her statement that pointed out the immorality of the hate campaign against Muslims in the name of Operation Sindoor was more than enough for her to become one of the primary targets of Hindutva forces. 

Within hours, a big section of internet users who had earlier mourned her loss posted abusive comments. Some even accused her of dishonouring her husband as she refused to blame ordinary Kashmiris and Muslims for the husband’s death. There were others, too, who questioned her character and made unfounded claims about her friendship and relationship with Kashmiri men while studying in Delhi University. 

Can there be anything more lowly than this?

Well, she was not the only victim of the Pahalgam attack to face such an ordeal. Arathi R Menon, the daughter of a man from Kerala state who was killed in the shootings, also had to face

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