India has long been lauded as the world’s largest democracy, but under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India has become one of the “worst autocratisers” in the world. According to the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy Institute, the Indian government’s “substantial deterioration of freedom of expression, compromising independence of the media, crackdowns on social media, harassments of journalists critical of the government, [attacks] on civil society and intimidation of the opposition,” have accelerated India’s democratic backsliding.

Between January and April 2024, IAMC saw the continuation and worsening of these and other human rights abuses in India, particularly against Muslims and Christians, who remain the country’s most vulnerable minority groups.