By Sreyoshi Dey, Gloria Liu and Ingrid Wong, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
TORONTO, Canada - India has gained international attention over the past decade for its impressive economic growth but also more recently (and less positively) because of the growing tensions between Hindus and Muslims in a country of 1.4 billion people who belong to a wide variety of ethnicities and religions. Several anti-Muslim incidents and communal clashes in India, where 80 per cent of the population is Hindu and 14 per cent Muslim, have made the headlines in recent years and spilled over into diaspora communities in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. The explosive controversy surrounding Indian politician Nupur Sharma’s anti-Muslim remarks during a nationally televised debate in May 2022 provides a flash-point opportunity to analyze how anti-Muslim attitudes are perceived and discussed among Indians on social media.
The controversy began during a nationally televised political debate on May 26, 2022, when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma made offensive remarks about Islam’s founder, Prophet Muhammad, and his relationship with his third wife, Aisha. Sharma’s comments, which quickly went viral on social media, sparked a massive public backlash, condemnation, resistance, and protests in both India and various Islamic nations, including the United Arab Emirates, with which India concluded a free trade agreement just months earlier. Even the Indian Supreme Court criticized Sharma for her comments. Soon after, Delhi BJP’s media chief, Naveen Jindal, adding fuel to the fire, echoed Sharma’s sentiments on Twitter. On June 5, the BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal.
India has one of the largest internet consumer bases in the world. Twitter, with close to 23.6 million users in India, was analyzed for this Dispatch to explore public discourse on the controversy. Using frequency and content analysis of online posts from Twitter users, we found noteworthy levels of support for Sharma, despite public and diplomatic condemnation of her comments.
Under PM Modi’s leadership, the country has also seen a significant uptick in anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate crimes, including conferences calling for a “Hindu-only nation.” Given this context, while egregious, Sharma’s comments during the televised debate did not come as a surprise to many analysts as they seemed to broadly reflect the BJP’s long-standing attitudes and rhetoric concerning minority religions. Even social media users did not shy away from pointing out the possible connection to the attitudes of the larger party.
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