IAMC Weekly India Human Rights Monitor (September 4, 2026)

This Week at a Glance 

This week, IAMC released its semi-annual report documenting six months of escalating persecution of India’s religious minorities. In Tripura, a Muslim cattle trader was lynched by a mob that accused him of stealing animals he had lawfully bought. Two prominent New York faith leaders publicly repudiated their appearance alongside RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, saying they had been deceived into attending. The V-Dem Institute rated India’s electoral democracy at its lowest level since 1975, while SIR voter deletions swept Delhi and Hyderabad, hitting Muslim-majority areas hardest. Two Muslim women journalists said Delhi police beat them harder after learning their names. Elsewhere, a Dalit protester’s father was assaulted, Goa cleared an anti-conversion bill, madrassas were sealed in Uttarakhand, and mosques were partly razed in Ujjain.

 

Top Stories

IAMC report documents six months of escalating persecution of religious minorities

IAMC released its Human Rights and Religious Freedom in India semi-annual report covering January to June 2026, documenting mob lynchings, punitive demolitions, systematic voter disenfranchisement, hate speech and disinformation, discriminatory legislation, the persecution of Christians and repression in Jammu and Kashmir, with recommendations for the US government, the UN system, the EU and the Government of India.

 

 

 

 

Muslim cattle trader lynched in Tripura after being accused of theft

Jalilur Rahman, a Muslim cattle trader from Tripura’s Khowai district, was beaten to death by a mob after being accused of stealing cattle his family says he had lawfully purchased.

 

 

 

 

 

US faith leaders say they were deceived into appearing with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

Two prominent New York faith leaders have publicly repudiated their participation in the events featuring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on August 29, saying organisers concealed his involvement from them. Rev. Adriene Thorne, senior minister of Riverside Church, said she was misled into attending what she had been told was an interfaith gathering on peace, and Imam Shamsi Ali of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens said neither his meetings with organisers nor his invitation disclosed that Bhagwat would be the chief guest.

 

 

 

 

V-Dem rates India’s electoral democracy at its lowest level since 1975

The V-Dem Institute’s latest democracy report placed India’s Electoral Democracy Index score at its lowest level since 1975, the year the Emergency was imposed, ranking the country 106th of 179 countries on that index and 105th on its liberal democracy index. The report classifies India as autocratising, citing a systematic dismantling of democratic institutions and marked declines in judicial accountability, the autonomy of the Election Commission, impartial public administration, media independence and freedom of academic and cultural expression.

 

 

Two Muslim women journalists say Delhi police beatings intensified after learning their names

Freelance journalists Shaheen Khan and Nafisa Khan, working with the 4PM News Network, said Delhi police detained and assaulted them, after they tried to put questions to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a hospital event. The two alleged they were dragged by the hair into a room where officers slapped them and beat them with lathis, and that the assault escalated once police established from their surnames that they were Muslim, with officers hurling religion-specific abuse.

 

 

SIR deletions sweep Delhi and Hyderabad, with Muslim-majority areas hit hardest

Delhi’s draft electoral roll, published on August 31, left out 4.77 million of the capital’s 14.5 million voters, the highest exclusion rate anywhere in the nationwide Special Intensive Revision. In Hyderabad, an analysis of the Election Commission’s published lists found that 40.7% of the 1,941,444 electors marked for deletion carried Muslim names, and that deletions exceeded the 2023 winning margin in all 15 of the city’s assembly constituencies.

 

 

 

 

Hate crimes and discrimination in India

This week, Delhi Police was pressured to register an FIR against Hindu extremist influencer, two months after he boasted on a podcast of cracking open the skull of a Dalit man. In Gujarat’s Kutch, it took three days before police booked five forest department employees who asked a Muslim man his name and assaulted him, leaving him hospitalized. The Goa cabinet cleared an anti-conversion bill carrying penalties of up to life imprisonment. Two more madrassas were sealed in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani. Muslim students at a college in Assam’s Silchar said Hindu extremists snatched their hijabs and assaulted them during a campus membership drive. Two burqa-clad Muslim women were denied entry into a government-run hospital in Mumbai. A civic body banned goat-rearing and sacrificial slaughter in housing societies, following protests by Hindu groups. In Ujjain, officials partially demolished the roughly 150-year-old Medina Masjid and the Jamiatul Quraish Qassaban Masjid for a road-widening project.

 

Resistance & Organizing

Nearly 90 US political leaders pledge to reject RSS-linked donations

Nearly 90 elected officials and candidates across eight US states have pledged to refuse political contributions from individuals and organisations linked to the RSS. Signatories include Representatives Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and New York congressional nominee Brad Lander.

 

 

 

 

 

Defender of the Week

This week, we’re spotlighting Gauri Lankesh, an award-winning Indian journalist and activist who was assassinated outside her home on September 5, 2017 by Hindu militants. Through her work, she exposed right-wing Hindu extremism, corruption, and caste oppression, and stood firmly with Dalits, Adivasis, and minorities. Lankesh remains a global symbol of courage in journalism and an enduring inspiration for those resisting authoritarianism and communal hate.

 

IAMC in Action

• IAMC condemned the deception behind RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Madison Square Garden event after two leading New York faith leaders said they had been misled into appearing with him. Read our statement here.
•  IAMC published a briefing on the RSS — its origins, its activities and the global threat it poses — ahead of the organisation’s outreach tour across the US, Canada and the UK. Read it here.

 

What to Watch Next Week

• IAMC is at the 63rd Annual ISNA Convention in Detroit, Michigan, from September 4–7, 2026 — one of the largest annual gatherings of Muslims in America. Come find us at booth 210.