Paper Title
Hate Crimes in India With Special Reference to Hate Speech
Abstract
This paper attempts to analyze the issue of hate crimes in India and takes a subjective perspective as to how the hate crimes committed against a particular group terrifies the entire community. Hate crimes involve communal violence where religion, ethnic violence, discrimination, hate speeches etc. play a key role. This paper aims to provide an overview on the different types of hate crimes present in our society. The anti-hate speech law is contested because of its clash with the freedom of speech and expression of an individual. In the light of the obvious harm that hate speech cause it is time to go beyond the current frame work and look for the best practices that can be adopted to address the problem of hate speech in addition to the legal frame work. Keywords - Hate Crime, Hate Speech, Criminal Offence, Discrimination, Religion.
I. INTRODUCTION: MEANING OF HATE CRIMES The term “hate crime” was first used in the United States in 1985 for referring the intent of U.S. Department of Justice to collect the hate crime statistics. The Black‟s law dictionary defines hate crime as „a crime motivated by the victim's race, color, ethnicity, religion, or national origin‟. On the other hand, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender‟s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” The term „hate crimes‟ refers to “unlawful, threatening, destructive, violent conduct in which prejudice towards victim‟s putative „social group‟ motivates the offender to commit such crimes. It is the deliberate intention which prompts the offender to victimize an individual merely on the basis of his membership in a certain social group. So the important factor which differentiates hate crimes from similar non-hate crimes is the underlying motivation. Hate crimes can be committed against a gender, caste, creed, religion or colour. Hate crime incidents may range from hate speeches, physical assault, harassment, bullying, insults, verbal abuse, and damage to property etc. Crimes operating under the justification of social benefaction but motivated by hate have proliferated the Indian consciousness to the extent that such gruesome activities of hate influencing violence have been inducted in the realm of the implicit acceptability instead of persistent dissuasion. II. HATE SPEECH
The term „hate speech‟ eludes a universal definition. It has been defined as speech that carries no meaning other than the hatred for