Outrage in India as Video of Hindutva Youths Forcing Muslim Childrens to Chant “Jai Sri Ram” Goes Viral

The Weaponization Of “Jai Sri Ram” Fear and Forced Submission

The horrifying core of the recently circulated video does not lie merely in the physical trapping of minority Muslim children; it lies in the relentless, terrifying audio of coercion. “Say it! Louder! Say Jai Sri Ram!” commands an aggressive choir of multiple young Hindu men. In response, the camera captures a group of visibly traumatized Muslim children, their bodies trembling, their eyes darting for an escape that does not exist. Under the absolute weight of intimidation and implicit physical threat, their small voices break as they are forced to repeat the majoritarian slogan over and over again.

To watch this footage is to witness the weaponization of language in its most cruel form. For a journalist observing India’s current socio-political trajectory, this video is a definitive, chilling symptom of a much larger, systemic pathology. Forcing minority children, the elderly, and ordinary citizens to chant religious slogans against their will has evolved from sporadic street harassment into an organized, political tool of majoritarian dominance.

With the political ascension of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—the electoral arm of the right-wing nationalist paramilitary organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—this specific form of psychological and physical terror has found quiet validation. The ultimate goal of this orchestrated campaign is clear: to systematically break the psychological resistance of the minority population and enforce a rigid hierarchy where the right to exist is conditional upon symbolic submission.

The Semantic Mutation From Spiritual Salutation to Political Weapon

To truly grasp why the forced chanting of “Jai Shri Ram” (Victory to Lord Rama) is an act of profound violence, one must analyze how the phrase has been systematically hijacked. For centuries, this phrase was a peaceful, deeply revered spiritual salutation used by millions of Hindus across India, embodying humility, devotion, and mutual respect.

Over the last decade, however, Hindu nationalist groups have aggressively altered its meaning. Today, on the streets of India, when yelled by a mob surrounding a vulnerable Muslim, the phrase retains zero spiritual sanctity. It has been transformed into a battle cry of political fascism and exclusion.

Forcing a Muslim child to repeat this phrase is a calculated performance of humiliation. It is engineered to send a structural message: Your own religious identity, your constitutional protections, and your human dignity are subservient to majoritarian force. The psychological trauma inflicted upon children who are forced to compromise their faith under the threat of violence creates a permanent scar of alienation, signaling to an entire generation of minorities that they are viewed as second-class citizens within their own homeland.

The RSS-BJP Ecosystem Is Cultivating the Mentality of Erasure

This aggressive street-level coercion does not happen in a vacuum; it is actively nurtured by the ruling political ecosystem. Since the RSS-backed BJP government assumed power, the state’s apparatus has been aligned with the ideological vision of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra (a Hindu Nation). In this vision, the country’s 200-million-strong Muslim population is frequently framed by top-tier political leaders as a demographic and cultural threat.

Scholars of structural violence note that physical persecution is always preceded by rhetorical radicalization. Hate speech from legislative members, highly polarized election campaigns, and inflammatory media narratives have normalized the idea that minorities can be targeted with impunity.

Extremist mobs on the ground understand this political reality perfectly. When they corner children and force them to chant, they know they are executing the grassroots agenda of a larger majoritarian project—a project aimed at the gradual socio-economic asphyxiation, cultural erasure, and eventual neutralization of minority identity in the public sphere.

The State-Sanctioned Script of Impunity and Rewards

The escalating frequency of forced sloganeering is directly tied to what international human rights watchdogs identify as a “culture of absolute impunity.” Under a functional judiciary, individuals filmed coercing and terrifying children would face immediate arrest and rigorous prosecution. In contemporary India, the administrative machinery frequently protects the perpetrators while penalizing the victims.

When right-wing radicals engage in forced conversions, lynchings, or forced chanting, the state apparatus routinely deploys a highly disturbing, institutionalized script:

Act of Forced Sloganeering or Violence Committed & Filmed
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Police Delay FIR against Perpetrators or Misdirect Investigation
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Fabricated Counter-Cases filed against Victims (Theft/Encroachment)
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Perpetrators granted Swift Bail; Publicly Garlanded & Rewarded by Hindutva Outfits

This cycle turns violent criminals into majoritarian champions. When local politicians and affiliate extremist groups publicly welcome these perpetrators out of jail with marigold garlands and financial rewards, it sends an unambiguous message to the public: Forcing minorities into submission is an act of valor that the state will protect and reward.

Documented Patterns of Forced Sloganeering and Vigilantism

The viral video targeting children is part of a massive, recorded matrix of hate crimes across multiple states. The table below outlines how this specific tactic of forced chanting is deployed alongside other forms of state-backed harassment:

From Forced Chanting “Jai Sri Ram” to ‘Bulldozer Justice’

The micro-aggression of forcing a child to chant on the street is deeply linked to the macro-aggression of state-sponsored property destruction, widely known as “Bulldozer Justice.” In states ruled by the BJP, such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana, the bulldozer has become the ultimate symbol of majoritarian muscle. Whenever a minority community protests against harassment or stands up to radical mobs, municipal authorities promptly arrive with heavy machinery to demolish their homes, shops, and places of worship under the fabricated pretext of “illegal constructions.”

This extrajudicial punishment completely bypasses the courts, destroying a family’s entire economic survival overnight without a trial or right to appeal. The message to the minority community is absolute: If you do not submit on the streets—if you do not chant what we command you to chant—your home, your livelihood, and your places of worship will be turned to rubble. This structural terror ensures that the fear of the state reinforces the fear of the mob.

The Collapse of Constitutional Guardrails and Internal Resistance

What makes this contemporary crisis uniquely dangerous is the perceived capitulation of the institutions designed to protect India’s secular fabric. Mainstream television channels have largely morphed into propaganda networks, hosting inflammatory debates that demonize Muslims to manufacture public approval for majoritarian violence.

While the Supreme Court of India has occasionally issued strong statements against hate speech and arbitrary demolitions, these judicial warnings are routinely ignored or bypassed by local bureaucrats and police forces who answer directly to their political bosses.

Despite this profound institutional rot, the democratic spirit of the nation hasn’t completely dissolved. A resilient network of civil rights lawyers, independent journalists, and secular activists—overwhelmingly belonging to the majority Hindu community—are fighting to document these crimes, provide legal aid to victims, and preserve communal sanity. This internal resistance proves that the fight against fascism in India is a battle between those who defend the secular constitution and those who wish to replace it with a radical autocracy.

The Existential Peril of a Republic

When a society tolerates a reality where innocent children are cornered, terrified, and forced to chant religious slogans to guarantee their immediate safety, it loses its moral claim to being a civilized democracy. The unchecked rise of this ugrata (extremism) is not a sign of majoritarian strength; it is a sign of deep structural decay.

The question facing the global community and the citizens of India is no longer just about the physical safety of its minorities; it is about the survival of India as a democratic republic. If the silent majority does not actively reject this weaponization of faith and the state-backed culture of impunity, the multi-faith, syncretic identity that defined modern India for nearly a century will be completely dismantled, leaving behind a fractured landscape ruled by fear, coercion, and radical violence.