Few countries are as familiar with the trauma of mass killings as India, whose modern incarnation was born from the womb of one of history’s most brutal amputations. Yet, there is growing evidence that the nation — or at least its leadership — is wilfully forgetting the lessons of Partition and the subsequent massacres. A recent report by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ranks India as the second-most likely nation to witness a mass killing, leading to the death of 1,000 or more civilians, within the next year, after Pakistan. The museum’s Early Warning Project issues annual, research-driven findings that rate countries based on their vulnerability to genocides. India has found itself on the list for several years now, but the probability of a mass killing has climbed steeply over the past two years, doubling from 7 per cent in 2019-20 to 14.4 per cent for 2021-22. The open call for the genocide of Muslims by far-right groups, issued just days after the release of the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s report, reveals the hate-filled timebomb that India is sitting on. But what is most disappointing is that it took the police several weeks to arrest some of the key organizers and participants of the Haridwar Dharma Sansad where the audience was encouraged to massacre fellow Indians.

Sadly, though, such a laissez-faire response to a spine-chilling threat has become far too common. Barely a day passes without news reports of targeted attacks on members of India’s Muslim or Christian minorities. Even members of Parliament and other elected officials, who have sworn fealty to the Constitution, spout bigoted comments with little public pushback from the prime minister or senior members of the government. Whether it was the Holocaust or the Rwandan pogrom of 1994, history shows that a genocide invariably starts with hate speech. India’s rise to the second spot on the Early Warning Project’s list of at-risk countries is particularly worrying: it was ranked 13th just two years ago. Those behind India in the top 10 include Yemen, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan and Chad. India stands out in that set of nations: it is the only consistently stable democracy. The 75th anniversary of India’s independence is months away. There is no better way of honouring that occasion than by committing to stamp out hate before it snuffs out the values India has long represented: tolerance, coexistence and, indeed, democracy itself.