In India, multiple anti-Israel demonstrations marked Eid festivities toward the end of March 2025. Even in Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Muslims waved pro-Palestine posters with slogans such as, “I stand with Palestine,” “Protect Al-Aqsa,” “Protect Palestine,” and “Al-Aqsa is our Pride.” Some slogans were even more hateful, calling for “Death to Israel, Netanyahu, and Trump.” Reports suggest the Madhya Pradesh protests to be the rule, rather than the exception. Muslims also staged anti-Israel protests across Uttar Pradesh, ironically a state ruled by Yogi Adityanath, the BJP’s chief minister known for his uncompromising approach toward Islamic extremism.
Indian Muslims have been at loggerheads with Narendra Modi’s government since it came to power in 2014, for its posture on security issues and its sympathy toward Israel.
While India is majority Hindu, it is home to the world’s third largest population of Muslims, with more than 210 million. Increasingly, external actors have sought with significant success to radicalize this population or incite them against Israel and toward the Palestinian cause. Certainly, Indian Muslims have always sympathized with Palestinians, but over the past two years, such protests have become increasingly frequent and intense. In 2023, anti-Israel protests erupted in Kashmir, Kerala, and the major urban centers like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. While there are no records of the intensity and precise numbers, anecdotal reports show a surge since 2022. Anti-Israel sentiments also have penetrated the Indian hinterland where Muslims have remained relatively immune to other global Islamist causes.
Certainly, domestic politics also plays a role. Indian Muslims have been at loggerheads with Narendra Modi’s government since it came to power in 2014, for its posture on security issues and its sympathy toward Israel. While many Indian diplomats also favor the Palestinian cause as a legacy of India’s Cold War posture, they have lost momentum. India’s large Hindu nationalist constituency sees Israel as a friend in India’s war against Islamic extremism, so that New Delhi faces criticism even for vestigial engagement with Palestinians.
For Muslims, India is a central pillar of the perceived anti-Muslim trio of the United States, Israel, and India. In popular Muslim jargon, it is called the “yahood-o-hanood ki sazish,” or Jewish-Hindu conspiracy. More recently, after the 2019 abrogation of Kashmir’s special status, Modi’s Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register for Citizens amendments to check illegal immigration, and the Waqf amendment act curtailing arbitrary powers of the Waqf [Islamic religious endowment] board, many Indian Muslims have radicalized. In their collective consciousness, their association with global Islamist movements and terror groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami, Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State has strengthened. Indian Muslims have hailed the victories of Taliban in Afghanistan and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Syria. The growing popularity of such pan-Islamist sentiments is also evident in the spread of entities like Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and Islamic State-Khorasan Province in India. Though intelligence monitoring checks the military spread of Islamic State-Khorasan Province, the ideology influences a large segment of Muslim youth.
Global Islamist state actors are not oblivious of the rapid rise of pan-Islamist radicalization in India. After 1990, Wahhabism made inroads among Indian Muslims. After Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman cracked down on radicalization, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emerged as a hero for Indian Muslims. Reportedly, Turkey and Qatar’s aggressive outreach to Islamist entities, clerics, community leaders, politicians, and influential Muslim elites in India has alarmed India’s security agencies.
Israeli civilians and diplomats will face more threats in India as radicalized Muslims ... target them.
The Israeli government must take these developments seriously. Every year, tens of thousands of Israeli tourists visit India after compulsory military service. Israeli civilians and diplomats will face more threats in India as radicalized Muslims, acting as lone wolves or on behalf of domestic or global terror outfits, target them. Groups like Hamas can find safe havens in India and use it as their logistics and planning hub. India’s security establishment does not have advanced surveillance and intelligence capabilities like Israel. The colossal size of the country, large population, and democratic government make it even more challenging to identify and neutralize such threats.
The warm ties between Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may solidify diplomatic, military, and security ties between South Asia and West Asia’s most powerful militaries and democracies, but the radicalization of Indian Muslims and their indoctrination into anti-Israel causes will increasingly create a security nightmare if New Delhi and Jerusalem continue to ignore the problem or fail to develop strategies to counter it.
