‘Hindu Samaj Should Be on Top’: Why Some Job Portals Are Filtering by Faith

These job portals aren't emerging in a vacuum. They are linked to the economic boycott of Muslims, say experts.

The inauguration of 'Call Hindu' by a prominent minister may have gotten the website its share of headlines, but it is only one part of a growing ecosystem.

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

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At first glance, the image on Vishal Durufe’s prototype app looks like it could be for any other employment platform. It’s an illustration of a man in motion, briefcase in his hand and a hat on his head, clearly meant to symbolise 'work.'

But then you see the saffron. The name of the app. And the bold, capitalised slogans around the illustration: “Organised Hindu! Empowered Hindu” and “Call Hindu. Talk Hindu First.”

This is not an ordinary job portal in the making. It’s a platform for employment opportunities, yes, but one that primarily caters only to one community: Hindus.

“It’s not like I am thinking negatively of other communities, but our Hindu samaj should be on top,” Durufe told The Quint over the phone. “Our Hindu brothers should call Hindus for services or jobs. Only if they can’t come for the job should they call others.”

Durufe’s under-construction platform called 'Call Hindu' isn't just about jobs. The website describes itself as a "religious-socio-digital platform dedicated to the eternal light of Sanatan Dharma and the glorious tradition of Hindu culture." Besides 'Call Hindu Jobs', it includes the following tabs:

• Hinduzone: A marketplace showcasing services and products exclusively from Hindu vendors.

• Travo Hindu: A service for booking temple visits, pilgrimages, and cultural tours.

• Hindu Skill Workforce: A listing space for skilled Hindu professionals and workers.

• Hindu Mandi: This appears to be a grocery marketplace for Hindu-owned businesses.

• Call Hindu Shakti: A platform to connect with nationalist campaigns, patriotic movements, and dharma protection initiatives.

• Call Hindu Mandir: A portal to digitally connect with temples.

• Call Hindu Vivah: An initiative promoting “community-conscious” Hindu marriages.

Some of the offerings of the Call Hindu website.

(Photo: Call Hindu)

The portal was launched in Mumbai a month ago by Maharashtra’s Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who said the platform would act “as a bridge between the employers and employees."

He said that there was "nothing wrong if someone decides to do some constructive work only for the Hindu community," and "if tomorrow another community comes forward with a similar initiative, the government will support them as well."

Maharashtra minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha launching the Call Hindu website.

(@MPLodha/X)

Volunteering with VHP, Worshipping Cows

Durafe, 42, was earlier associated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, before shifting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018. He served as a state executive member of the BJP Yuva Morcha and is now associated with the Hindu Jagran Manch, right-wing group associated with the RSS, which has “tied up” with Durufe to launch the app.

The website requires interested users to register with their details. The information required at the moment is basic, such as contact details and age, but Durafe said users would have to provide Aadhaar cards, which will be cross-verified to check the authenticity of the name.

"It's not like people from other communities can’t register—they can, but we reserve our rights to see who we will include and who we won't. We will have guidelines and rules.  If the individual is ready to follow that, then great."

Vishal Durufe

These “guidelines” are still being finalised, but Durufe gave examples of what they could be: volunteering on ground with groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the Hindu Jagran Manch for a few days, and sharing “values” such as cow worship. Durufe's justification for the name and purpose of the portal is that "Everyone is Hindu."

Despite having no official funding yet, Durufe believes the platform “can grow to be an Ola or Uber.” Over 500 users registered within two weeks of launch, he said, though the app is still in development.

A Growing Ecosystem of Hindu-Only Platforms

The inauguration of the website by a prominent minister may have gotten 'Call Hindu' its share of headlines, but it is only one part of a growing ecosystem.

In 2022, a website called 'Hindu Links' was started with the objective of being “a trusted directory where you can connect, support, and promote Hindus and their products, solutions, and services.”

It encourages users to share contact details of Hindu carpenters, plumbers, electricians, drivers, workers, business owners, job seekers, painters, gardeners, street vendors, and even domestic workers.

A WhatsApp message to the number provided on the website leads to an automated response that asks for the name, age, education and profession. The Quint was unable to verify the founders of the website or speak to them.

Around the same time, another website called 'Shoorvir Programme' emerged, which calls itself a "social service" for Hindu services and Hindu service providers.

Its website description says: “Some of us can't fight or raise our voices against those who want to demolish us. But, they don't know that we can boycott them in many ways like Economically we can boycott their services and products," while its mission says: "We must unite constructively in a cohesive manner so that every penny we spend reaches our people only."

Shoorvir’s advertisement, featured on its homepage, caricatures a Muslim service worker—complete with surma-lined eyes and Urdu-accented Hindi—arguing with a saffron-scarved homeowner over the cost of repairing a ceiling fan. When the worker tries to overcharge, the homeowner’s daughter steps in and tells him to leave. She declares that from now on, they will only hire through Shoorvir—“people who aren’t ill-mannered like him.”

Shoorvir offers options such as "Hindu service", jobs, and "Hindu Staff." The forms for jobs and service provider ask for details such as Aadhaar card number and religion (options given are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Others).

The team includes well-known names in right-wing online circles: Vinodh Anna (a right-wing influencer known as String Reveals), Yati Narsimhanand (facing multiple FIRs for hate speech), Ajeet Bharti (former OpIndia editor), and Sanjay Dixit of Jaipur Dialogues. The founder of the website, however, is a man named Virendra Pandey.

Rahul, a representative of Shoorvir, told The Quint that it was created for the people who “don’t want rabid elements to come to their homes.” Shoorvir’s X page, which has shared multiple posts for economic boycott of Muslims, makes it clear who it thinks of as “rabid elements.”

"We are creating an option for people who don’t want such rabid elements. We are not forcing anyone or even economically boycotting them, but those who follow news and can see how Hindus are being persecuted will want to connect with us."

Rahul

While Shoorvir says they don’t charge commission, the website says, "Become part of this revolution by becoming a member since every war needs money and in this war we need app, staff salary, technical equipment and internet which is not free."

When asked what the "revolution" and “war” is, Rahul claimed, “Hindus are the world’s largest minority. The Bible, Quran, and Judaism, their texts say those who don’t believe don’t have the right to live. We are just trying to fight that and survive. We are not being offensive but defensive.”

The website claims to have completed over 50,000 service requests so far, and operates across India, except in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is associated with an NGO called New Education Welfare Society.

In an interview with Ajeet Bharti on DO Politics on how "halal economy was excluding non-Muslims financially," Pandey said that "We can only defeat them economically, not by hitting them or kicking them out."

A Gradual but Alarming Shift

In another corner of the internet, a Telegram channel titled Hindu Jobs has been active since 2021. One of the first messages in the group reads:

"This channel is only for HINDU. Run by HINDU. DO NOT SHARE CHANNEL WITH NON HINDUS. Otherwise your Brothers and Sisters will have problem in getting JOB."

Over the years, the admin of the channel routinely shares a wide range of job openings—from sales to software engineering to financial analysts. The listings themselves do not explicitly mention religious filters, but the pinned message is a reminder that the group welcomes only one religion.

Such platforms are not emerging in a vacuum. Over the last few years, calls for the economic boycott of Muslims have become a regular feature of right-wing rallies and events. BJP leaders such as Nitesh Rane and T Raja Singh have also openly echoed such sentiments at public rallies.

The 'Call Hindu' portal, too, was inaugurated by Lodha in the wake of Muslim shopkeepers and vendors being boycotted in some parts of the country after the Pahalgam terror attack.

Economist Khalid Khan, who co-authored a 2017 study on Muslims in Urban Informal Employment, says such platforms reflect deeper social shifts.

"It would be wrong to say that such a trend has appeared suddenly. It was there earlier as well, the only difference is that it was fringe elements earlier. That has now changed. There is also a political incentive in promoting such a discourse."

Khalid Khan

Khan adds that Muslims are overrepresented in self-employment—particularly in sectors like carpentry, meat supply, and automobile repair—making them especially vulnerable to such economic targeting.

“Discrimination always existed in society. But earlier, there was a perception that actively discrimination against any community is ethically incorrect. But now, there’s an incentive. Now, no authority will condemn these openly. By not condemning them, such endeavours will only increase," he said.

The Legal Loophole

Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees that all persons are equal before the law, while Article 15 prohibits discrimination against any citizen based on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. 

But these protections apply to actions by the state, so where does that leave initiatives such as 'Call Hindu' or 'Shoorvir'?

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur told The Quint:

"On the face of it, no law technically prohibits it, since the constitutional provisions apply to the state. But if this becomes a trend, it is very dangerous. It starts with faith but can then extend to gender, and so on. There is no end to it."

Justice Madan Lokur

Alok Prasanna, co-founder of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and an expert in constitutional law, said this trend goes to show why India urgently needs a uniform anti-discrimination code.

"What we lack in India is a general law enforcing equality across state and private actors. There’s no clearly articulated, all-purpose legislation that empowers the state to take action against such practices."

He said that there was an argument to be made that the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which criminalises the practice of untouchability, could expand beyond protection of individuals from the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe.

"Perhaps there is a possibility of the constitutional ban on untouchability being read more broadly since 'untouchability' manifests in new forms. These kinds of religious exclusions may potentially fall within that framework, though the courts have yet to fully appreciate or test that reading."

Prasanna pointed out that while India does have the Protection of Civil Rights Act and the Protection of Human Rights Act, there was no real enforcement.

He cited Zoroastrian Co-Operative Housing Society vs District Registrar Co-Operative Housing Societies (2005) where the issue was whether Parsi housing societies could restrict membership of the housing society to only members of the Parsi faith. The District Registrar held that such religious restriction was discriminatory, but the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the society's by-laws which limited them.

"In that case, the court leaned on the community’s right to preserve its social and cultural rights. The constitution does grant rights for the same, but the question is to what extent can the law enforce this? If clients are willing to pay a premier or maybe less, for Hindu workers, the government may not step in to correct this. We’ve tolerated things like Bharat Matrimony filtering by caste and religion for too long."

He pointed out that in the United States, civil rights legislation ensured that even private businesses could not deny equal opportunities based on race.

"India's civil right protections are not as comprehensive. The challenge here is balancing anti-discrimination norms with the rights of minorities to associate or preserve identity. But in this case, if people don’t get good services or opportunities, they’ll leave and go to an Urban Company. How dedicated are you to religious discrimination if you’re willing to let the bathroom drain remain clogged?"