Linking populism to religion helps populists and populist parties to turn religion into a divisive instrument for consolidating power in societies, such as India, in which religion already plays an important socio-political role. This article examines how Hindu religious populism is weaponised against Christian and Muslim minorities in the north Indian district of Varanasi. How do ‘religion’ and ‘populism’ align and interact to inform the imaging and remaking of Hindu politics and nation and the ‘othering’ of religious minorities? Drawing on themes of ‘Hindu nationalism’, ‘populism’, ‘ontological insecurity’ and ‘secularism’, this study investigates the under-researched topic of religious populism and its link with Hindu nationalism and its human rights impact on religious minorities. Specifically, this paper examines what the human rights implications are of Hindu religious populism for Christian and Muslim religious minorities in India, and its interaction with Indian secularism. The research addresses these questions by revisiting archival material and scholarship and conducting interviews with Christian and Muslim minorities and Hindu nationalists in the district of Varanasi in north India. It tests theoretical intuitions and analytical lenses that emerged during field work (2019/2022) in north India. It examines how, in marginalising religious minorities, and by creating a divisive binary and ontological insecurity among the Hindu majority, right-wing Hindu nationalist populism sacralises ‘the Hindu people’ by appealing to Hinduism, thereby weakening secularism, which protects the rights of religious minorities and allows them to maintain their distinct religious rituals and heritage such as churches and mosques. Insights from this research will contribute to theorising Hindu religious populism and its interaction with Indian secularism in the protection of Christian and Muslim minorities.