Hindu man beaten for refusing to convert to Christianity

Case ID : 152de5a | Location : West Delhi, Delhi, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 4 January, 2025
Case ID : 152de5a
location West Delhi, Delhi, India
date 4 January, 2025
Hindu man beaten for refusing to convert to Christianity
Predatory Proselytisation
Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion
Attack not resulting in death
Attacked for refusal to convert

Case Summary

A video went viral on the X platform shared by 'KreatelyMedia'. In the video, a Hindu man is showing his injured bedridden father. According to the Hindu man, his father Ramsevak Kushwaha (59) went to Uttam Nagar in Delhi to purchase a Gas Cylinder on 5th January. Meanwhile, a man named Lalit Yadav who knew Ramsevak arrived there and asked him to sit in his car and eat some food along with him. When Lalit and Ramsevak were having their food, Lalit revealed that he had converted to Christianity and asked Ramsevak to also convert to Christianity. Lalit started forcing him to convert when he refused the conversion, and then Lalit locked him in the car and slapped him. Ramsevak managed to get out of the car but Lalit started to hit him with a lathi (wooden stick). Ramsevak's legs and hand were badly injured causing breaking of bones and fractures.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the Hinduphobia tracker under two prime categories because distinct elements here prove it's a religiously motivated hate crime. The first is- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second category under which this case has been placed is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. Here, the victim's son testified that his father was mercilessly beaten up for refusing to convert to Christianity. It is important to mention here that the underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu man. Further, the central aim of the perpetrator was to disenfranchise the Hindu man from his professed faith. Since the central motivation here is religion, this case has been added to the tracker.

Victim Details

Total Victim

1

Deceased

0


Gender

  • Male 1
  • Female 0
  • Third Gender 0
  • Unknown 0

Caste

  • SC/ST 0
  • OBC 1
  • General 0
  • Unknown 0

Age Group

  • Minor 0
  • Adult 1
  • Senior Citizen 0
  • Unknown 0
Case Status Background
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Case Status


Unknown

Case Status Background
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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range


One Person

Perpetrators Gender


male

Case Details SVG
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