110 Dalits converted to Christianity by Pastors Simon William and Deepak Morris, arrested

Case ID : 2d52892 | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 30 March, 2024

Case ID : 2d52892

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

30 March, 2024

110 Dalits converted to Christianity by Pastors Simon William and Deepak Morris, arrested

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

A religious conversion racket was exposed in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on March 31, 2024. Around 110 Hindu men and women were being transported in two buses to a church in Unnao for conversion. The accused, including a church priest named Simon Williams and Deepak Morris, promised financial incentives, job opportunities, and marriage prospects to lure them into converting to Christianity. The group was also instructed to remove Hindu idols after conversion. Upon receiving information, the Kanpur Police arrested the two accused under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2021. Hindu activists intercepted the buses and alerted the police after learning about the conversion racket. The rescued individuals, including Sanjay Valmiki, filed complaints against Williams and Morris, alleging pressure to convert and threats to their families' well-being. “You will have to remove the idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. The church will give you 40 to 50 thousand rupees as soon as you convert to our religion. Not only this, they will also give you money for a job and medical treatment”, they said to Sanjay. However, reports indicate that the accused were released by Nawabganj police station in-charge Dinanath Mishra amid uproar from the Christian community at the police station.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two subcategories under Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the subcategory 'Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion' under this core category in addition to conversion by inducement. 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 have 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 and forceful circumcision. 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 in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats 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 sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is conversion by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. In this specific case, elements of both these subcategories were observed. Firstly, it is evident from the details that all the Hindu victims belonged to the economically weaker section of the society. The pastors were attempting to convert them by offering them the inducement of money, medical treatment, jobs etc. Further, they were also threatened with harm that would come to their family if they refused to convert. Another element in the case was the Pastors forcing the Hindu victims to throw their idols. It is therefore observed that the pastors not only attempted to convert the Hindu victims through inducement but also issued threats and harassed the Hindus in an attempt to covert them. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the intention of disenfranchising them from it, the case has been categorised as a hate crime.