Woman pressurises local villagers of Kaushambi to convert to Christianity during Changai Sabha

Case ID : 2e1d57c | Location : Kaushambi District, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 9 October, 2024

Case ID : 2e1d57c

Kaushambi District, Uttar Pradesh, India

9 October, 2024

Woman pressurises local villagers of Kaushambi to convert to Christianity during Changai Sabha

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Syed Sarawa village of Kaushambi district, UP, a prayer meeting called Changai Sabha led to a dispute over religious conversions. Members of Hindu organisations arrived after hearing that Christian missionaries were holding a gathering aimed at converting locals. At the scene, they found a woman attempting to convert Hindu villagers to Christianity, using what was described as “suspicious material.” During the confrontation, a young man said that he was being pressured to convert, which angered the Hindu organisation members. The young man further said that the woman had also threatened him for resisting conversion efforts. Local villagers, along with Hindu organisation representatives, then handed the woman over to the police. Police officers arrived to question the woman regarding the incident, while the villagers accused her of trying to convert Hindu homes within the village.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case where a woman reportedly attempted to convert locals under the pretext of a prayer meeting, aligns with the category of Predatory Proselytisation, particularly under the sub-categories of- Harassment, threats, 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. In this case, the accusation that the woman was coercing villagers into Christianity and allegedly using “suspicious material” to influence them indicates an attempt to manipulate beliefs in a calculated manner. The young man’s testimony of being pressured, along with claims of receiving threats for resisting conversion efforts, underlines the harassment he faced, demonstrating a deliberate use of intimidation to compromise his religious autonomy. The convergence of inducement, subtle manipulation, and direct threats portrays this case as a form of targeted proselytization. Since exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime. Notably, given the lack of clarity on how many villagers may have been influenced by the conversion efforts and whether those who did convert did so willingly or under coercion, for accuracy, we are currently recognizing only the young man who reported coercion as the confirmed victim in this instance.