Hindu family targeted through faith healing claims by Christian Missionary organisation in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh; victims pressured to convert and eat beef

Case ID : 30a87d8 | Location : Raj-Nandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 19 May, 1996

Case ID : 30a87d8

Raj-Nandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India

19 May, 1996

Hindu family targeted through faith healing claims by Christian Missionary organisation in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh; victims pressured to convert and eat beef

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Victim says was brainwashed/groomed

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh, a Hindu family was brainwashed, induced and pressured to convert to Christianity by Christian missionaries associated with the Indian Full Gospel Mission. The missionaries exploited the family’s vulnerable condition during a medical crisis. The Hindu family was subjected to sustained religious pressure, mental harassment, forced consumption of beef, and social distress over several years. According to victim Sanwat Ram Banjare, his wife fell seriously ill in 1996. During her treatment, the family came into contact with members of the Indian Full Gospel Mission. Christians associated with the organisation assured the family of economic and social support and told them that his wife recovered because of the blessings of Lord Jesus. Following this, continuous pressure was exerted upon the family to convert to Christianity. Sanwat Ram Banjare stated during a press conference that members of the organisation forcibly made his wife consume beef. He stated that the act deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the family and caused severe mental trauma. He further stated that after coming under the influence of the organisation, the family also faced multiple social difficulties. The victim further stated that the members associated with the organisation illegally occupied nearly 10 dismil of village land( 4,356 square feet) and constructed a prayer hall on it. Complaints regarding the land occupation were submitted locally, but no concrete action had been taken at the time of reporting. The victim further stated that he began gathering information regarding the organisation’s activities from 2021 onwards. During this period, he came across several instances involving land grabbing, pressure tactics, and religious conversions carried out against villagers. He stated that the organisation had been operating in the area for a long time and had gradually brought Hindu villagers under its influence. During the press conference, the victim appealed to the state government and the district administration to conduct a high-level, impartial investigation into the matter so that legal action could be taken against those involved. At the time of reporting, no official response had been issued by either the administration or the organisation regarding the matter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is- Victim says was brainwashed/groomed, and Pattern of targeting Hindus. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting, regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other sub-category selected for the case is "Conversion/attempts to convert 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. Another sub-category for this case is "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. 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. This case has been added to the tracker because the methods employed in the incident reflected a clear pattern of predatory proselytisation through emotional manipulation, psychological influence, and exploitation of vulnerability. The method employed here was to approach the Hindu family at a time of severe personal distress. And thereafter, religious influence was gradually introduced under the guise of support, healing, and care. Such methods are not acts of neutral charity but calculated attempts to weaken attachment to one’s native faith and cultivate dependence on a competing religion. The repeated projection of “miraculous healing” as proof of the superiority or divine legitimacy of another faith is a recognised form of subtle indoctrination. In such cases, vulnerable individuals are conditioned into believing that recovery, safety, or emotional relief is linked to accepting a new religion. This creates psychological pressure without the need for overt violence and erodes the victim’s ability to exercise genuine free religious choice. The coercive imposition of practices that are deeply offensive to Hindu beliefs further demonstrates the targeted nature of the act. For practising Hindus, the forced consumption of beef is not merely a dietary issue but a direct violation of sacred religious convictions. Such acts function as tools of humiliation and psychological rupture, designed to detach victims from their existing religious identity and normalise submission to the belief system of the perpetrators. The case also reflected the abuse of trust and dependency to facilitate religious conversion. The relationship was first built through assurances of assistance and emotional support, after which sustained pressure and influence followed. This pattern is consistent with grooming-based conversion tactics, where manipulation is gradual, relational, and psychologically invasive rather than openly forceful at the outset. Additionally, the wider allegations regarding influence over villagers and the gradual expansion of religious control indicated that the targeting was not isolated to one family. Such patterns reveal organised efforts to influence vulnerable Hindu communities over long periods through emotional conditioning, social pressure, inducements, and dependency-based outreach. Predatory proselytisation often operates through subtlety rather than overt coercion. Instead of direct threats alone, conversion is pursued through emotional leverage, exploitation of illness or poverty, promises of relief, and gradual erosion of religious confidence. Moreover, such predatory conversion efforts stem from Abrahamic doctrines like Christianity that view non-believers with disdain until they convert, fostering contempt that manifests in targeted crimes against Hindus. Since the conduct of the Christian missionaries in this incident also reflected similar hostility towards the victim’s religious identity, it therefore meets the threshold of a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the media reported it. In this case, the victim stated that the conversion-related pressure began during his wife’s illness in 1996, but no specific date was provided. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the year 1996 has been combined with the news publication date and considered the date of the incident.