Hindu students subjected to religious discrimination and religious indoctrinated by Muslim school staff
Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
13 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Sitapur's Tambaur, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu students at a private school were targeted for religious conversion and subjected to religious discrimination by the school management and teaching staff. The school administration distributed religious literature to the students and asked question on them. The targeting extended to adults on 14 September 2026, when the school organised a Hindi Diwas event. During this programme, the administration distributed Islamic books to the non-Muslim parents and guests in attendance. In response to the incident, Uttam Singh, a resident of Kalanapur and a divisional official of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, lodged a formal police complaint. He sought strict legal action against the school authorities over the religious discrimination and conversion attempts. Following the complaint, the police registered a First Information Report against the school manager, Aziz Gauri, the principal, Ejaz Ahmed Ansari, and an unnamed Muslim teacher. Law enforcement authorities initiated an investigation into the matter to determine further action.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected are- Conversion of minor, 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 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The incident constituted a religiously motivated hate crime because the conduct by the Muslim staff and teachers specifically differentiated between students on the basis of their religious identity, with Hindu students being subjected to religious discrimination and targeted for attempts at conversion. The selection of students belonging to a faith different from that promoted by the accused demonstrated that their religious identity was central to the reported targeting rather than being incidental to the conduct. The conduct embodied predatory proselytisation through the exploitation of an institutional position of authority. Within a school, managers and teachers exercised considerable influence over students and occupied positions of trust and responsibility. The distribution of religious literature to Hindu students, coupled with questioning them about its contents, placed religious instruction within an educational environment where students were expected to engage with and respond to those in positions of authority. This created an environment in which religious influence was exerted over Hindu students because of the authority attached to their educational roles. The distribution of Islamic religious books to Hindu students and their parents also demonstrated an attempt to create sustained religious exposure within the school community, with the conversion attempts providing the broader context for this conduct. Providing religious literature to Hindu students, particularly within an educational institution, served to gradually familiarise and influence them towards Islamic beliefs with the ultimate goal of religious conversion. Viewed alongside the questioning of students about the religious material, the distribution of these books indicated a method of subtle religious influence intended to weaken existing religious affiliations and facilitate movement towards Islam. The religious nature of the conduct was further reinforced by the distribution of Islamic books to Hindu parents and guests during the school's Hindi Diwas programme on 14 September 2026. The extension of the activity beyond students to members of the wider Hindu community associated with the school indicated that the religious outreach was not confined to an individual interaction with students. The use of an official school programme to distribute Islamic religious material to non-Muslim attendees further demonstrated the institutional setting in which the religious activity took place. The targeting of Hindu and other non-Muslim members of the school community therefore went beyond ordinary religious expression or voluntary dissemination of religious material. The conduct involved singling out people from a different religious background for religious literature, questioning concerning its contents, and attempts at conversion, thereby interfering with their religious autonomy and subjecting them to targeted proselytising within an institutional setting. Taken together, the reported discrimination against Hindu students, attempts at conversion, and distribution of Islamic religious literature to non-Muslim members of the school community established a clear religious dimension to the incident. The conduct was directed at individuals because they belonged to a different faith from that represented by the accused and used the authority and institutional setting of a school to facilitate religious influence. On this basis, the case qualified as a religiously motivated offence and was added to the Hate Crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records crimes based on when the victim’s ordeal begins rather than when they are reported by the media. In this case, the available reports did not specify when the conversion attempts began. Hence, 14 September 2026, the date selected, has been used as the indicative incident date. This is for documentation purposes only.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
