Hindu man pressured to convert by Christian wife and her family; threatened with false cases for refusal, minor daughters converted
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
7 December, 2017
Case Summary
In Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man, Ravindra Kumar, was subjected to pressure to convert to Christianity by his wife and her maternal family. He was also threatened with legal action and harm to his family when he refused to convert. The pressure for conversion also extended to his family, while objections were raised to his Hindu religious practices. Ravindra Kumar, son of Anand Swaroop and a resident of Ramlila Tilla, Mimalana Road in the Kotwali Nagar area of Muzaffarnagar, married Goldy on 8 December 2017 according to Hindu rituals. The couple had two daughters. After the marriage, a dispute arose over the religious beliefs of members of Goldy's maternal family, some of whom had adopted Christianity after leaving Hinduism. Ravindra said that he was subsequently pressured not only to change his religion but also to live according to the way his now Christian wife and her family wanted. The dispute continued despite efforts to resolve the matter within the families. Ravindra said he had previously been assured that there would be no further dispute, but the situation did not improve, leaving him under prolonged mental stress. On 16 July 2026, Goldy left the home with their two minor daughters without informing Ravindra and took gold and silver jewellery and around ₹15,000 in cash from the house. When Ravindra objected, members of Goldy's family told him that both daughters had also been made to accept Christianity. Ravindra then sought information about his daughters and asked for them to be brought back, following which he received further threats of serious consequences. He also asked that the circumstances surrounding the children's departure and their whereabouts be investigated. His brother and other relatives received threatening telephone calls, and Ravindra and his family were warned of legal action if he did not comply. He also said that threats extended to his children and other family members. Ravindra had videos, photographs and other material relating to the matter, which he said he would provide to the police for investigation. Before approaching the police, Ravindra had submitted a complaint through the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Portal and had emailed other authorities. He did not receive information about the expected action. He therefore went to the police office at around 12 noon on 19 September 2026 with several people and submitted a written complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarnagar. He sought the recovery of his daughters, an investigation into the circumstances in which they had left, and an inquiry into the jewellery, cash, threats and pressure to convert. On 19 September 2026, Ravindra also approached the District Magistrate's office accompanied by Bajrang Dal workers. He sought protection and legal assistance for himself and his family and requested an investigation into his wife and her maternal family. He also sought legal action on the basis of the facts and evidence established during the investigation. Siddharth Mishra, identified as Assistant Superintendent of Police Siddharth Mishra in one account and City Circle Officer Siddharth K. Mishra in another, said that police had received a complaint from a man in the Kotwali Nagar area concerning pressure from his wife to change his religion. Police were examining the case, available evidence and facts relating to illegal religious conversion. Further legal action would be taken on the basis of the findings and evidence emerging from the investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is: Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. The first subcategory selected is: Forced to convert after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu woman marries a Hindu man and the force/pressure against the Hindu man to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the non-Hindu woman hiding her religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu woman starts to pressure the Hindu man to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force/pressure by the perpetrator, including, denial of the man’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the man is forced/pressured to convert include forcing/pressurizing the man to involuntarily consume beef, pressurizing/forcing to read the Kalma, forced circumcision, forced to go to the mosque, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the man voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other subcategory selected is: Threatened to convert by family of partner. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man faces threats to convert and change his religious identity by the non-Hindu woman or her family. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert to Islam and also assaults the victim to force him to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu man converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the man was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The other subcategory selected is: Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is blackmailed to convert his religion. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu woman starts blackmailing a Hindu man to convert his religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu man is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to his family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The other primary category selected is: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is: Conversion of minor. 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 other subcategory selected 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 documented cases, 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 hate crime database because the Hindu victim, Ravindra Kumar, was subjected to pressure for religious conversion, objections to his Hindu religious practices and temple visits and threats of false cases by his Christian wife and her family members. The incident was not an ordinary domestic dispute, as the coercion and threats were directly linked to demands that the Hindu victim abandon his religion and adopt Christianity. The most prominent religious marker was the repeated pressure on Ravindra Kumar to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity. This was significant because it directly targeted his Hindu religious identity rather than merely reflecting a difference of personal belief within a marriage. His Hindu faith was being treated as something he was expected to give up, while Christianity was being presented as the religion he was required to adopt. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. The situation became more serious when his refusal to convert was followed by threats of legal consequences and death. The use of intimidation in response to his decision to remain Hindu made the pressure coercive rather than a simple attempt at religious persuasion. It placed his Hindu identity at the centre of the conflict and sought to make continued adherence to Hinduism come at the cost of personal security and freedom. A separate religious marker concerned Ravindra's Hindu religious observance. His visit to the Mehandipur Balaji temple and his organisation of a bhandara were expressions of his continued Hindu faith, including devotion to a Hindu deity and participation in a traditional Hindu religious practice. The objection to these activities was therefore significant because it did not merely concern a private choice or household preference; it challenged his ability to openly follow practices that were part of his Hindu religious life. For Ravindra, being able to visit a Hindu temple, worship according to his faith and organise a bhandara formed part of maintaining his Hindu identity. Opposition to such practices, particularly alongside pressure to adopt Christianity, restricted the ordinary expression of his Hindu faith and reinforced the wider pressure for him to move away from Hindu religious observance. The religious pressure also extended to Ravindra's family and his two minor daughters. Members of the family were subjected to pressure to adopt Christianity, while Ravindra was told that his daughters had also been made to accept Christianity. In this case, both the daughters were minors, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the wife purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. The wife's position as the children's mother placed her in a position of direct influence over their upbringing and religious beliefs. The conversion of the minor daughters, particularly without the consent of both parents, was rooted in religious animosity and represented an attempt to impose a religious identity upon children who were not in a position to independently make such a decision. The wife's influence over the daughters was used to facilitate their adoption of Christianity despite their father's opposition, making the conduct particularly significant from a religious-hate perspective. Most significantly, threats of false legal cases, including a dowry case, and death were presented as consequences of refusing the religious demands. The threats were therefore connected to Ravindra's decision to remain Hindu rather than accept Christianity. Taken together, the conversion pressure, objections to Hindu worship and religious observance, pressure involving his children, and threats following his refusal constituted the principal religious elements directed against his Hindu identity. Accordingly, this case has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker's Hate Crime Database as an instance of religiously motivated hostility directed against Hinduism and the religious identity of the Hindu community. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. None of the media sources covering this case specifies the exact date on which the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on the earliest date mentioned in the reports, the date of the couple's wedding, 8 December 2017. The victim count has been recorded as three, including Ravindra Kumar, the Hindu man, and his two daughters, who were also stated to have been made to accept Christianity. Other family members have not been counted as victims, as their identities and the precise nature of their direct victimisation were not specified in the available reports. The perpetrator count has been recorded as one, referring to Ravindra’s wife, Goldy, who was specifically identified in the reports in connection with the pressure to convert and the subsequent dispute. Although members of Goldy’s maternal family were also stated to have been involved in pressuring Ravindra and his family, their exact number and individual identities were not specified. Therefore, only the specifically identified perpetrator has been counted, and the figure has been recorded conservatively based on the available information.
Victim Details
Total Victim
3
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 2
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
