Hindu man targeted for forced conversion in Rajasthan; offered job and cash, subjected to casteist slurs and insults to Hindu deities
Banswara, Rajasthan, India 
21 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Shivpura village, Banswara, Rajasthan, a Hindu man was targeted in an attempt to force him to convert to Christianity under the pretext of attending a “Youth Festival.” He stated that the organisers subjected him to religious rituals, offered him money and a job in exchange for conversion. He further stated that the accused used casteist slurs against him, insulted Hindu gods and goddesses, and physically assaulted and threatened him when he refused to abandon his faith. According to Sallopat Police Station SHO Jayesh Patidar, the complainant, Aditya Dindor, had been estranged from his father for around four years following a family dispute. During this period, Aditya met Ashish Damor, who helped him arrange accommodation in Banswara city. On the evening of 18 September 2026, Damor, accompanied by several others, visited Aditya’s residence and invited him to a “Youth Festival” scheduled for 22 September at Balwant Bariya's residence in Shivpura village. Aditya stated that he was taken to the venue, where a large crowd had gathered inside a hall. On entering, they welcomed him with a garland and handed him a religious text. He stated that people present were being given water to drink and made to bathe as part of religious rituals, with religious conversions also taking place. The organisers then attempted to persuade him to undergo the same process. When Aditya refused, the organisers offered him an appointment as a priest, along with a monthly salary of ₹25,000, a four-wheeler for travel and other benefits, in return for converting. After he rejected the proposal, they offered him ₹1 lakh in cash the following day if he agreed to change his religion. Aditya stated that he continued to refuse despite these inducements. He further stated that the organisers then used casteist slurs against him and made insulting remarks about Hindu gods and goddesses, before subjecting him to physical assault and threats. The caste-based abuse added another layer of humiliation to the pressure being placed on him because of his refusal to convert, while the remarks against Hindu deities directly targeted his religious beliefs. Aditya subsequently approached the police, following which an FIR was registered under Sections 3 and 5 of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. The FIR names 14 individuals, including Sunny Maida, Sunil Garasiya, Balwant Bariya, Rev. Vijay Balbir Rana, Ajay Damor, Deepak Katara, Anil Patel, Jawan Singh Garasiya, Pradeep Bariya, Sumit Garasiya, Dharmendra Maida, Paul Thomas, Ashish Damor and Jevan. Police have also booked around 150 unidentified people who were present at the gathering. At the time of documenting this incident, police were investigating the matter. Officers were questioning people who attended the gathering and collecting evidence to establish what took place and whether unlawful religious conversions were carried out at the event.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This incident has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the subcategory selected is- Conversion/attempts to convert by inducements. 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. The second 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 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. The third subcategory selected is: Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The next primary category selected is: Attack not resulting in death, and within this, the subcategory selected is: Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The next category selected is: Hate speech against Hindus. Within this, the subcategory selected is: Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The religious dimension of this case was central to the abuse because the pressure placed on the victim was aimed at one specific outcome: making him abandon his Hindu faith. The organisers did not merely persuade him to attend a religious gathering; they attempted to secure his conversion through a combination of religious rituals, financial inducements and promises of employment. The offer of a ₹25,000 monthly salary, a four-wheeler and other benefits, followed by an offer of ₹1 lakh in cash, shows how the victim’s economic circumstances were used as leverage to induce him to give up his faith. This fits the pattern of predatory proselytisation through inducement, in which material benefits are tied directly to religious conversion. The coercion also took an explicitly anti-Hindu form when the victim refused to comply. The use of casteist slurs was intended to humiliate him while he was resisting the conversion attempt, weaponising his social identity against him. The complainant confirmed how he was abused with caste slurs by the perpetrators when he refused to give in to their conversion demands. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while the accused hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the refusal for conversion as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim. The other religious marker in this incident is the reported insults directed at Hindu gods and goddesses, which directly attacked the faith the victim was being pressured to abandon. These were not incidental insults unrelated to the conversion effort; they came in the context of his refusal to accept another religious identity and therefore intensified the pressure on him as a Hindu. The escalation from inducement to humiliation, assault and threats is particularly significant. When the victim refused the offers and continued to adhere to his faith, the response shifted from persuasion to punishment. This progression shows that his refusal to surrender his Hindu identity was itself treated as the problem. The violence and threats therefore functioned as coercive tools to overcome his resistance rather than as an unrelated personal dispute. The case also demonstrates that the targeting involved more than an attempt to change the victim’s religion. His Hindu identity was attacked through three connected means: material inducement to convert, denigration of Hindu religious beliefs, and physical and verbal intimidation when he refused. The combination makes the religious motive central to the offence. Taken together, the conduct reflects a sustained effort to make a Hindu man abandon his faith by exploiting his vulnerability and then punishing him when he refused. The combination of conversion inducement, religious humiliation, caste-based abuse, denigration of Hindu deities, assault and threats makes the victim’s Hindu identity central to the offence. The nature and progression of these acts also point to an underlying hostility towards the faith the victim professed since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. This mindset does not merely tolerate the existence of another faith but seeks its erasure or assimilation. As a result, Hindus are often targeted not because of who they are as individuals, but because of their religious identity. The violence, deception, or humiliation inflicted in such cases is therefore not random, but part of a broader ideological hostility toward Hinduism and its symbols, practices, and adherents. Here, too, the predatory actions stemmed from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith, which is why this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 10 to 100
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
