Hindu woman and her family pressured to convert to Christianity, assaulted for refusing conversion in Alipurduar, West Bengal
Alipurduar, West Bengal, India 
18 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Alipurduar district of West Bengal, a Hindu woman and her family were pressured by Christian missionaries to convert to Christianity. When she refused to abandon her Hindu faith, she, her husband and her mother-in-law were assaulted by the perpetrators. According to local reports, the woman was a resident of Shiltong Forest village in Alipurduar district. A video of her testimony subsequently went viral on social media, in which she stated that the Christian missionaries assaulted her, her husband and her mother-in-law after they refused to convert to Christianity. She also stated that the perpetrators attempted to strip her clothes. The woman further said that she and her family were Hindus and wanted to remain Hindu, making clear that her refusal to convert stemmed from her desire to retain her faith. Following the assault, she submitted a written complaint to the Superintendent of Police, Alipurduar, seeking action against those responsible. The complaint was submitted after no action was taken by the local police in connection with the incident.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The 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 other primary category selected is: Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is: Attacked for refusing 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. This case was a clear example of a religiously motivated hate crime, as a Hindu woman and her family were pressured to convert to Christianity and assaulted after refusing to abandon their faith. Forcing the victims to convert violated their religious autonomy and fundamental right to freely choose, practise and retain their Hindu faith. A conversion can only be considered genuine when it stems from an individual's free and informed conviction and voluntary decision to embrace another faith. In this case, however, the conversion was not motivated by any genuine conviction or interest in Christianity, but was pursued through force and coercion. By compelling the Hindu family to abandon their faith against their will, the perpetrators denied them freedom of religious choice and demonstrated hostility towards their Hindu identity, making the attempt a religiously driven act targeting them as Hindus. The assault that followed their refusal to convert further established the religious motive behind the crime. The woman, her husband and her mother-in-law were subjected to violence because they refused to relinquish their Hindu faith. The assault was therefore directly linked to their exercise of religious autonomy rather than an unrelated personal dispute. Using physical violence in response to their refusal demonstrated hostility towards their decision to remain Hindu and an unwillingness to respect their religious choice. The violence consequently constituted a direct manifestation of religious animosity towards the victims' Hindu faith and made the incident a hate crime targeting Hindus. This was not an isolated incident. Between 1 January 2023 and 6 October 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker documented 2,013 cases of Predatory Proselytisation in which Hindus were targeted for conversion to other faiths through methods including inducements, threats, coercion, brainwashing, religious denigration and force. Of these, 931 cases involved forced conversion to Christianity, accounting for 46.25% of all documented predatory proselytisation cases. The scale of these cases demonstrates a broader pattern of targeting Hindus for conversion, placing this incident within a wider pattern of religiously motivated acts against Hindus rather than as an isolated occurrence. Overall, such instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim's ordeal begins rather than when the incident is reported by the media. However, in this case, the incident was reported in the media on 19 September 2026. Hence, 19 September 2026 has been selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.
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 0
- Adult 3
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
