Hindus lured with inducements for conversion to Christianity in Sonbarsa, Uttar Pradesh
Mahrajganj, Uttar Pradesh, India 
31 December, 2023
Case Summary
In Sonbarsa village under Kothibar police station, Uttar Pradesh, an attempt was made to convert Hindus to Christianity by offering inducements. According to the complaint, Bechai, the village chowkidar of Sonbarsa, stated that Ramdas Peter, a Christian resident of Kushinagar, along with Ramudas of Harpur Ghiuha, Rajkishore of Sonbarsa, and Rajkumar of Kothibar, gathered people from neighbouring villages at their house and preached Christianity. They tried to lure Hindus into abandoning their faith and adopting Christianity. This act angered the local Hindu community. Kothibar police station in-charge Satyendra Kumar Rai confirmed that a case has been registered against the four accused, and strict monitoring has been initiated in the area.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker un the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category selected here 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. The other sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, and within it, the tertiary category selected is - 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. In this case, the missionaries attempted to convert Hindus by offering inducements. Here, the Hindu religious identity itself becomes the target. The perpetrators sought to exploit vulnerabilities by offering material benefits in exchange for religious conversion. This act was not about voluntary religious choice but about taking advantage of the economic conditions of Hindus to weaken their bond with their ancestral faith. The very aim of such inducement is to detach Hindus from their community and heritage by using poverty and need as tools of manipulation. Since the religious identity of the Hindus was the central reason for targeting them, the act is rooted in religious malice and qualifies as a hate crime. The gathering in Sonbarsa, where Christianity was preached and Hindus were urged to abandon their faith, represents a deliberate pattern of religious grooming. This was not a one-time incident of persuasion, but part of a systematic attempt to spread disaffection towards Hindu beliefs and slowly replace them with Christian doctrine. Such preaching involves subtle indoctrination, propaganda, and manipulation, designed to weaken confidence in Hindu traditions and create an affinity towards Christianity. This process is driven by religious malice, seeking to undermine Hindu identity and allegiance. The repeated pattern of targeting Hindus in villages underlines the intention of the perpetrators to erode Hindu religious loyalty through systematic brainwashing. Because the victim’s Hindu identity is the reason they are targeted, this too qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the conversion activity began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
