Tribal Hindu family offered inducements, made to discard Hindu symbols for religious conversion by Christian man

Case ID : 8da1646 | Location : Ramgarh, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 1 October, 2025

Case ID : 8da1646

Ramgarh, Jharkhand, India

1 October, 2025

Tribal Hindu family offered inducements, made to discard Hindu symbols for religious conversion by Christian man

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism

Case Summary

In the Tirla Kalyanpur village of the Ramgarh district, Jharkhand, tension arose after a tribal Hindu family was offered inducements and converted by a Christian man. According to reports, the tribal Hindu family, including a man named Parmeshwar Munda, his wife Pokli Devi, and their son Raj Munda, converted to Christianity about a month earlier, in October 2025. It was later revealed that a Christian man named Ram Kumar Mahli from Sarla Kalan had brainwashed and influenced Parmeshwar by telling him that converting to Christianity would bring a disease-free life. This assurance resulted in the conversion of the tribal Hindu family. The matter came to light when, under the influence of the Christian man, Parmeshwar immersed his family deity and the traditional Sarna flag in a nearby river, symbolising a break from the Sarna faith, followed by the tribal community. This act deeply upset the villagers, leading to protests and community meetings. Local residents expressed anger over the conversion and demanded that the authorities take action against those responsible for promoting illegal religious conversions among tribals. Members of the community, including the village headman’s husband, Sachin Dangi, former district council member Gobind Munda, and others such as Ramprasad Karmali and Sunny Dewal Mahato, attempted to persuade Parmeshwar and his family to return to Hinduism. However, Parmeshwar maintained that they would continue practising Christianity. Former Zilla Parishad member Gobind Munda stated that the community should prioritise education, health, and employment rather than fall prey to conversion activities. He further stressed that despite legal safeguards in tribal regions, conversions of tribal people to Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam through inducement or pressure were unconstitutional and that the administration must take strict action to prevent such occurrences. The situation in Tirla Kalyanpur remained tense as protests continued against the erosion of tribal faith and tradition.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Predatory Proselytisation. Within 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 other subcategory selected is- Attempts 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a tribal Hindu family was offered inducements for religious conversion by the Christian accused. The Christian accused exploited the vulnerabilities of a poor and marginalised tribal family by offering them false promises of a disease-free life in exchange for renouncing their ancestral Hindu faith. These inducements were not acts of kindness or charity; rather, they were manipulative tools designed to strip Hindus of their religious identity and coerce them into converting to Christianity. Such practices by Christian missionary groups have been repeatedly observed in several parts of India, where similar inducements have been used to lure Hindus into conversion. The recurring nature of such incidents establishes the religiously motivated intent of these actions, aimed at eroding Hindu faith and tribal identity through deceit and psychological manipulation. Furthermore, the accused not only persuaded the victims to abandon their traditional faith but also encouraged them to discard symbols of their religion, such as immersing the family deity and the Sarna flag in the river. This act amounted to a denigration of the Hindu faith and represented a deliberate rejection of their spiritual roots and cultural identity. This goes beyond religious debate or proselytisation; it constitutes an act of incitement and insult directed at the core beliefs of the Hindu community. Such actions amounted to a direct assault on the sanctity of Hindu and tribal belief systems, reflecting an intent to dismantle indigenous faith practices and impose an alien religious identity upon the community. This fosters an environment of hostility and disrespect towards the Hindu community and Hindu deities. Such acts of denigrating Hinduism stem from theological doctrines within Christianity that view polytheistic faiths with disdain and categorise Hindus as ‘polytheists’, thereby fostering hatred against them. Such actions make the religiously motivated nature of the crime even more evident. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. These tactics are designed not as acts of charity but as tools to engineer religious change under the guise of social upliftment, particularly among vulnerable and underprivileged communities. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the tribal Hindu family was converted, though it is mentioned that they were converted about a month ago. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—2 October 2025—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of their suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 2 November 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.