Hindu school students brainwashed, Hindu deities mocked and abused by school principal in Chhattisgarh
Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh, India 
11 May, 2024
Case Summary
In Janjgir-Champa district, Chhattisgarh, Hindu sentiments were insulted after objectionable comments were made against Hindu deities in front of school students by their school principal. The incident occurred at Swami Atmanand Hindi Medium School in Dongakharoud, Pamgarh, where the school principal, identified as Kunj Kishore, was seen addressing school children while making derogatory remarks about Hindu deities and sacred scriptures. Referring to the Matsya Purana, he mocked and distorted sacred scriptures, claiming that three goddesses emerged from Brahma, including Goddess Saraswati. He further claimed that Brahma kept his own daughter as his wife for a hundred years and had sons with her. He used these statements to ridicule Hindu traditions, faith, and culture in front of students. The video, which was about a year and a half old, went viral again online, drawing widespread outrage. Following these incidents, the District Education Officer, Ashok Sinha, confirmed that the video was old and the principal had already faced prior disciplinary action based on earlier complaints about his conduct. He was removed from his position at Swami Atmanand School and later transferred as a lecturer to Bhuigaon High School.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - 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 sub-category selected here 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 second primary category selected here is -Hate speech against Hindus. With it, the sub-category 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 other sub-category relevant here is - Subversion of scriptures. Subverting the religious scriptures of Hindus has particularly devastating consequences. Subversion of the scriptures of Hindus is often done to justify or promote hatred, discrimination, or violence against specific individuals or groups of Hindus. Religious scriptures are often nuanced and those who harbour religious animosity towards Hindus often misquote or misrepresent the scripture to legitimise their animosity and hate towards the faith and its adherents. Any such misquoting of scriptures or subversion to justify hate, violence and discrimination against Hindus owing to religious animosity is hate speech and is categorised as such. This case has been added to the tracker because Hindu religious sentiments were insulted after the school principal made objectionable and factually distorted statements about Hindu deities in front of schoolchildren, using these misrepresentations to mock and belittle Hindu faith and cultural traditions. The principal, Kunj Kishore, while addressing school students, presented a fabricated and derogatory interpretation of the Matsya Purana. He first claimed that three goddesses “emerged from Brahma,” including Goddess Saraswati, even though no recognised Hindu scripture presents Saraswati as a literal biological offspring produced through physical creation. While some traditions poetically describe Saraswati as emerging from Brahma in a symbolic or metaphysical sense, she is revered primarily as a feminine divine energy, the personification of knowledge, wisdom, speech, and cosmic harmony, and not as a being born through a physical, human-like process. His deliberate misrepresentation stripped these symbolic and philosophical descriptions of their spiritual meaning and reduced them to crude literalism, misrepresenting the nature of the goddess and the text itself. He further claimed that Lord Brahma “kept his own daughter as his wife for a hundred years and had sons with her,” a claim that fundamentally misrepresented Hindu texts and was framed in a manner intended to imply incest. No authentic version of the Matsya Purana or any major Purana contains such a description, and Hindu tradition does not depict Lord Brahma entering into any such relationship in a literal manner. He intended to convey that Brahma married his own daughter, using this distortion to mock and demean the Hindu faith. The principal used these distortions not for rational or academic discussion but as a tool to ridicule Hindu belief systems in a classroom, exploiting his authority to influence minors. By framing these fabrications as authoritative teachings, he encouraged students to view Hinduism as irrational and immoral, using falsehoods to undermine reverence for Hindu traditions among young and impressionable children. Another aspect of this case was that the principal’s hate-driven remarks did not exist in isolation; they formed part of a broader pattern of behaviour aimed at influencing the religious mindset of minors. The denigration of Hinduism served as the ideological groundwork to weaken their confidence in their own faith, making them more susceptible to religious conversion. It is important to note here that, since the accused made these statements in a classroom setting, many of the school students in front of whom he made such statements were minors. Since the victims were minors, thus, 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 subtle manipulation tactics used by the accused to alienate them from their faith, and the perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without their volition. Furthermore, the perpetrator denigrated and misled people against Hinduism and Hindu gods and goddesses. 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 remarks are designed to demean and undermine the faith of Hindus and intend to create an inferiority complex in the minds of the victims against their own faith. This fosters an environment of hostility and disrespect towards the Hindu community and Hindu deities, while simultaneously making the victims more susceptible to religious conversion. For these reasons, this case has been added to the tracker, as it involved targeted denigration of the Hindu faith and brainwashing of minors with the intention of religious conversion, making it a clear case of hate-driven behaviour rooted in religious animosity. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when such claims were made, though it is mentioned that the video was one and a half years old. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date— 12 May 2024—as a placeholder to represent the time when the incident occurred. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 12 November 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began or when an event occurred, not when it was reported.
Case Status
Case adjudicated
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Others
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
