Hindu man threatened to embrace Christianity by his own family members after latter came in contact with missionaries

Case ID : 90a07b0 | Location : Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 5 February, 2025

Case ID : 90a07b0

Chhattisgarh, India

5 February, 2025

Hindu man threatened to embrace Christianity by his own family members after latter came in contact with missionaries

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

A journalist named Swati Goel Sharma posted an incident on her X handle, which stated that a Hindu man named Uttara Kumar Sahu was forced to embrace Christianity by his family members, namely Santosh Moses and Anu Moses. According to the report shared by the journalist, Uttara Kumar Sahu's family members had embraced Christianity after coming in contact with some Christian missionaries and now they were threatening Uttara, who was an employee at the municipality, to embrace Christianity. Uttara Kumar Sahu in his police complaint stated that his family and his in-laws adopted Christianity and asked him to convert as well, but he refused to convert. Despite his refusal, his wife and his family brought a Christian pastor to their home to convert him to Christianity. They threatened him that if doesn't convert, then he would face the 'anger of god'. Uttara filed a complaint against the pastor, his wife, and his family at the local police station. The police arrested the pastor and the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the Hinduphobia tracker under the category of- Predatory proselytisation. Within this, the sub-category chosen 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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 incident highlights a pattern of forced religious conversion through intimidation and coercion. The victim, Uttara Kumar Sahu, was targeted by his own family members and a Christian pastor, who repeatedly pressured him to abandon his Hindu faith. Despite his refusal, they persisted in their efforts, even bringing a pastor to his home to enforce the conversion, threatening him with the 'anger of god' if he did not comply. This use of fear tactics is a common strategy in predatory proselytisation, where individuals are manipulated into changing their religion through psychological and emotional blackmail. Such tactics are not just acts of religious intolerance but also forms of oppression aimed at erasing Hindu religious identity. Documenting such cases is crucial to exposing the systemic targeting of Hindus for conversion and the use of threats and coercion as tools of religious dominance.