Hindu villagers lured, offered inducements and pressured into religious conversion by Christian missionaries; anti-Hindu literature distributed

Case ID : 995850e | Location : Basti, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 30 August, 2025

Case ID : 995850e

Basti, Uttar Pradesh, India

30 August, 2025

Hindu villagers lured, offered inducements and pressured into religious conversion by Christian missionaries; anti-Hindu literature distributed

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Rani Pokhara locality of Basti, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu villagers, primarily belonging to the Scheduled caste community, were offered inducements and targeted for conversion by Christian missionaries. According to reports, illegal conversions were going on under the guise of a prayer meeting that was organised at a house in the locality. The matter came to light when members of Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (a Hindu organisation) received information about the prayer meeting. They informed the police and reached the spot. When the Hindu organisation, along with the police, arrived, they found around one hundred people assembled for the prayer gathering. As per the complaint, missionaries were pressuring Hindu villagers, who primarily belonged to the Scheduled caste community, to convert to Christianity. They brainwashed them and attempted to lure them with inducements to push them towards conversion. During the search of the premises, police recovered around 500 pieces of religious literature relating to Christianity, along with other material, including equipment used for singing and music. Some of the literature was found to be anti-Hindu and provocative. A written complaint was lodged by the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh's general secretary, Arpan Srivastava, upon which police registered a case against four persons - Harihar Yadav, Ambika Prasad, Shivshankar, and Durgavati for organising the gathering without permission. Police confirmed that an investigation was ongoing. Nearly two dozen men and women were taken into custody and brought to the police station for investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, 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 second sub-category selected 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 third 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 fourth sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - 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. This case has been added to the tracker because Hindu villagers, primarily belonging to the Scheduled Caste community, were offered inducements and targeted for conversion by Christian missionaries. Offering incentives or inducements, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals like the Scheduled Caste communities, shows that these incentives are not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they are calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By providing inducements in exchange for conversion, the accused were effectively blackmailing those who might have been desperate for assistance or hope. The prayer meeting was organised without any permission, which further indicates the malicious intent of the perpetrators. Police recovered nearly 500 pieces of religious literature relating to Christianity, some of which were anti-Hindu and provocative in nature. This also indicates the structured nature and scale of their conversion activities. It further demonstrates that the perpetrators were indoctrinating the Hindu victims by using Christian religious texts and literature. Using the scriptures or literature of one faith to deliberately target and manipulate members of another, with the clear intention of religious conversion, represented a direct attack on the Hindu faith. Such actions were designed to violate and undermine the beliefs of Hindu victims and are clear indicators of religious hostility towards Hindus and their religious identity. Some of the literature was found to be anti-Hindu, which suggests that missionaries were also denigrating and insulting Hinduism to push people towards conversion. This goes beyond religious debate or proselytisation; it constitutes an act of incitement and insults directed at the core beliefs of the Hindu community. Such literature is designed to demean and undermine the faith of Hindus and is intended to create an inferiority complex in the minds of the victims against their own faith. When Christian religious material was used to exploit trust, sow doubt, and misrepresent the beliefs of Hindus to coerce conversion, particularly in a systematic manner, it constituted a religiously motivated offence. Here, the grooming was carried out under the guise of a community prayer meeting. This outwardly benign setting is deliberately chosen because it lowers suspicion and allows perpetrators to exploit social trust and collective vulnerability, especially among poor and uneducated Hindus. By repeatedly creating such environments, perpetrators attempt to normalise the idea of conversion and gradually erode the attachment of Hindu participants to their ancestral dharma. Over time, this produces disaffection towards Hindu beliefs while instilling loyalty towards the contrasting faith being propagated. Additionally, the victims were also pressured and coerced for religious conversion. This escalation from brainwashing through religious literature and inducements to outright coercion reflected a structured and phased approach often used in cases of predatory proselytisation. Such instances are seen in many cases where members of Christian missionary groups target socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion deprived people of their agency and dignity and resulted in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. 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. In such cases, Christian missionary groups often target and brainwash socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion undermined the agency and dignity of Hindus and enforced forced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather premeditated efforts to undermine the Hindu faith, persuade Hindus to discard their own faith, and convert to Christianity. Such acts were deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims, and thus, this case was added to the tracker.