Religious conversion racket busted, Hindus threatened with sword; villagers asked to tear images of Hindu gods, replace with Jesus
Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India 
26 October, 2024
Case Summary
In Azamgarh’s Jahanaganj area, a case of religious conversion sparked controversy. BJP District President of Scheduled Jari Morcha, Saudagar Bharti, along with other party members, visited Kodwa village on October 27, 2024, as part of a BJP membership drive. There, they noticed a large crowd gathered at a house and decided to investigate. Inside, they discovered a conversion event in progress, where villagers were being asked to tear images of Hindu gods and replace them with a picture of Jesus. According to Bharti, the group’s leader, identified as Hariram Gupta, encouraged the attendees to abandon Hindu beliefs, claiming that following Jesus would solve their problems. When Bharti and his team protested, Gupta threatened them with a sword. The BJP leaders left the scene and went to Jahanaganj police station to file an official complaint against Gupta and others involved.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The case is being added to the primary category of 'Predatory Proselytisation' and sub-categories 'harassment, coercion and threats for conversion' and 'attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism'. 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. Further, 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. In this case, the Christians were threatening the Hindus to convert to Christianity and also, were denigrating Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the process. Since the crime was driven by religious animosity against Hindus and their faith, it is being added to the hate crime database.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
