Poor Hindu villagers targeted for conversion into Christianity with inducements and relief from evil spirits, threatened when refused

Case ID : a0490fd | Location : Chapra, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 26 October, 2023

Case ID : a0490fd

Chapra, Bihar, India

26 October, 2023

Poor Hindu villagers targeted for conversion into Christianity with inducements and relief from evil spirits, threatened when refused

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In a Hindu village in Bihar’s Chhapra district, residents stated that Christian missionary groups were trying to convert them using fear and financial incentives. Around twenty to twenty-five poor Dalit families in the area said that a local church-linked group had approached them, promising money, education, and relief from “evil spirits” if they embraced Christianity. When the villagers refused, they were threatened and pressured to oblige. One villager, Ramnath Manjhi, explained that the missionaries asked him to sign documents under the pretext of building a school, which later turned out to be an attempt to acquire land for a church. He and others stated they were offered ₹50,000 and told their problems would end if they converted. However, villagers refused, saying they wished to remain Hindus and follow their ancestral faith. Ramnath Manjhi was threatened by the missionaries, saying that he would be sacrificed as a lamb if the resistance continued. The villagers also stated that despite filing multiple complaints with the local police and administration, no action was taken. Instead, they said that officials supported the missionaries and were facilitating the conversion racket. Due to administrative patronage, construction of the church resumed several times even after being halted due to local opposition. Local leader Rana Yashwant Pratap Singh, who is supporting the villagers in resisting the missionary pressure, said that the church construction was being directed by a person named Jyoti Prakash, who is associated with missionary organisations such as the “James Gospel Echoing Missionary Society,” funded from abroad. Activists from the Agniveer organisation and other Hindu groups had visited the site earlier, supporting the villagers’ resistance. The community insisted they would not convert regardless of any financial temptation or threats.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The first 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 second sub-category 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 third sub-category selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. With the tertiary category: 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 that 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the missionaries offered inducements from the beginning, establishing the fact that they had specifically targeted impoverished households with a clear intention of influencing the victims with money. The use of inducements to manipulate individuals into changing their religion demonstrated coercion and deceit rather than genuine religious exchange. This method of targeting a specific community, Hindus in this context, through monetary and material temptations, reflected deep-seated religious animosity. It revealed a prejudiced intent to alter a person’s belief system through corruption, making the act a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. One of the Hindu victims, Ramnath Manjhi, confronted the accused and opposed the conversion efforts. In response, he was given a death threat that he would be sacrificed as a lamb. This death threat was not a random act; it was targeted intimidation aimed at silencing a Hindu man who stood up for his community’s right to practice its faith without harassment. Threatening a Hindu for defending his faith and his fellow Hindus showcases the perpetrators’ hostility toward both the individual and the religion he represents. It is a clear example of religious animosity that transforms coercion into outright threats of violence, reinforcing that this case meets the definition of a religiously motivated crime. Also, the missionaries (with the help of local administration) tried to get approval for the Church through deception. The villagers were told that a school would be constructed at the site, which was not the case; hence, the construction was disrupted multiple times due to local opposition, but in each instance, officers from the local administration intervened on behalf of the missionaries. The report also stated that in neighbouring villages, similar cases of coercive religious conversion had occurred. Here, the role of local administration in facilitating the conversion activities around the region points to a wider and well-funded operation, exposing the fact that this was not a benign act of proselytisation but a deliberate scheme of demographic change. Further, the missionaries tried to exploit the poor villagers with superstitious beliefs, claiming that if they joined Christianity, they would get relief from evil spirits. This was a clear act of brainwashing and manipulation of a socially backward community with a low literacy rate. Such superstitions are not only used to manipulate the victims through fear but also to impose Christian supremacy over Hinduism. Using the teachings and texts of one faith to undermine another and to create confusion in the minds of Hindu believers highlighted a calculated and malicious form of religious coercion rooted in hatred and prejudice. 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 are not random or isolated incidents, but 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. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began, rather than when it was reported by the media. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the conversion activities began, instead providing a time frame of two years. Therefore, in this instance, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on two years before the media report was published - 27 October 2023. Disclaimer: In this case, it is mentioned that members of 20-25 families were targeted for conversion. However, the exact number is not specified. Due to this lack of clarity, we have relied on the most recent Indian census data, which indicates that the average family size in India is approximately 4.8 members per household. To ensure a standardised estimation, we have opted to consider an average of 5 members per family. Based on this approach and taking the upper limit of the range, the estimated total number of victims in this case is calculated as 125 individuals. The report stated that women were also targeted, but no specific gender breakdown was provided. Therefore, we have evenly divided the count in accordance with the gender ratio reported by the census in 2011 (50:50) for the sake of consistency in documentation.