Hindu woman in Jharkhand forced by husband to convert to Islam, assaulted for resisting

Case ID : a049267 | Location : Lohardaga, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 1 November, 2025

Case ID : a049267

Lohardaga, Jharkhand, India

1 November, 2025

Hindu woman in Jharkhand forced by husband to convert to Islam, assaulted for resisting

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu woman was forced to convert by her husband in Doba Bartoli village under the Kudu police station area, Lohardaga, Jharkhand. The woman, Sunila Oraon, told villagers in a meeting held on 2 November 2025 that her husband, Sunil Oraon, has been trying to abandon the Adivasi Sarna faith and adopt Islam, and has been putting pressure on her also to convert with him. She said that when she refused to convert, he assaulted her and continued to force her to change her religion. Sunila sought help from the villagers, after which the villagers stated that if Sunil leaves the Sarna religion and adopts another religion, he will be socially boycotted, removed from land and property rights, and will not be allowed any social engagement in the village. The villagers said that no activity against the unity and tradition of the village will be tolerated. The villagers gave written information of their decision to Station House Officer Manoj Kumar and demanded that the conversion attempt be stopped. It has been reported that Sunil has been putting pressure on his wife to convert for the past month, which has created tension in the family. SHO Manoj Kumar confirmed that the complaint has been received and that police are investigating.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory under this is: Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man, pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. Another subcategory under this is: Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurising the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. This case has been included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because it involves a Hindu woman being forced within her marriage to abandon her inherited religious identity and conform to the religious choice of her husband. In this case, the victim specifically stated that her husband repeatedly pressured her to convert to Islam and assaulted her when she refused. This means the conversion attempt is not theoretical or verbal persuasion. It is coercive, violent and rooted in the suppression of her right to remain Hindu. Forced conversion inside marriage is not only a violation of her bodily autonomy and dignity, but is also a direct attack on Hindu identity through the most intimate unit of society, which is the family. The husband’s behaviour reflects the core markers of forced conversion: he repeatedly insisted that his wife abandon her Adivasi Sarna faith and adopt another religion, and when she resisted, he physically assaulted her. This demonstrates that the demand for conversion was not a suggestion; it was an ultimatum backed by violence. This type of coercion is the clearest criterion of a hate crime because the victim is targeted solely on the basis of her Hindu religious identity, which her husband sought to erase. The pressure was continuous over one month, showing a sustained attempt to break her resistance. Additionally, the husband’s attempt to force conversion threatened to destabilise the entire social and familial structure of the village community. In many Adivasi Sarna communities, religion is integrated into daily life, cultural continuity and collective identity. Targeting one Hindu woman’s identity inside her own home becomes a direct attempt to weaken a cultural structure built over generations. The villagers recognised that this was not a private dispute, but a direct assault on the Sarna faith. This is why they intervened and declared that abandoning the Hindu Sarna faith would lead to social boycott, land dispossession and exclusion. Their reaction shows that the community understood that religious identity was at stake and that the imposition of another faith within marriage is fundamentally an attack on the collective Hindu tradition they preserve. Forced conversion inside marriage is one of the most dangerous forms of religious hostility because it seeks to destroy Hindu identity at the point where the victim is most vulnerable and isolated. It does not require mob violence. It functions through control, emotional dominance, physical assault and coercion inside the household. These patterns are repeatedly seen in cases where Hindu women are pressured after marriage to abandon their faith. Disclaimer: Since the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began is not mentioned, the date on which the case was reported in the media has been recorded as the date of the incident for documentation purposes.