Hindu students forced to perform namaz at university camp in Bilaspur

Case ID : aa4aed6 | Location : Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 30 March, 2025

Case ID : aa4aed6

Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India

30 March, 2025

Hindu students forced to perform namaz at university camp in Bilaspur

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

At Guru Ghasidas Central University in Bilaspur, over 150 Hindu students were pressured into performing namaz during a National Service Scheme (NSS) camp held from 26 March to 1 April in the Shivtarai forest. The incident took place on Eid-ul-Fitr, when the NSS coordinator invited Muslim students to pray on stage and then instructed Hindu students to imitate the prayer. The students lodged a formal complaint at Koni police station, stating they had faced coercion, manipulation, and threats of being denied participation certificates if they refused. They also reported that their mobile phones were confiscated to prevent any recording of the incident. The complaint was filed against programme officer Dr Basant Kumar, coordinator Dilip Jha, and others. Koni Station House Officer Lakheswar Kewat confirmed that a preliminary investigation was underway. Although the university administration stated it had not received any official complaint, it formed a Fact-Finding Committee in response to media reports. The university’s media in-charge stated that the matter was being taken seriously. This was not the first instance of such concerns at the university. In 2022, the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) was accused of targeting Hindu students for conversion through social media and peer influence. Students reported being added to MSF WhatsApp groups without their consent and being approached under the guise of campus assistance. An unauthorised Instagram page using the university’s logo had also surfaced, prompting an internal investigation. The Vice Chancellor had warned that unapproved groups misusing the university’s identity would face strict action.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category relevant in this case 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 incident at Guru Ghasidas Central University, where over 150 Hindu students were coerced into performing namaz during an NSS camp, constitutes a clear case of religiously motivated manipulation and harassment, warranting its inclusion in the Hinduphobia tracker. The Hindu students were not merely encouraged, but pressured and threatened with the denial of participation certificates if they refused to comply with the religious act, which is an overt form of coercion. This act of forcing students to imitate namaz on the grounds of their participation in a university programme not only infringes upon their personal religious beliefs but also reflects a deliberate attempt to manipulate and impose a particular religious identity on them. The confiscation of mobile phones further suggests an effort to conceal the coercive actions. This incident becomes even more troubling when seen in the broader context of earlier reported activities at the university, where Hindu students were allegedly targeted for conversion by the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) through social media and peer influence. The systematic nature of these efforts to exploit vulnerable students for religious conversion, compounded by the coercive tactics, underscores a pattern of predatory proselytisation, driven by an intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. The university's failure to address these concerns further exacerbates the situation, highlighting the depth of the issue and the need for it to be classified as a hate crime rooted in religious intolerance and targeting of the Hindu community.