Hindu villagers lured into religious conversion under the guise of Christian prayer meeting
Kaithal, Haryana, India 
26 April, 2025
Case Summary
In the Kaithal district of Haryana, a controversy unfolded when villagers discovered that religious conversion activities were being carried out under the guise of a Christian prayer meeting. The event was being carried out in an abandoned warehouse in the Gadli village. Upon learning about the gathering, a large number of residents assembled at the warehouse gate and staged a strong protest, demanding an immediate halt to the event. According to local villagers, Christian evangelists had been conducting covert conversion efforts for the past two months in the Gadli Patti Khot area. The issue came to the forefront when a banner was seen outside the warehouse, triggering outrage among the locals. Villagers such as Rajesh, Sudesh Kumar, Aman, and Raman stated that over 200 people were attending these gatherings daily, where they were being misled and pressured to convert. They demanded that authorities take swift action and halt such activities immediately. The protestors warned that if the event was not stopped at once, they would drive the organisers out of the village the following day. Police arrived at the scene following a complaint and found the satsang in progress. Officers initiated an investigation into the matter to verify the nature of the activities and determine further action based on the findings.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is categorised under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Under that, the relevant sub-category is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, and within it, the tertiary category selected is- 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 constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime as Hindu villagers were systematically targeted with the aim of inducing disaffection towards their own religion and subtly encouraging acceptance of Christianity. The use of a prayer gathering as a cover suggests that the individual involved may have been using indirect methods to lure or convince individuals into conversion, possibly targeting vulnerable individuals by exploiting their emotional, social, or religious needs. Moreover, the report states that Christian evangelists had been conducting covert conversion efforts for the past two months, and over 200 people were attending these gatherings daily. This points to a pattern of repeated and coercive attempts to convert vulnerable Hindus. The participants were not confronted with overt threats but rather subjected to an environment that sought to alter their faith through manipulation and psychological influence. This exploitation of trust and the manipulation of faith-based vulnerabilities constitutes a targeted attack on the Hindu religious identity. Since the intent was to cause religious disaffection and draw individuals away from Hinduism under a false pretext, it falls squarely within the definition of a hate crime rooted in religious hostility.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
