Minor Hindu boy trapped in love affair and converted to Christianity by Missionary teacher; victim's father says Hindu children singled out, not allowed to wear tilak and kalava

Case ID : ac55e8c | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 16 October, 2023

Case ID : ac55e8c

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

16 October, 2023

Minor Hindu boy trapped in love affair and converted to Christianity by Missionary teacher; victim's father says Hindu children singled out, not allowed to wear tilak and kalava

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Family claims grooming

Restriction/ban on Hindu practices

Restriction on expression of Hindu identity

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A lady teacher from a missionary school in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) was suspended for pressuring a Class 10 Hindu student to convert and engage in physical relations. The student’s father has accused the teacher of attempting to influence his son’s religious beliefs, aiming to convert him from Hinduism to Christianity. ABVP activists held a protest march on October 16th, demanding legal action against the teacher. The school administration responded by suspending the accused teacher. The incident took place at St. Aloysius’ High School in the Kanpur Cantt police station area. The victim is a class 10 student of St. Aloysius’ High School. According to the victim’s family, their son, who believes in Hinduism, would get irritated even by the ringing of bells during Puja and worship in their house. For about a year, he had stopped respecting gods and goddesses. When the family asked the reason for this, he did not give any satisfactory answer. Roughly four months ago, upon returning home from school, the child’s parents noticed that his Shikha, a sacred lock of hair at the crown of the head, had been cut off. After thorough questioning, the boy revealed that a female teacher from the school had taken him to a church and cut off the Shikha. According to the victim’s father, a recent examination of his son’s phone revealed that the female teacher had been engaging in late-night conversations with the boy. These chats reportedly included the teacher sending explicit messages to the child, pressuring him to engage in physical relations. According to the student’s father, P White, a teacher at the school, told his son that Hindus are beggars. Additionally, there were purported restrictions within the school, including a ban on applying tilak on the forehead and tying kalava on the wrist. Further, the Hindu outfit ABVP said that the school’s syllabus included a chapter featuring great personalities of the freedom struggle, where a cross symbol is prominently displayed.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The first category under which this case has been placed is- Predatory Prostylisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, Further based on case details, three tertiary categories have also been selected under the above-mentioned sub-category, which are- Family claims grooming, Pattern of targeting Hindus and Conversion of minors. 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 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 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. The second category relevant in this case is: Restriction/ban on Hindu practices, Under this, the sub-category selected is- Restriction on expression of Hindu identity. An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorized as a hate crime. The third category relevant here is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. In this instance, a Christian missionary school teacher coerced the Hindu child into renunciating his professed faith, which is a direct result of their doctrinal and intrinsic animosity against Hinduism. Above all, she lured the minor child into her love trap to groom him. The minor was brainwashed to the extent that he not only started following several Islamic practices but also became opposed to his own faith. The father of the victim also said that the teacher had taken the victim to a church and cut off the Shikha. Further, the school authorities singled out Hindu children and humiliated them for following their faith. They were not allowed to apply tilak and wear Kalawa. In Hinduism, the Tilak and Kalawa hold deep religious, cultural, and spiritual significance. It symbolizes protection, blessings, unity, and commitment to spiritual and ethical principles. Its use across various rituals and ceremonies underscores its importance in the Hindu way of life and by forcefully removing the tilak and cutting off the Kalawa, the teachers insulted the Hindu faith and displayed their deep disdain towards the religion. Furthermore, the teachers also forced the students to follow Christian religious beliefs at the school. It is evident from the details that the Hindu victims were minors which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. The accused, who were teachers in this case, subtly tried to influence the impressionable minds of the children by forcing them to follow Christian religious beliefs. Exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith. Since all these elements present in this case stem from hatred towards the Hindu faith, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime.