Hindu families converted under the garb of prayer meeting, distributed religious books

Case ID : b45f52c | Location : Bansi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 27 December, 2024
Case ID : b45f52c
location Bansi, Uttar Pradesh, India
date 27 December, 2024
Hindu families converted under the garb of prayer meeting, distributed religious books
Predatory Proselytisation
Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Case Summary

A case of religious conversion through prayer meetings emerged at an English medium school near the Bansi Nagar area of Uttar Pradesh. Members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini intervened, halting the prayer meeting, and submitted a memorandum to SDM Bansi, Pradeep Yadav, demanding action. According to Sanjay Tiwari, a resident of Azad Nagar Ward, the prayer meeting involved distributing religious books to hundreds of poor families and children to encourage conversion. Tiwari said that such activities are a regular occurrence at the school, despite previous complaints and cases filed against the school principal and others involved. He criticised the lack of effective measures to stop these practices. Ajay Verma, the outgoing District Vice President of Hindu Yuva Vahini, stated that former Dumariyaganj MLA Raghavendra Pratap Singh had also been informed about the matter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under the sub-category: Proselytisation by brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, under the core category of 'Predatory Proselytisation' because the details of the case clearly demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the victim's faith and the deliberate attempt to alienate them from their religious identity. 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. Here, the use of a prayer gathering as a cover suggests that the individuals involved were using indirect methods to lure or convince poor Hindus into conversion. They were targeting vulnerable people by exploiting their emotional, social, or religious needs. As such, this constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime as actions like these are driven by intolerance towards the victim's religious identity and aim to coerce them into abandoning their faith.

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Case Status


Complaint filed

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range


Unknown

Perpetrators Gender


unknown

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