Hindu woman beaten and harassed for opposing conversion to Christanity
Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
26 December, 2024
Case Summary
A Hindu woman in Khesuwa village, in Sumerpur, was harassed and beaten by a Christian woman and her family for not accepting Christianity. The Hindu woman filed a police complaint against a Christian woman named Sharda her husband Chandrashekhar and her five children who had opened a church in the village and were converting people to Christianity in the name of running prayer halls. The Christian family forced the Hindu woman to accept Christianity, but when she refused, she was beaten by the Christian family. The police filed a complaint against the victim woman. According to Inspector Suresh Chand Mishra, Sharda and her family are sent to jail.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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 second sub-category selected is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, a Hindu woman was forced to renounce their faith and convert to Christianity. When she refused, she faced harassment and brutal physical assault. The violence was intended to intimidate her into succumbing to the perpetrator’s conversion demands. This incident follows a recurring pattern where vulnerable Hindus are deliberately targeted. Christian extremists exploit economic hardships by offering money and so-called miracle cures as a means to sever Hindus from their religious identity and coerce them into conversion and in many cases subject the victims to assaults and harassment if they refuse to accede to the conversion demands. Such inducements followed by harassment and coercion are inherently predatory, as they manipulate the specific vulnerabilities of disadvantaged and impoverished Hindus. This practice is rooted in an underlying hostility toward the Hindu faith, as Abrahamic doctrines often view non-adherents as subjects to be dehumanized until they convert. Given that these coercive actions stem from doctrinal animosity toward Hinduism and its followers, this case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
