Dalit Hindu villagers targeted, pressured and offered inducements for religious conversion by Christian missionaries

Case ID : cb2826c | Location : Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 10 December, 2020

Case ID : cb2826c

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

10 December, 2020

Dalit Hindu villagers targeted, pressured and offered inducements for religious conversion by Christian missionaries

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In the Piki village of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 150 Dalit Hindu villagers were targeted and offered inducements for religious conversion by Christian missionaries, under the guise of a changezi/Changai sabha (healing meeting). According to reports, 150 villagers from 15 Dalit Hindu families were converted to Christianity under the guise of the Changezi Sabha. Poor Hindu families were targeted and repeatedly with offers of large sums of money, financial assistance and other material benefits for religious conversion. The accused used to conduct Changezi sabha every Sunday meetings where food, inducements and promises of miraculous healing were used to influence people. Villagers stated that a Christian man named Subhash, a local resident, regularly brought pastors to his home, where Hindu families were brainwashed and pressured to adopt Christianity. They also mentioned a man from Manakpur village who was actively urging Hindus to convert. Furthermore, some people also attempted to purchase land in the village to construct a church. When villagers protested, the construction work was stopped, which resulted in tensions between the two communities. Out of the 15 Hindu families that were converted, ten eventually returned to Hinduism, while five families refused to return and instead filed cases against those who opposed their conversion. Subsequently, Hindu residents approached the Saharanpur police on 11 December 2025, demanding action against those responsible for illegal conversion. Villagers stated that for the past five years, members of the Scheduled castes community have been lured into converting to Christianity. Initially, they were lured under the guise of the Changezi sabha, but were later converted to Christianity.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The other sub-category selected here 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 other sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - 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 has been added to the tracker because Dalit Hindu villagers were targeted and offered inducements for religious conversion by Christian missionaries. Firstly, offering incentives or making false promises, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals in need, shows that these incentives are not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they are calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By providing inducements or promising healing in exchange for conversion, the accused were effectively blackmailing those who might have been desperate for assistance or hope. Such instances are seen in many cases where members of Christian missionary groups target socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. Secondly, villagers reported that many Hindu residents were pressured for religious conversion. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another is a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity. It is not a matter of personal choice; it is coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Thirdly, the victims were lured under the guise of a changezi sabha, a healing meeting. The Changai Sabha format, often described publicly as a faith healing gathering, is a well-recognised tool in organised Christian proselytisation networks. These meetings usually employ songs, testimonies and emotionally charged prayer sessions to influence and induce vulnerable individuals without openly declaring the underlying objective. The absence of transparency is itself central to the method. People attend believing they are seeking comfort, healing or spiritual support, only to be gradually drawn into teachings that undermine their own religious identity and introduce them to the Christian framework presented as the only path to relief. The nature of the conversion efforts and the wider impact on the Hindu community all indicate a targeted action against Hindus as a collectivity. When individuals or groups focus their efforts on converting members of a particular religion, in this case, Hindus, then it demonstrates a fundamental disregard for the Hindu faith. Conversion, especially when not based on personal conviction but rather on external persuasion or pressure, is not simply about sharing a different belief system. It is an attempt to undermine the values, traditions, and identity of the Hindu community. In this context, the Christian perpetrators specifically targeted Hindus, which demonstrates a lack of respect for Hinduism and its followers. Such actions are carried out to strip Hindu victims of their faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. This systematic attempt to erode the religious foundation of individuals and replace it with allegiance to another faith reflects deep religious malice and animus against the Hindu identity. Because the core motivation of the act stems from hostility toward the victim’s religion, it meets the threshold of a hate crime. Hence, categorised as a hate crime in the database. Disclaimer: Media reports stated that around 150 Dalit Hindu villagers in Piki village were converted to Christianity. However, five families, whose exact size was not specified, refused to return to Hinduism and chose to remain Christian. Accordingly, they are not included in the victim count. Due to this lack of clarity, we have relied on India's Census 2011 and NFHS-5 (2019–21) rural population patterns, which indicate that the average family size in India is approximately 4.8 members per household. To ensure a standardised estimation, we have opted to consider an average of 5 members per family. Based on this method, the estimated number of individuals from the five non-returning families is 25. Accordingly, the total number of victims has been recorded as 125. Also, no gender or age-wise breakdown has been provided in the reports. Therefore, for documentation clarity, the Hinduphobia Tracker has used a proportional demographic estimate based on India’s Census 2011 and NFHS-5 (2019–21) rural population data. Accordingly, the 125 participants are estimated as 50 men (40%), 44 women (35%), and 31 children (25%), reflecting typical family-based rural participation. Disclaimer: News reports identify two individuals as being directly involved in the conversions — Subhash and another man from Manakpur village. Therefore, the perpetrator count has been recorded as two. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the conversion activities began. Villagers stated that the conversion activities had been ongoing for the past five years, meaning they likely started around 2020. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 11 December 2020, though the media reported the incident on 11 December 2025.