Bihar: 3 Christian priests try to convert Hindus, wipe off sindoor from women’s heads and mark them with cross

Case ID : cfc075c | Location : Buxar, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 13 November, 2024

Case ID : cfc075c

Buxar, Bihar, India

13 November, 2024

Bihar: 3 Christian priests try to convert Hindus, wipe off sindoor from women’s heads and mark them with cross

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

A case of mass conversion of Hindus has come to light in Buxar, Bihar, where three pastors have been accused of converting 50 to 60 Hindu men and women to Christianity. The matter came to light on 14th November and pertains to Mahavir Ganga Ghat of Nagpura village under the Simri police station. A video of the same has also surfaced in which the pastors can be seen removing the vermilion after ordering the women to take a dip in the Ganges and then making a cross on their heads. Two of these pastors, Raju Ram Masih and Rajiv Ranjan Ram, are from Bihar while the third one Samuel is from Tamil Nadu. The video sparked a flurry of protests from Hindu organizations. The pastors have been taken into custody by the police. Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh stated that earlier the tribals were harassed. Now, the impoverished are being lured into conversion. According to him, a strong law prohibiting conversion is necessary. He charged that every district is troubled by this. He added that it is unfortunate to convert in the name of health and education by claiming miracles.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two subcategories under Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytisation and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the sub-category- 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. In this particular case, the Christian evangelists were overtly trying to convert Hindus by offering free education and cures for their ailments - a cure that they either could not afford or for incurable diseases. Since exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime. Notably, due to the lack of specific information about the gender distribution among the 60 villagers coerced into conversion by the Christian missionaries, we have assumed an equal division between men and women in the section containing victim details.