Hindu villagers lured under guise of prayer meetings to convert to Christianity in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

Case ID : d327443 | Location : Raj Nandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 31 January, 2026

Case ID : d327443

Raj Nandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India

31 January, 2026

Hindu villagers lured under guise of prayer meetings to convert to Christianity in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Case Summary

Hindu villagers were targeted with inducements for conversion to Christianity in Rajnandgaon. On Sunday, 1st February, a prayer meeting was held at a private residence on Bada Talab Road, Motipur Ward No. 2. Around fifteen to twenty Hindus had gathered at the house and prayed according to Christian traditions. The meeting had been used as a means to attempt the conversion of Hindu villagers to Christianity. Upon receiving information about these conversion activities, Hindu organisations and residents reached the spot and protested. Officials associated with Hindu organisations and residents of the ward stated that attempts had been made to convert Hindu villagers through religious manipulation. Hindu organisations emphasised that conversion activities had been taking place in the house and that innocent Hindus were being lured into abandoning their faith. They demanded the immediate arrest of those present in the house. As the situation deteriorated, ASP Kirtan Rathore, CSP Vaishali Jain, along with her team and a large number of police personnel, arrived at the scene and attempted to restore order. CSP Vaishali Jain pacified the protesting people, after which the residents of the house were questioned.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The first subcategory under this 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 second subcategory under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the innocent Hindu villagers of Rajnandgaon were targeted because of their religious identity. They had been drawn into a prayer meeting at a private residence where Christian rituals were performed. The purpose of the gathering had not been spiritual fellowship but the deliberate attempt to convert Hindus away from their ancestral faith. The targeting of Hindus in this manner demonstrated religious animosity and an organised effort to undermine their identity. Moreover, the Christian evangelists had been using prayer meetings as a cover to hide their illegal religious conversions. In many cases, they had lured innocent and vulnerable villagers by promising healing effects and miraculous benefits. In other cases, they had offered monetary inducements to persuade people to abandon their traditions. This case was an attempt to make the Hindu villagers abandon their faith through deception and inducement. Targeting disadvantaged Hindu villagers in this manner transforms aid into a tool of religious domination rather than genuine welfare. The repeated prayer meetings and insistence on attendance reveal a pattern of grooming and psychological manipulation rather than informed consent. Families were gradually drawn into missionary spaces where Hindu practices were discouraged, Christian doctrine was normalised, and emotional dependency was cultivated through claims of divine intervention. This slow and sustained process worked to replace indigenous belief systems with a new religious identity by eroding resistance over time. Such methods rely on repetition, authority projection, fear of divine punishment, and promises of salvation, all of which constitute subtle indoctrination rather than voluntary spiritual exploration. Notably, this was not an isolated case. The Hinduphobia Tracker had recorded many such incidents where innocent Hindu tribals had been lured into conversion activities, often under false pretences of prayer meetings, promises of miracles, or financial gain. These repeated attempts revealed a wider pattern of predatory proselytisation targeting Hindu communities. Therefore, this case was recorded in the Hinduphobia Tracker as part of the ongoing documentation of systematic attacks against Hindus and their religious identity. Disclaimer: Since the media reported that fifteen to twenty Hindus had been present at the prayer meeting, the victim count had been taken as twenty. However, as the reports had not specified the gender of the victims, the count had been divided equally, with ten females and ten males selected for documentation purposes.