Minor Hindu girl assaulted and humiliated by Christian school principal for saying "Radhe-Radhe" in Chhattisgarh
Durg, Chhattisgarh, India 
29 July, 2025
Case Summary
In the Bagdumar village, Durg district, a minor Hindu girl studying in nursery at Mother Teresa English Medium School was physically assaulted and humiliated by the Christian school principal for greeting her with “Radhe-Radhe.” Upon returning home, the child informed her parents that the principal, Ila Evan Kaulween, became furious when she offered the traditional Hindu salutation. In a fit of rage, the principal taped the girl’s mouth shut and proceeded to beat her. The tape remained over the child's mouth for a prolonged period, and she was struck multiple times as the principal shouted at her. The girl's father noticed injury marks on her hand and immediately filed a complaint at the Nandini Nagar police station. He explained that his daughter came home unusually quiet, went to sleep without saying much, and later disclosed the assault. A medical examination confirmed the physical abuse. The police acted swiftly and arrested the principal. Soon after the complaint was filed, members of Hindu organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, gathered at the police station and demanded strict legal action.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Restriction/ban on Hindu practices. The subcategory under this is: Restriction on expression of Hindu identity. An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorised as a hate crime. The second category under this is: Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory under this is: Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The third category under this is: Predatory proselytisation. The 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 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. The incident involving the minor Hindu girl at the Christian-run school constitutes a clear instance of religiously motivated hate crime. The child was first restrained from practising or outwardly expressing her Hindu identity within the school premises; a restriction that goes against her fundamental right to religious freedom. This denial, imposed by a position of institutional authority, reflects a broader and troubling pattern in which Hindu students are forced to suppress visible markers of their faith, such as sacred threads, tilak, or traditional greetings like 'Jai Shri Ram', simply to remain within a non-Hindu institutional environment. The Hinduphobia Tracker has documented several cases where Hindus were restricted from practising their faith and even attacked in several instances. In one case in Bihar's Munger district, minor Hindu students were beaten for wearing Kalawa (a sacred red thread tied on the wrist). The perpetrators were two Christian employees working in the school who punished the students for wearing the thread. The incident took place at the Plus Two Town Higher Secondary School located near Bhagat Singh Chowk. In another case, a Christian teacher at the Candor Shrine School, Hayathnagar, Hyderabad, humiliated a Hindu student for greeting a classmate with 'Jai Shri Ram'. A video of the student narrating his ordeal went viral on X. In the video, the student explained in his native language how he was reprimanded by his teacher for greeting his friend with 'Jai Shri Ram'. In the current case, more gravely, the Christian teacher not only reprimanded the girl for using a common religious expression but also went further to physically assault her. This transition from verbal restriction to physical abuse underscores the punitive nature of the institution’s approach to Hindu expression. For a child, the experience of being struck by a teacher for invoking her deity is not merely a moment of disciplinary excess; it is an attack on her belief, her identity, and her psychological well-being. Given that the victim is a minor, the teacher’s conduct takes on an additional and deeply troubling dimension. The repeated discouragement of her religious practices, in tandem with corporal punishment, amounts to a form of forced indoctrination. It instils fear and confusion in the developing mind, gradually pushing the child to feel ashamed of her inherited faith. When such acts occur within a religiously governed school, they often reflect not personal animus alone, but an institutional culture that privileges one faith while suppressing another. The exploitation of authority to marginalise and chastise a Hindu child for practising her religion reveals an intent to alter or dilute her religious self-understanding. It is not simply a matter of prejudice; instead, it is a systemic effort to erase and replace Hindu identity. Hence, this incident qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus, as the minor Hindu girl was assaulted and humiliated solely for expressing the Hindu greeting "Radhe Radhe" in a Christian-run institution by a Christian principal.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 1
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
