Hindu tribal villagers in Jharkhand face forced conversion to Islam and threats of false cases by Muslim man

Case ID : e274eaf | Location : Garhwa, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 31 July, 2025

Case ID : e274eaf

Garhwa, Jharkhand, India

31 July, 2025

Hindu tribal villagers in Jharkhand face forced conversion to Islam and threats of false cases by Muslim man

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Garhwa, Jharkhand, Hindu tribal villagers were pressured to convert to Islam by the Panchayat head, Izhar Ansari, a Muslim man. The villagers were also threatened with false legal cases if they refused to convert to Islam. According to media reports, Hindu villagers from Baradih village appealed to the state government and district administration to take necessary actions against the Muslim accused and provide them justice. The villagers stated that the head of the Panchayat, Izhar Ansari, had constantly pressured them to change their religion. They stated that Izhar urged them to leave Hinduism and adopt Islam. The villagers also said that Ansari threatened that anyone who did not convert would be implicated in false cases and sent to jail. A few months ago, a young woman accused him of sexually exploiting her for 20 years under the pretext of converting to Islam, for which he was sent to jail. Regarding the incident, the villagers also reported that a person had died in a fight over the collection of Mahua, a flower, in Tithi Mahua Tola of Baradih village. The Ranka police had already sent the four accused involved in the fight to jail on 9th April 2025. Subsequently, two members of the same family, Lalji and Uchit Singh, who had been working as labourers in other states, were pressured by Izhar to adopt Islam. The accused issued them a warning that if they wished to avoid jail, their entire family should convert to Islam. Otherwise, they would face imprisonment. Lalji and Uchit Singh, who had returned from working in Chennai and Chhattisgarh, respectively, expressed their fear of being sent to jail. The villagers mentioned that Uchit Singh and Lalji Singh’s father and three brothers were already in jail due to the fight that occurred while collecting Mahua. The police had arrested those involved in the altercation and sent them to jail. Villagers further said that the persistent pressure from Izhar had caused panic among the family members. Additionally, the Hindu villagers also stated that Izhar had pressured them to convert to Islam. They declared that if they did not receive justice in this matter, they would be forced to leave the village or take the drastic step of committing suicide. Izhar, however, denied the allegations of religious conversion and claimed that those who had made the accusations were themselves accused in criminal cases and had not yet been arrested. He claimed that these accusations were baseless. Meanwhile, SDPO Rohit Ranjan Singh stated that the matter had not yet come to his attention. He said that if an application were received in the case, appropriate action would be taken after an investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory 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. 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. Another subcategory selected in this case is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is- 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 constitutes a hate crime against Hindus, as it involved Hindu tribal villagers being systematically pressured to abandon their faith and convert to Islam. The pressure exerted by the Panchayat head, Izhar Ansari, was neither incidental nor isolated; rather, it was sustained and targeted, affecting the wider Hindu community in the village. Firstly, it is crucial to note that the villagers as a whole were subjected to psychological coercion, facing persistent demands to renounce Hinduism and embrace Islam. Such widespread pressure shattered their sense of safety and communal belonging and amounted to a direct assault on their religious identity. When conversion is not a matter of personal choice but is enforced through pressure or coercion, it is a clear violation of individual autonomy and religious beliefs. Actions of this nature clearly reveal religious animosity, marking them as religiously motivated crimes. Secondly, the coercion was intensified against the family of Lalji and Uchit Singh. These two brothers, already distressed by the imprisonment of their other family members, faced direct threats upon their return from working in other states. They were told that unless their entire family converted to Islam, they too would be jailed, deepening both their personal and familial vulnerability. This shows that individuals were singled out because of their religious background and immediate circumstances. Deliberately targeting a Hindu family in distress specifically because of their faith demonstrates a calculated intent to weaken the Hindu community and further underscores religious animosity as the primary motivator. It is also important to acknowledge that the main tool of coercion in this case was the threat of false legal cases. Izhar Ansari made it clear that anyone who resisted conversion would face legal harassment, using the criminal justice system as a means of compulsion. Such tactics constituted severe intimidation and blatant exploitation of their vulnerability. This makes it evident that the purpose was not simply to boost numbers for another faith, but to break the spirit of a religious group using intimidation and abuse of power. The misuse of the legal system to instil fear in Hindus for following their religion highlights deep-rooted religious animosity, with the ultimate aim of erasing their faith. Moreover, this was not an isolated incident affecting only one family or household. Multiple Hindu villagers stated similar experiences of religious pressure and intimidation, pointing to a consistent and deliberate pattern. The repeated nature of these threats revealed a calculated effort to undermine the Hindu community’s religious and social position in the area. When targeting is systematic and affects many within a specific religious group, it is clear that religious animosity rather than personal disputes or random conflict. Such actions are a result of deep-seated animosity towards Hinduism and its adherents, making it a religiously motivated crime. Taken together, these elements: systematic pressure to convert, the targeted coercion of individual families, the use of fabricated legal threats, and the repeated victimisation of Hindu villagers, demonstrate that this was far more than a series of personal disagreements. It was an orchestrated campaign rooted in religious animosity, aimed at forcing vulnerable Hindu villagers to abandon their faith. Such targeted and collective acts meet the definition of a hate crime, as they sought to intimidate, destabilise, and diminish the presence and dignity of the Hindu community. As this case clearly meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.