Hindu villagers pressured into conversion through offers and threats by Christian missionaries; Hindu Gods called 'fake'
Gursahaiganj, Uttar Pradesh, India 
25 August, 2025
Case Summary
In Gursahaiganj, Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu villagers were lured, offered inducements, brainwashed, and pressured for religious conversion by Christian missionaries. The missionaries denigrated Hinduism and were actively targeting vulnerable Hindu villagers, particularly those from the Scheduled Caste community. The conversion network was exposed on August 26, 2025, when a Hindu woman from Ismailpur village was lured to a gathering under the pretext of prayers, where she was pressured to abandon her faith and embrace Christianity. When she refused, a confrontation ensued, and she later lodged a complaint with the police, exposing the illegal conversion racket. Acting on her complaint, police raided the location and arrested four individuals, Dharmendra, Gowda Prasad, Mamta Devi and Manju, all of whom were directly involved in pressuring and coercing Hindus to convert. Interrogation revealed that they specifically targeted vulnerable Hindus from the Scheduled caste communities through fear, deception and inducements. Hindu villagers were promised relief from illness, assurances of safety for their children, and guarantees of financial stability if they converted to Christianity. When someone refused, they were threatened into submission. During the raid, Bibles and religious texts in multiple languages were recovered, further indicating the structured nature of their conversion activities. Villagers revealed that the missionaries used to lure people to conversion under the guise of a prayer meeting. Missionaries offered money and other inducements in order to convert people. Villages told that missionaries denigrated Hinduism and used to call the gods of other religions fake. Missionaries used to conduct deceptive experiments to brainwash Hindu villagers. Missionaries used to immerse a wooden idol of Jesus and a clay idol of Hindu gods and used to tell people that the idol of the Hindu God drowned while the idol of Jesus Christ kept floating, so he is the true God. The primary accused, Gowda Prasad, originally from Andhra Pradesh and associated with a church, was found to have been travelling across North India conducting prayer meetings, spreading superstitions, and enticing villagers to adopt Christianity. Police also discovered that large sums of money, amounting to several lakhs, had been transferred into multiple accounts connected with the accused, raising suspicions of foreign funding behind the network. Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar confirmed that the operation was a deliberate and coordinated attempt to erode the faith of Hindus in the district, and a full investigation was underway to uncover the wider network of the illegal conversion. Four individuals were arrested and sent to jail, while police were making efforts to dismantle the conversion racket.
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 - 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 sub-category selected is- Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The third 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 fourth 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 Hindu villagers, particularly from the Scheduled Caste communities, were lured, offered inducements, brainwashed, and pressured for religious conversion by Christian missionaries. Offering incentives or making false healing promises, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals in need, shows that these incentives were not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they were 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. Furthermore, the perpetrators denigrated and misled people against Hinduism and Hindu gods and goddesses. They conducted deceptive experiments to falsely claim the superiority of Jesus Christ and also labelled Hindu gods as fake. This goes beyond religious debate or proselytisation; it constitutes an act of incitement and insult directed at the core beliefs of the Hindu community. Such actions and remarks were designed to demean and undermine the faith of Hindus and intended to create an inferiority complex in the minds of the victims against their own faith. This fostered an environment of hostility and disrespect towards the Hindu community and Hindu deities. These acts of insulting Hinduism stem from Christian theology, which harbours disdain and hatred for polytheistic faiths, and which categorises Hindus as ‘polytheists’, thereby fostering hatred against them. Such actions make the religiously motivated nature of the crime even more evident. During the raid, Bibles and religious texts in multiple languages were also recovered by the police, further indicating the structured nature and scale of their conversion activities. This indicated that the perpetrators were indoctrinating the Hindu victims by using Christian religious texts and literature. Using the scriptures or literature of one faith to deliberately target and manipulate members of another, with the clear intention of religious conversion, represented a direct attack on the Hindu faith. Such actions were designed to violate and undermine the beliefs of Hindu victims and are clear indicators of religious hostility towards Hindus and their religious identity. They further demonstrated that this was not an isolated incident of evangelism but part of a broader, organised pattern to further religious conversions. When Christian religious material was used to exploit trust, sow doubt, and misrepresent the beliefs of Hindus to coerce conversion, particularly in a systematic manner, it constituted a religiously motivated offence. Additionally, when inducements and brainwashing failed, missionaries also coerced Hindu victims to convert to Christianity. When some protested, they were threatened as well. This escalation from brainwashing and manipulation to outright threats reflected a structured and phased approach often used in cases of predatory proselytisation. 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 and denigration of Hinduism. In such cases, Christian missionary groups often target and brainwash socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion strips Hindus of their agency and dignity and enforces forced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather premeditated efforts to undermine the Hindu faith, persuade Hindus to discard their own faith, and convert to Christianity. Such acts were deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims, and thus, this case was added to the tracker.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
