Hindu men pressured to convert to Christianity through inducements, brainwashing, and threats

Case ID : e275435 | Location : Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 13 December, 2024

Case ID : e275435

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India

13 December, 2024

Hindu men pressured to convert to Christianity through inducements, brainwashing, and threats

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the village of Kundaria Faizullapur in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, two Hindu men were forced to convert to Christianity. They were enticed with incentives, threatened, and brainwashed with Christian texts to accept conversion. According to media reports, the Hindu victims were identified as Harishankar Maurya and Bhajanlal Verma. They stated that for the past eight to nine months, a person belonging to the Christian faith had been pressuring them to adopt Christianity through threats and inducements. During this period, Christian religious books were taught to them, and various material temptations were offered for conversion. Villagers also confirmed that the victims were constantly threatened and harassed for refusing to convert, due to which the atmosphere of the village had become tense. The victims lodged a police complaint on 14th September 2025 and demanded action. Police station in-charge Rajit Ram stated that an investigation was underway.

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 other subcategory selected 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other 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. This case is a clear example of a hate crime against Hindus. The Christian perpetrator targeted two Hindu men and lured them with material inducements to convert to Christianity. Offering inducements in such a context was not an act of kindness or charity, but a calculated method to exploit vulnerable Hindus into leaving their faith. These actions were rooted in the Christian religious belief of proselytising non-Christians and compelling them to embrace Christianity. It highlights a pattern where Christian perpetrators deliberately prey on vulnerable Hindus, using inducements as a tool of coercion motivated by religious animosity. The Christian perpetrator further brainwashed the Hindu victims by imposing Christian religious texts upon them. Using the scriptures of one faith to manipulate and destabilise the beliefs of those belonging to another, in this case Hinduism, was a deliberate attempt at conversion through psychological coercion. By doing so, the perpetrator undermined the Hindu faith, indirectly sowed doubts in the minds of the victims about their own religion, and presented Christianity as a supposedly better alternative. This was an act of calculated religious manipulation. Such proselytisation, driven by animosity towards Hinduism, constituted a hate crime against Hindus. The Hindu victims were also subjected to repeated threats and harassment. Such intimidation was used as a medium to force submission and advance the agenda of conversion. The use of threats to terrorise Hindu victims into abandoning their faith was not incidental but a deliberate act of coercion. The fact that the Christian perpetrator exercised intimidation to achieve religious conversion underscores that this was a religiously motivated hate crime. At its core, this case reflects deeper doctrinal hostility towards Hindus and their faith. Proselytisation under such coercive methods is rooted in the Abrahamic faiths' notion of dehumanising non-adherents and treating them as incomplete or lesser until they convert. Such a mindset represents doctrinal hostility towards Hindus, marking this incident as a clear case of hate crime. Therefore, this case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database to document the ongoing targeting of Hindus. Disclaimer: In this case, the media report did not specify the exact date when the victims’ ordeal began. However, it provided two key details. Firstly, it noted the date when the police complaint was filed—14th September 2025. Secondly, it stated that the victims’ ordeal had been ongoing for the past eight to nine months. On this basis, 14th December 2024 is taken as the indicative date when both victims’ ordeal began. The media reported this case on 15th September 2025. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of the incident according to when the victims’ ordeal started, rather than when it is reported by the media.