Hindus pressured to convert to Christianity under pretext of "curing diseases" and performing exorcism

Case ID : e27545d | Location : Surguja, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 16 September, 2025

Case ID : e27545d

Surguja, Chhattisgarh, India

16 September, 2025

Hindus pressured to convert to Christianity under pretext of "curing diseases" and performing exorcism

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

In the Sitapur area of Surguja, Chhattisgarh, Hindus were targeted and pressured to convert to Christianity by Christian evangelists under the guise of curing illnesses and performing exorcisms. According to media reports, the Christian perpetrators included a pastor and his six accomplices. The accused came from different districts but had gathered in the village to organise Christian prayer meetings. During these meetings, Hindus were lured with promises of healing diseases in exchange for converting to Christianity. Hindu organisations grew alarmed about the situation and informed the Sitapur police. Acting on their report, police stopped the Christian religious meeting that was taking place without permission in the Uraonpara area. The pastor and six of his companions were taken into custody and brought to the police station for questioning. The officials of the Hindu organisation stated that the missionaries were attempting conversions by holding unauthorised religious gatherings and offering to cure illnesses. Following this, Hindu activists assembled outside the Sitapur police station, demanding a thorough investigation and strict action against the culprits to curb forced religious conversions. An elderly woman who described herself as a victim of coerced conversion said that she was suffering from diabetes and other health issues, and had invited members of the Christian community to her home, where a prayer and exorcism ceremony was being conducted. Sitapur police station in-charge, Gaurav Pandey, assured the Hindu organisation members that strict action would be taken against the culprits after a full 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- 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. This incident qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus because it involved the deliberate targeting of the Hindu community with the intention of undermining their faith. The Christian perpetrators singled out Hindus for conversion, which was not based on free will but on coercion and external persuasion. By offering inducements such as promises of curing illnesses or performing exorcisms, they exploited the vulnerabilities of Hindu individuals facing health problems and hardships. Such acts are not expressions of charity or goodwill but calculated strategies to devalue Hindu beliefs and pressure individuals into abandoning their faith. This deliberate act of singling out Hindus, using coercion rather than conviction, represents an assault on their religious identity and dignity, making it a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, the incident reflects clear religious animosity and hostility towards Hindus. Conversion attempts carried out in this manner go beyond personal belief, showing a systematic effort to exploit vulnerable Hindus in order to further the Christian conversion agenda. By presenting Hindu practices as inadequate and insisting that only Christianity could heal or provide deliverance, the perpetrators displayed contempt for the Hindu faith. Such actions reveal that the crime was motivated not by compassion but by a desire to weaken Hindu identity through deception and coercion. This makes the incident a religiously motivated attack on Hindus and a clear case of a hate crime. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Since this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated attack against Hindus and their faith, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports did not specify the exact number of Hindu victims in this case. They only highlighted one elderly woman as a victim. Therefore, for the purpose of documentation, we are using a conservative estimate and recording the victim count as '1'. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the victims’ ordeal began. However, in this case, media reports did not specify the exact date on which the conversion event was organised. Therefore, we are using 16th September 2025, the date it was reported in the media, as the indicative date of the incident.