Four booked in UP's Hardoi for pressuring Hindu man and his family to convert to Christianity

Case ID : e97a05a | Location : Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 12 June, 2023

Case ID : e97a05a

Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 June, 2023

Four booked in UP's Hardoi for pressuring Hindu man and his family to convert to Christianity

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district, four individuals were accused of attempting to coerce a Hindu family into converting to Christianity. The case was filed on June 13, after the family resisted pressure to convert. The incident occurred in Odra village, Sursa police station area. The complainant, Vijay Kumar Srivastava, accused Makoo, Sumit, Adhiraj, and Shivanandan, who operated an unauthorized Christian school, of pressuring them to convert. They promised to cure Vijay's son, suffering from a brain tumour, in exchange for conversion. Despite accompanying his son to their home multiple times, no improvement was seen. The accused offered one lakh rupees for conversion, and on December 24, 2022, they gave 5000 rupees and placed a crucifix around the boy's neck. The accused also threw Hindu deity idols from Vijay's residence, leading to outrage among the family and neighbours. As Vijay and his family refused to convert, the Christian pastors and their aids tried to threaten and intimidate him. According to the complaint, this infuriated the four accused. On 14 April 2023 at 6 p.m., they approached Vijay, who was working in the field at the time. Complainant Vijay Kumar revealed that the accused pressured him to convert on that day as well. The four accused threatened to implicate him in a bogus case if he did not comply. From that day onward, he was under constant pressure. Vijay Kumar was disturbed by this and filed a police complaint.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under three prime categories of the tracker because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the sub-category 'Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion' under this core category in addition to conversion by inducement. 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 have 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 and forceful circumcision. 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 in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats would be documented in another sub-category. 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 second sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is conversion 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. In this specific case, the Christian Pastors and his aids harboured specific animosity towards the Hindu faith and attempted to first disenfranchise the Hindu family from their professed faith my quack medical practises. Since the boy was suffering from a tumour, the Pastors exploited the family's vulnerabilities. Further, the Pastors offered money for conversion. These are classic methods used for conversion by offering allurements. Further, when the victim refused to convert, he was threatened with false cases and intimidated by the pastors throwing away his idols. The driving motive behind the crime was disenfranchising the Hindu family from their faith through harassment, threats and inducement and therefore, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime.