Institute in Damoh found involved in illegal religious conversion, Hindu students forced to read Bible in the Aadharshila children’s home

Case ID : e97a1e2 | Location : Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 10 June, 2023

Case ID : e97a1e2

Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India

10 June, 2023

Institute in Damoh found involved in illegal religious conversion, Hindu students forced to read Bible in the Aadharshila children’s home

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

In Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, a case of preaching and attempting religious conversion emerged, involving a church-controlled institute named Aadharshila. Following revelations of similar conversion attempts at Ganga Jamuna School, a delegation from the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) arrived on June 11, 2023, to investigate a complaint regarding sexual harassment at a children's home operated by Ajay Lal. Upon arrival, they discovered grave shortcomings and allegations of conversion within the children's home, along with flaws in the ongoing investigation. Earlier inspections at Aadharshila found several irregularities, leading NCPCR Chairman Priyank Kanoongo to file an FIR. Hindu children were found reading the “Bible” at the Christian institution, run by the church which claims to work in the interest of children. When asked about their eternal traditions or Hindu customs, they knew nothing but the festivals of Christianity and the Bible. NCPCR found evidence of sexual grooming, exploitation and illegal religious conversions at the children's home as well. According to officials, prima facie, it appeared that children from Hindu or other non-Christian religious backgrounds are being retained and subjected to prolonged indoctrination.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

A religiously motivated hate crime is one where a victim is targeted because of the offender's hostility towards the victim’s professed faith - whether the underlying act, in this case, constitutes a crime in the limited scope of the laws driven by a secular framework. Proselytisation itself is an act that stems out of the proselytizing faith’s inherent and theological hostility towards Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma). Christianity, for example, considers idolatry as a sin and likens it to immorality (https://www.openbible.info/topics/idolatry). Islam has a far more violent approach to idolatry with over 500 mentions of Kufr (non-believer) and Shirk (anything that does not conform to Islamic tenets) found in the Quran. The Quran has several verses that ordain its followers to convert the polytheists (Hindus in this case) by sword. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the hostility towards Hinduism in Islam and Christianity is theologically embedded. As such, any conversion by Muslims or Christians of Hindus is a result of hostility towards Hinduism. There are cases in fact where even faiths that don’t inherently harbour animosity towards Hinduism have been militarized to express hatred by a section of the adherents of the faith. Such faiths too indulge in predatory proselytization. For this category, we would only focus on those conversions which have a component of coercion, force, threats, harassment, inducement, brainwashing and the like. For this category, though the argument that any conversion to Islam or Christianity stems out of inherent hostility towards Hinduism, we would not take into account conversions where the convert has changed his religion without any coercion or inducement but supposedly, a change of conscience. 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 case, the victims who were being made to read the Bible and slowly convert their religion were children, which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Further, the commission found that the Hindu children were being indoctrinated, converted illegally and exploited sexually. Since the underlying offence is against children of a specific faith and involves indoctrination and illegal conversion, this case is being categorised as a hate crime. Further, since the poverty of the children were being exploited to keep them confined in the homes for the purpose of illegal conversion, the case has been categorised as a hate crime where inducement was deployed.