Hindu woman and her family threatened, subjected to caste-based abuse and targeted for conversion by Muslim men
Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, India 
5 May, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu woman was harassed and threatened with forced religious conversion in Bhadi Korian village of Shamli district by multiple individuals belonging to the Muslim community. The Hindu woman, Savita, raised the issue during the Sampoorna Samadhan Diwas held at Tehsil Un, stating that Afzal, Rehman, Haroon, Gulzar, and Soban, all from the Muslim community, were pressuring her and her family to convert to Islam. On resisting, she and her family were threatened with death and land encroachment. The victim further stated that caste-based slurs were used against her by the accused. Furthermore, her crops were also destroyed on April 20 and April 29. Taking cognisance of the serious allegations, the police registered a case under stringent legal provisions. One of the accused, Rehman, also had prior cases related to cow slaughter, narcotics smuggling, and illegal arms. As of the date of writing this report, the police arrested two of the named accused, while the others were at large.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under multiple categories because of the obvious religious motivation behind the crime. The first is predatory proselytisation. With this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat, 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 other primary category selected here is: - Hate speech against Hindus, and within this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem from inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman and her family were subjected to coercion and threats in an attempt to forcibly convert them to Islam by individuals from the Muslim community. The victims were threatened with violence and hurled caste-based slurs. They were also threatened with land encroachment, and her crops were burnt, effectively taking away the means of their livelihood. It can be argued here that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. This portrays the lengths to which some Muslim individuals are willing to go to carry out religious conversions. They resort to coercion, violent threats, caste-based abuse, and economic intimidation, all tools of pressure aimed at forcing Hindus to abandon their faith. Such actions are not isolated but stem from a deeper religious animosity, where non-Muslims are seen as targets for conversion, even through coercion or violence. The ideological justification for this behaviour lies in a supremacist belief system that treats the forced conversion of non-Muslims not only as acceptable but even desirable, regardless of the violence it entails. This case also reflects a broader pattern documented in similar incidents, where religiously motivated hate crimes are driven by the victim’s refusal to convert and the perceived challenge this poses to the perpetrators’ ideological beliefs.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
