Hindu woman forced to commit suicide due to sustained torture to convert to Christianity by her in-laws

Case ID : ef65423 | Location : Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 13 January, 2025

Case ID : ef65423

Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India

13 January, 2025

Hindu woman forced to commit suicide due to sustained torture to convert to Christianity by her in-laws

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert

Case Summary

In Bharatpur, Rajasthan, a Hindu woman committed suicide due to constant pressure and sustained torture by her in-laws to convert to Christianity. According to the reports, a 25-year-old Hindu woman named Manja Devi got married to a man named Laxman Rajput. However, just after five months of marriage, she recorded a video and committed suicide due to sustained torture and pressure to convert by her Christian in-laws. In the video, the Hindu woman stated that she was physically and mentally tortured for resisting pressure to convert to Christianity. She was also physically assaulted for not fulfilling their dowry demands. It was revealed that soon after the marriage, her mother-in-law began forcing her to read the Bible and attend church instead of going to the temple, effectively controlling her religious freedom. Furthermore, the victim's father also stated that her daughter was not allowed to talk to them, her phone was also taken, and even when their daughter called, it was only for brief periods. The victim's father also stated that his daughter was being tortured severely for refusing conversion. The woman stated that her life had been made unbearable through constant abuse, coercion, and violence. After recording the video, she unfortunately committed suicide. As of the date of writing this report, a case was registered by the police against her husband, Laxman Rajput, mother-in-law Ramdei and brothers-in-law Arun and Rohtash. The investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the first sub-category selected is: - Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The second sub-category selected is: - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The third sub-category selected is: - Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with a non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner to convert, the Hindu woman commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu woman. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the woman committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was driven to suicide due to sustained mental and physical torture by her in-laws to convert to Christianity. She was married according to Hindu customs, which clearly indicates that she was unaware of the Christian identity or agenda of her husband and in-laws at the time of marriage. The fact that the wedding was performed as per Hindu rituals shows a deliberate and malicious attempt to deceive her, with the ultimate goal being her religious conversion. This points to a predatory pattern in which a Hindu woman is specifically chosen for marriage, not out of genuine affection or compatibility, but to achieve the objective of religious conversion. She was pressured to read the Bible and stopped from going to the temple, all as an attempt to alienate her from her Hindu faith. Isolating her spiritually was just the beginning. Additionally, she was also prevented from contacting her family, and her phone was taken away—clear signs of an attempt to cut her off from any support system or Hindu influence. This forced isolation was a targeted strategy to mentally and spiritually weaken her in order to make her comply and convert. Alongside the religious coercion, the woman also faced mental and physical abuse, as well as dowry-related harassment. This compounded her trauma, suggesting a coordinated strategy to degrade her mental resilience, making her more vulnerable to forced conversion. The dowry demands served a dual purpose: - extracting material gain while simultaneously pushing her toward a state of hopelessness and despair. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to deception or violence. These tactics are designed to mentally break up an individual so as to make his conversion easier. This form of targeted proselytisation stems from deep-seated hostility towards the Hindu faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith must be converted through any means necessary, including deception, brainwashing, emotional manipulation or even violence. Since such targeting is not incidental but rooted in hostility towards the Hindu faith and a supremacist theological framework, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim was married about five months ago, without mentioning an exact date or month. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, January 14, 2025, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on June 14, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.