Hindu man and his 4-month-old son pressured to eat meat, undergo circumcision and convert to Islam

Case ID : f664aa5 | Location : Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 30 March, 2025

Case ID : f664aa5

Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, India

30 March, 2025

Hindu man and his 4-month-old son pressured to eat meat, undergo circumcision and convert to Islam

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Blackmailed to convert

Threatened to convert by family of partner

Forced to convert after marriage

Forced to follow non-Hindu practises

Forced circumcision

Case Summary

In Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man and his 4-month-old son were pressured to eat meat, undergo circumcision, and convert to Islam. The child was also taken away from the father. The man clearly stated that neither he nor his son will become Muslim. He accused his Muslim wife and her relatives of forcing both of them to convert to Islam. Seeking justice, Rajkumar appealed to the Yogi government and the police administration for protection, filing a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Badaun to ensure the safety of his family. Rajkumar (24), a resident of Meera Sarai in the Civil Lines police station area, used to work as a cook at weddings. During one such event, he came into contact with a Muslim woman, Afroz (23), from Shekhupur. Their interactions over the phone turned into a relationship. When Afroz’s family found out, they lured and coerced Rajkumar into marrying her on stamp paper on 04.08.2023. All witnesses at the wedding were Afroz’s relatives, and Rajkumar’s family was unaware of the marriage. Rajkumar was taken to a mosque, where he was forced to offer namaz and eat meat, with pressure to convert to Islam. When he resisted, he was given a "talaq" (divorce) on 27.10.2023. Later, Afroz's family showed court marriage documents and convinced Rajkumar on 04.01.2024 to resume living together, promising that Afroz would live according to Hindu customs. Afroz and Rajkumar began living together again, and she adopted Hindu rituals. The couple had a son. However, during the festival of Eid, Afroz’s family took her to her parental home. When Rajkumar went there on Eid, he saw that his son was being fed meat. On protesting, his wife called a Maulana and relatives who allegedly caught hold of Rajkumar, tried to forcibly convert him to Islam again, and made him eat meat. He resisted and fled with his son. Rajkumar reached a showroom in Kasganj district with his son, but Afroz's family followed and reached there too. The local 112 police unit then handed the child over to Afroz, his mother. Rajkumar insists that under no circumstances will he become a Muslim, eat meat, offer namaz, or undergo circumcision. He wants to protect his son from the same fate. He says that when the marriage took place, it was agreed that Afroz would live by Hindu traditions. He fears that Afroz’s family might forcibly circumcise his son and convert him. He firmly states he will not offer namaz and is seeking justice to prevent further coercion.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the primary category 'Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women' under the sub-category- Threatened to convert by family of partner. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man faces threats to convert and change his religious identity by the non-Hindu woman or her family. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert to Islam and also assaults the victim to force him to convert. 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 man 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 man was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The other sub-category selected is- Forced to convert after marriage, and within this, two tertiary categories selected are- Forced to follow non-Hindu practices and Forced circumcision. In such cases, a non-Hindu woman marries a Hindu man and the force/pressure against the Hindu man to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the non-Hindu woman hiding her religious identity. 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 woman starts to pressure the Hindu man to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force/pressure by the perpetrator, including, denial of the man’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the man is forced/pressured to convert include forcing/pressurizing the man to involuntarily consume beef, pressurizing/forcing to read the Kalma, forced circumcision, forced to go to the mosque, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the man 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 other sub-category selected is- Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is blackmailed to convert his religion. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu woman starts blackmailing a Hindu man to convert his religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu man is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to his family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case from Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, rightfully warrants its inclusion in the Hinduphobia tracker as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus. The Hindu victim, Rajkumar, was subjected to sustained coercion, psychological pressure, and physical intimidation by his Muslim wife’s family, with the central aim of forcibly converting him and his infant son to Islam. The incident encompasses multiple forms of targeted hostility, beginning with deceit and manipulation during marriage — where he was married off without his family’s knowledge and pressured into accepting Islamic rituals such as namaz and meat consumption. His resistance led not only to a temporary separation through a unilateral "talaq", but also to renewed coercion masked as reconciliation, with false assurances that his wife would live according to Hindu customs. The situation escalated when, during Eid, his child was reportedly fed meat against his will, and Rajkumar himself was allegedly assaulted, restrained, and once again forced to partake in Islamic rituals. These actions underscore a deliberate pattern of intimidation and blackmail to convert him and his child. The attempt to forcibly alter his religious identity, isolate him from his child, and override his autonomy through familial pressure and religious imposition are clear markers of Hinduphobia. This incident, in fact, is not an isolated domestic dispute but a serious hate crime rooted in religious intolerance, justifying its addition to the Hinduphobia tracker.