A Hate Crime typically has two important ingredients – an underlying offence which has been committed coupled with a bias. A hate crime is supposed to have taken place when the perpetrator intentionally targets an individual, property or symbols owing to his/her bias against a certain characteristic of that individual or his/her hatred towards that characteristic.
While these characteristics could be many, for example, race, colour, regional identity, sexual orientation etc., for the purpose of this category under the Hinduphobia Tracker, we would focus on two specific characteristics – gender and religious identity (specifically, Hindu religious identity).
The crimes included in this category would therefore have the following three components:
- A criminal offence should have been committed.
- The criminal offence should have been committed against a woman.
- The criminal offence should be a manifestation of bias and/or hatred against her religious identity as a Hindu and the crime should be motivated by religious considerations or have markers that could prove that religion played a role in the crime being committed against the victim/s.
These crimes would include a woman belonging to the Hindu faith being denied her right to practice her religion in any manner either by force or coercion after she is in a relationship with a man who belongs to a different religion. The force and/or coercion in such cases could be asserted by the partner himself or his family, friends and/or religious leaders who may be directly or tangentially involved in denying the Hindu woman her right to practice her faith either by directly desecrating her faith or by forcing the victim to change her religion. These crimes would also include deception being deployed by the partner by misrepresenting his faith to the Hindu woman to coerce her into a relationship/marriage thereby denying the victim her dignity and religious freedom. In such cases, violence, in some cases leading to murder, is not uncommon. In several cases, the aggression against the Hindu woman leads to her murder and/or rape. In some of the cases documented, there have been instances of the woman committing suicide owing to the pressure to convert her religion to that of the perpetrator.
Such religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women in relationships have been divided into the following sub-categories:
- Forced conversion before marriage
- Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices
- Forced to do Nikah
- Forced circumcision
- Forced to eat beef
- Forced to go to Mosque
- Forced to wear Hijab
- Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship
- Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert
- Blackmailed to convert
- Forced conversion after marriage
- Forced to read Kalma
- Forced Halala
- Forced to eat beef
- Forced to wear Hijab
- Forced circumcision
- Forced to go to Mosque
- Forced to do Nikah
- Man pretends to be Hindu
- Name Changed
- Marries as per Hindu rituals
- Wears symbols of Hinduism
- Raped after Hindu woman finds out real identity
- Pattern of targeting Hindu women
- Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert
- Assault or threat upon refusal to convert
- Rape for refusal to convert
- Murder upon refusal to convert
- Torture of family to force woman to convert
- Brainwashed and/or Groomed
- Family claims grooming
- Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed
- Family/Friends of deceased victim says she was brainwashed/groomed
- Pattern of targeting Hindu minors
- Rape and sexual assault/harassment
- Conversion of minor
In all of these crimes, a specific religious angle is imperative for it to be recorded as a religiously motivated hate crime against a Hindu woman in a relationship.
Why and how it is a hate crime
As explained, a hate crime is said to have taken place when it meets two specific components – a) A crime or criminal offence has occurred b) there exists a bias, prejudice or hatred against one or more characteristics of the victim.
In this category, the denial of religious freedom, coercion and force applied to either adopt customs of an alien religion and/or disregard Hindu customs constitutes the offence in itself. In cases where the forceful conversion is coupled with assault or murder or the denial of the Hindu woman to convert leads to assault or murder also constitutes an offence under the law.
Once established that an offence has been committed, it becomes important to establish the bias which led to the crime to ensure we can establish the crime as a hate crime.
In the cases which would form a part of this category, it would be imperative that the motivation to commit that crime was driven by bias or hate against the religious identity of the victim.
Gender-based crimes are said to be a result of ingrained misogyny and disproportionately affect those women who are seen as not complying with established gender norms of the society they live in. Gender itself is a ‘protected characteristic’ according to several human rights norms per which crimes against women itself is considered a ‘hate crime’ because it is argued that a crime against a woman is driven by prejudice and/or declared hate against the gender of the victim and therefore, the crime itself should be classified as a ‘hate crime’.
While branding all crimes against women as a ‘hate crime’ is a definition which is highly contested, another characteristic of hate and prejudice against women which plays a crucial role in these crimes is that of religious identity, specifically, the Hindu religious identity.
Where independent crimes as a result of prejudice against one’s gender or religious identity are heinous enough, what makes this category of crime particularly of concern is the intersectional identity of the victim that places her at a higher risk of religiously motivated hate crimes.
In this category of hate crime, there are two prejudices that apply in tandem – the prejudice or hate against women and the prejudice or hate against her religious identity of being a Hindu.
In these crimes, specific hatred against Hindu women is observed when the perpetrators deny the victim the right to practice their religion and force them to convert (desecrating Hindu religious symbols, forcing her to wear alien religious symbols leaving her own, forcing her to read religious texts, forcing the victim to go to other religious places leaving her own, misrepresenting religious identity to mislead a Hindu woman into a relationship) or commit violence in order to ensure that the victim converts her religion to a religion alien to her (force-feeding beef to Hindu woman, raping for conversion or upon refusal to convert, murder and assault to convert or upon refusal to convert, blackmailing with intimate videos to convert.
However, the two elements working in tantum do not necessarily have a cause-effect relationship. Essentially, it is not always that bias/hate which leads to the crime. In several cases, the hate/prejudice/bias is displayed after the crime has been committed where the cause of the crime is completely different.
Let us consider a hypothetical scenario to explain this aspect better. Let us suppose a Hindu woman is in a relationship with a Muslim man and the Muslim man murders his Hindu partner after a fight over an issue which is not related to religion at all. However, after the murder, he expresses or displays religious prejudice/hate/bias in words or actions. After the murder, which was evidently committed for a non-religious, unrelated reason, if the Muslim perpetrator claims that the Hindu partner deserved her fate because of her religious identity – it would prove religious prejudice and the crime would be considered a hate crime, despite the driving factor of the crime not being a religious one.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes a cogent case for such crimes to be considered hate crimes.
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution”.
Men and women, regardless of their religion, have the right to marry and establish a family. The condition, however, is that they should be of sound mind and full age. An extension of this argument would also mean that there should be no coercion or force involved as far as such relationships are concerned. The declaration says that every individual regardless of their religion has this right, it would ideally also extend to the fact that owing to marriage, nobody can or should be coerced or forced into changing their religion.
Drawing from that argument, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”.
While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifically says that every individual has the right and freedom to change his religious beliefs, it also says that every individual has the right to freedom of thought and religion. The moment these two assertions are made, it also extends to the fact that force, and coercion applied to change an individual’s religion is tantamount to the denial of his right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Crimes in this section, therefore, are recorded as hate crimes when a woman is targeted in a relationship by either the spouse or his family specifically because of her religious identity with her gender identity already being a prejudicial characteristic.
Sub-categories and why it’s a hate crime
Man Pretends to be Hindu
When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime.
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, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his 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 man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert including force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for 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.
Forced conversion before marriage
In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Niqah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing.
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 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 Hinduphobia Tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam.
Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with 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. However, when the Hindu woman refuses to convert, the non-Hindu man ends the relationship or divorces the woman, as the case might be. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to change her religious identity and upon her refusal, ends the relationship. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force, or threat after she refuses to convert to Islam, are not considered a part of the hate tracker.
Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship
When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces insult and desecration of her faith (Hinduism) and its symbol because of the inherent disregard for polytheism of the non-Hindu partner. 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 desecrating the religious symbols of the Hindu partner out of spite for her faith. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Suicide for being forced or pressured to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with 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 pressuring 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 hate crimes.
Blackmailed to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. 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 man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her 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.
Rape for refusal to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing 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.
Murder upon refusal to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion and upon her refusal to do so, the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu woman is first pressured to change her religion by the non-Hindu man. The pressure could involve threats and/or violence. The trigger to murdering the woman is in these cases is her refusal to comply and change her religion under threat and/or force. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Torture of family to force woman to convert
When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu man is often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu woman to pressure her to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the woman. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family in order to force the Hindu woman to convert. The aim of such crimes is to blackmail the victim into changing her religion by inducing fear of harm to her family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.
Brainwashed and/or groomed
In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms the minor victims to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim, similarly, if a non-Hindu perpetrator or perpetrators have a pattern of targeting Hindu minors for sexual exploitation, with or without conversion, it would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database.
If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered hate crimes.
If an adult Hindu woman has converted her religion of her own free will and says that there was no pressure exerted on her to convert, then the case would not be included in this database even if the parents/friends of the woman claim that she may have been brainwashed. It can be argued that the entire process of brainwashing itself means that the victim doesn’t realise it, and thus such testimony could be rare, we are exercising caution and restraint even if there could be testimony to the safe effect by the victim’s family or friend.
Such cases would appear in undecided cases, which do not form a part of the database itself, since suspicions have been expressed but the victim is an adult who has expressed her consent.
Parameters applied
Parameters applied to include cases as a hate crime under this category
- The victim must be a woman.
- The victim woman must belong to the Hindu faith.
- The perpetrator must be a non-Hindu.
- There must be a declared prejudice against the victim’s religious identity.
- The declaration of bias/prejudice/hate by the perpetrator can be made before, during or after the crime.
- Even if there is no declaration of bias/prejudice/hate, if the action itself is prejudicial, biased or driven by religious hate, it would qualify as a hate crime.
- Even if the crime itself is committed for a non-religious reason, if there is an expression of religious hate in action or words after the crime has been committed or sometime in the past to prove that the perpetrator harboured religious hate, it would be considered a hate crime.
- The victim and the perpetrator must be in a relationship or married for the crime to feature in this category.
- If they are not in a relationship, religiously prejudicial or hate-induced crime against a Hindu woman when a man is pursuing the woman to get into a relationship with him will also be included in this category of hate crime.
- Those in a consensual relationship leading to the woman, who is an adult as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, changing her faith, would not form a part of this category.
- If the Hindu woman is in a consensual relationship with a non-Hindu man, is an adult as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, changes her religion per her own free will and then, a crime is committed against her which is not of a religious nature, such cases will not be included in this category.
- Even if the Hindu woman is in a consensual relationship with a non-Hindu man and a religiously motivated hate crime is committed against the Hindu woman, it would be included in this category of hate crime.
- That the crime was religiously motivated and should be considered a hate crime can be established either by the statement of the victim, her family and/or friends, a written complaint, an FIR, the statement of eyewitnesses, investigative reports by media, police statement and/or court documents.
- To decide if a crime is a hate crime to be added in this category, a wholistic approach will be taken where the nature of the crime, what is known about the victim and the perpetrator, all statements by those mentioned in Pt 12 and circumstances of the case will be considered.
- If the victim is a minor, that a crime has been constituted is true ab initio (under the POCSO Act). The only element to be established is whether there was a religious motivation for the crime. In such cases, if there is any conversion due to brainwashing/grooming, attempted conversion, abduction, misrepresentation of religious identity etc it would automatically be considered a hate crime.
- Even if the religiously motivated hate crime is not committed by the partner in the relationship but by his family, friends, community religious leaders or any individual with a fiduciary relationship with the male partner against the Hindu woman, a hate crime under this category would have said to be occurred.
Example of a hate crime which would be included in the category “Hate crimes against women in relationship
In August 2023, 20-year-old man Mohammad Sabir was convicted under the anti-conversion law for forcing a Hindu girl to convert to Islam. Along with this, a fine of Rs 56,000 was also imposed on the Muslim man.
Special Judge (POCSO Act) Surekha Mishra, awarded the accused 20 years of rigorous imprisonment under 376(3) IPC and 5(L) and 6 of the POCSO Act and up to 7 years of jail and Rs 56,000 fine under sections 450 and 506 of the IPC.
The incident in which the accused got punished happened in the year 2020 in the Hatod region of Indore. The accused on September 9, 2020, raped the victim and threatened her with a knife to not share what happened with her with anyone. The girl was so scared that she decided to keep quiet, but the accused continued to rape the girl.
He also filmed the act and used it to blackmail her to respond in the way he wanted. Further after a few months, he forced her to convert her religion to Islam and marry him. He said that he would leak the video on social media if she refused to follow his orders.
The victim, tired of the threats and atrocities, finally narrated her ordeal to her parents and brother who then took her to the police station to file a report. The police lodged a complaint and launched a probe into the case. A charge sheet was presented in the court, based on which the accused was convicted.
Laws in India about forced religious conversion
Articles 25-30 guarantee citizens freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion which not only means that a citizen of the country is free to profess and practice his/her religion, but it would also mean that no individual should be forced to leave his religion and convert to an alien religion.
The fact that forced religious conversion was a societal issue of concern is evidenced by the fact that while the British ignored enacting laws to protect the indigenous people of Bharat, several princely states did. Examples: Raigarh State Conversion Act, 1936, Patna Freedom of Religion Act, 1942, Sarguja State Apostasy Act, 1945, Udaipur State Anti-Conversion Act, 1946. Specific laws against conversion to Christianity were enacted in Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kalahandi and Kota.
In 1954, Parliament took up for consideration the Indian Conversion (Regulation and Registration) Bill. Six years later, another law, the Backward Communities (Religious Protection) Bill, 1960, was proposed to stop conversion. Both were dropped for want of support. However, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh passed anti-conversion laws in 1967, 1968 and 1978 respectively. Later, similar laws were passed by the state assemblies of Chhattisgarh (2000), Tamil Nadu (2002), Gujarat (2003), Himachal Pradesh (2006), and Rajasthan (2008). The laws were intended to stop conversions by force or inducement, or fraudulently. Some of the laws made it mandatory to seek prior permission from local authorities before conversion.
These laws made forced conversion a cognisable offence under sections 295 A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertain to malicious and deliberate intention to hurt the religious sentiments of others. They attract a prison term of up to three years and a fine. The punishment, in some cases, is harsher if the offence is committed against a minor, a woman or an SC or ST person.
