Forced conversions? Intel agencies sound alarm on rising cases

Between June and August this year, Maharashtra witnessed a wave of criminal complaints linked to alleged religious conversions, involving financial inducements, fraud, harassment, and even a death by suicide.

- Ashish Singh

Intelligence agencies have flagged a sharp rise in such cases across rural and tribal areas, where vulnerable communities, often burdened by dowry, marriage-related expenses, and medical costs, have come into repeated contact with Christian missionaries and subsequently allegedly converted.

Many members of marginalised groups are allegedly undergoing conversion in secret to avoid caste-based oppression. Some are allegedly practicing Christianity in secret while retaining their Hindu identities, a phenomenon described in media and political discourse as “cryptoChristianity.”

The state intelligence department warns that in the current environment, claims of religious conversion carry far-reaching consequences beyond theology, increasing social friction and threatening to inflame communal sensitivities across Maharashtra.