WhatsApp VHP Vigilantes In Chhatisgarh Forcing Christians To Convert: Report (image-X/Milind Parande)
In a report published on October 15, Rest of World, a global non-profit publication, details the helpless situation faced by the Christian community in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, where the right-wing vigilante group, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), forces Christians to convert to Hinduism under the threat of violence and ostracisation. The mob’s medium of coordination? WhatsApp.
The report revealed that the incidents have intensified in Bastar, where local Christians report growing persecution and a systematic campaign against their faith.
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The right-wing VHP was founded in 1964 with the aim to “organise and consolidate Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu Dharma.” The Hindutva organisation is part of the Sangh Parivar, led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Both the organisations are closely linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The report traces how Hindu nationalist sentiment has risen since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s win in 2014, emboldening groups like the VHP, which exploits WhatsApp’s rapid communication capabilities to mobilise supporters and coordinate efforts against religious minorities.
The report follows the harrowing story of 33-year-old Jaldhar Kashyap’s family, who were forced to convert by the VHP mob of over 50 individuals who learnt that his mother had passed away from cancer. The mob demanded they renounce Christianity if they wanted to bury the body. If they refused to comply, then the family would be forced into a life of isolation and persecution. “We were told we won’t be allowed to enter our own farmland. I couldn’t even speak,” the report quoted Jaldhar saying.
Jaldar and his family had no choice but to convert.
Christians make up just 2 percent of Chhattisgarh’s population, but their presence in rural areas like Bastar has become a focal point for religious conflict. With growing internet access, cheap data, and growing far-right sentiments, WhatsApp’s organising power boosted the attacks against religious minorities.
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The VHP has increasingly used funerals as opportunities to target Christians, pressuring families into conversions under threat of ostracism and violence. As one VHP leader noted, the speed of information sharing via WhatsApp has made mobilising support easier than ever, drastically reducing response times from days to mere hours, the report stated.
With its foot soldiers, living in poverty themselves, spread across the region, the VHP has facilitated forced conversions, destroying building sites for new churches, and more. Thanks to WhatsApp’s connectivity, these foot soldiers help filter out the chain of messages and carry out directives across a region of 38,000 square kilometres, found the report.
“I feel like I am working in the national interest,” told one such VHP member, Ghasiram Baghel, to the Rest of World journalist Parth MN.
Most in the Bastar region live in abject poverty with low levels of literacy. Baghel, like many others, belongs to a marginalised tribal community. For them, working for the VHP gives them a sense of power, purpose, and respect amongst their peers.
The report found that hundreds of Christian families have been coerced into conversion, often documented by VHP members who share videos of these incidents on social media platforms. Despite laws against forced conversions (its illegal in Chhattisgarh), enforcement remains lax, particularly under the current BJP-led state government, which has been accused of favouring Hindu nationalist agendas.
The VHP provides its members with smartphones—a basic model of Samsung or Vivo—so they could use WhatsApp. In 2019, when PM Modi won a second term, the saffron party used WhatsApp to mobilise supporters across the country. The VHP uses a similar technique, with the higher-ups having over 25 WhatsApp groups, each consisting of over 20,000 members.
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Local Response and the Police
Those who refuse to comply with the VHP’s demands and convert are boycotted by the village, sometimes physically assaulted and attacked by a mob until they are forced to leave their homes and livelihood behind.
Police in Bastar attempt to mediate between VHP members and Christian families, often prioritising maintaining peace over upholding religious freedoms. However, many Christians feel abandoned, with some stating that without community support, they have no choice but to conform to the demands of the VHP.
