The Conversion Kingpin

The rise and fall of ‘Changur Baba’ reveals a sinister nexus of religious coercion, caste-targeted manipulation and unchecked foreign funding undermining Indian law and social cohesion.

Uttar Pradesh

In a country where faith is constitutionally free but often socially fraught, the tale of Jalaluddin Shah, better known by his alias ‘Changur Baba,’ is both cautionary and chilling. Born Karimulla Shah, a gemstone seller pedalling from village to village, he would eventually ascend to the position of a self-styled Sufi mystic wielding immense power over the vulnerable. From a modest dargah in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, he ran what investigators are now calling a “conversion factory”—a sprawling network accused of coercing, luring, and manipulating economically disadvantaged citizens into adopting Islam by using a dangerous cocktail of money, mysticism, and Middle Eastern funds.

The facts emerging from investigations by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are damning. Nearly Rs. 106 crore in foreign funding, allegedly routed through hawala channels from Gulf nations, washed through 40 bank accounts controlled by Baba and his coterie. The ED’s decision to register a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is only the first step in unravelling what appears to be a well-oiled machine masquerading as religious philanthropy.

What is deeply corrosive here is the subversion of free will. The Indian Constitution guarantees the right to profess, practice, and propagate religion. But Changur Baba, investigators allege, went far beyond propagation. He targeted widowed women, low-income labourers, Scheduled Castes and backward communities. His methods were a mixture of psychological manipulation, monetary incentives, romantic deceit, and, in some cases, brute intimidation. In one particularly grotesque revelation, a caste-based ‘rate card’ was maintained for converting women: up to Rs.16 lakh for Brahmin, Sardar, or Kshatriya girls with lower rates for OBCs and Dalits.

This kind of caste-calibrated trafficking in belief is incendiary. It weaponizes India's most volatile social fault lines and monetises communal divisions. The Indian state cannot afford to treat such operations as isolated scams.

Then there is the foreign angle. More than 50 visits by Changur Baba and his close associates to Islamic countries raise disturbing questions. What was the nature of these trips? Who were the funders? Why was there no early detection of his meteoric financial rise and expanding landholdings in Balrampur, Pune and beyond? Even one of his illegally acquired properties in Madhpur village, worth Rs. 3 crore, had to be bulldozed to reclaim public land.

His network extended beyond conversions. A young woman from Ghaziabad reportedly went missing in 2019 after being entangled in the group’s web. Her sister alleges that the associate who lured her also subjected her to torture, including stubbing cigarettes on her body. If true, these are not just violations of law, but of the very moral contract on which a society functions.

What makes this saga even more dangerous is its mimicry of sanctity. Religious gatherings at his dargah routinely hosted both Indian and foreign nationals. Through pamphlets, sermons, and a book titled Shijra-e-Tayyaba, Baba projected himself as a spiritual guide while quietly operating as a conversion merchant with a chillingly corporate structure. This is a serious threat to India’s internal security and its social fabric.

For too long, authorities across states have ignored or underplayed the potential misuse of religious platforms for geopolitical and communal disruption. Foreign-funded religious conversions, whether motivated by ideology or profit, need far tighter regulatory oversight. Existing laws must be enforced with surgical precision. The ED, the ATS and intelligence services must not just arrest individuals like Changur Baba but dismantle the entire pipeline—from hawala operatives to foreign benefactors to local enablers.

This is not a call to monitor faith but to protect freedom of belief from becoming hostage to coercion and cash. India’s pluralism depends on preserving the sanctity of choice. When faith becomes commerce, and belief a bargaining chip in caste-based markets, it is not just the law that is violated but the very soul of the republic.