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Key Points
On January 22–23, 1999, missionary Graham Staines and his sons Philip and Timothy were burned alive in Manoharpur, Odisha by a Bajrang Dal mob led by Dara Singh.
The incident occurred amid a documented rise in anti-Christian violence and political mobilisation around alleged religious conversions. While Dara Singh was convicted, most accused were acquitted, commissions were diluted, and judicial outcomes stopped short of structural accountability.
More than two decades later, the case remains a reference point as religious minorities continue to face targeted violence with limited state deterrence.
On the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines, who had been working with leprosy patients and tribal communities in India for 30 years, and his two sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), who were on vacation from school, were burned alive by a Hindutva mob in Odisha’s Manoharpur.
At the time, Staines and the children were sleeping in their car in a clearing near a local church, having taken a break on their way to a congregation nearby. At midnight, a mob, led by Bajrang Dal leader Dara Singh and armed with laathis, snuck up on the family, covered their car in straw, and set it on fire. They stood by as the car burned, making sure their victims could not escape. Afterwards, they marched away chanting “Jai Bajrang Bali” and “Dara Singh Zindabad”. The next morning, three skeletons were found clinging to each other in the wreckage.
Then President K.R. Narayanan described the killings as belonging “to the world’s inventory of black deeds”. This was 27 years ago. Today, the case stands as a reference point for the continued persecution of religious minorities across India.
The ensuing investigation, arrests, and comments by Supreme Court justices highlighted the state’s apathy for any formal accountability or systemic reform. Massive outrage, domestically and internationally, brough about some form of justice, with Dara Singh and several other associates held unequivocally responsible. But the dilution of the fact-finding commission, acquittal of most of those accused, commutation of several sentences, and the possibility of Dara Singh’s imminent release, prove that India’s brief and reductionist confrontation of the targeted attack has had no lasting impact.
In fact, the entrenchment of Hindu nationalism in India’s collective conscience has only worsened since – as can be seen in the continued targeting of minorities and informal sanction granted by the state to those carrying out such attacks.
The Staines murders were not an isolated incident; the years preceding saw an increasing number of crimes targeting Christians. In the three decades between 1964 and 1996, there were 38 reported cases of violence against Christians across the country, according to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights. In 1997 alone, that number rose to 24, and in 1998, it crossed 90 – exceeding the total recorded since Independence. Human Rights Watch (HRW) linked this jump to the BJP’s ascent to power that same year.
HRW also noted that a trend of Hindu nationalist sentiment coincided with increasing anti-Christian violence between 1997-99, highlighting several incidents from the timeframe.
Throughout 1998, several churches and prayer halls were vandalized and burned down across Dangs and Panchmahal districts of Guajarat. The wave was preceded by the BJP coming to power in the state and further fuelled by anti-Christian rallies organised the Hindu Jagran Manch before Christmas that year. Christian schools and hostels were also targeted, and clergy reported threats and intimidation. Accounts from the time reveal that large mobs also frequently pressured local Christians to convert to Hinduism under threat of violence and destruction.
Human Rights Watch noted that local administrations often characterised the violence as spontaneous reactions to alleged conversion activities, despite a lack of evidence. In many cases, FIRs were either not registered or were filed against Christian victims instead of attackers.
In September 1998, four Catholic nuns were gang-raped in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. Around 20 men forced their way into the convent, which they looted before assaulting the nuns. The attack was attributed to “uncivilised” tribals by the Centre and State governments.
However, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) defended the attack, claiming that the nuns were converting Hindus and that this was the response of “Hindu youth against the anti-national forces.” While the BJP criticized the attack, it accused the Congress of communalising the attack, while Home Minister LK Advani falsely claimed that it was perpetrated by Christians.
In July 1998, 11 Christian schools were attacked across Karnataka. In November 1999, 26 students from St. Joseph’s Evening College in Bangalore were attacked by a group of 40 VHP members. The mob accused the students, not all of whom were Christian, of forcibly converting Dalits to Christianity.
1998 also saw many Churches attacked in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Since the Staines case, Odisha has stood as a flashpoint for communal tensions and has seen repeated instances of majoritarian violence against religious minorities.
Within months of the Staines killings, the village of Ranalai in Gajapati district witnessed large-scale attacks in March 1999. Reports documented the burning of scores of Christian houses, the desecration of a cross, and targeting of Christian property. National Commission for Minorities inquiries found the violence to be planned and identified local organisational involvement.
Nearly a decade later, in 2007-08, Kandhamal district witnessed a much larger and more systematic eruption of anti-Christian violence following the murder of a Hindu religious leader. Official and independent estimates put destruction at hundreds of churches and at least 6,500 of houses, mass displacement of tens of thousands of people and over 100 deaths. Relief camps and long displacement followed.
The Kandhamal attacks were widely documented as targeted communal violence with organised dimensions, and for many observers they represented the failure of both local and national institutions to protect minorities and to deliver prompt justice.
The pattern in Odisha — and similar districts — shows a common template: local tensions over land, symbols or ritual feed into larger narratives of alleged conversions; organisational actors mobilise or provide cover; policing either falters or is slow; and victims, often tribal Christians or Dalit Christians, bear a disproportionate cost.
This pattern has remained consistent up till today. In January 2026, a Bajrang Dal mob assaulted a Christian pastor under allegations of religious conversion. They beat him, tied him to a temple, force-fed him cow dung, and made him chant religious slogans. Even in this case, police action was slow and came only after public outrage.
The investigation into the Staines killings initially faced criticism for delays and procedural lapses. Local police were accused of failing to act on prior warnings about threats to missionaries in the region. In October 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case amid mounting pressure.
According to the investigative report, that attack was a coordinated plan, with a group of 30–50 men going after the Staines family, another group attacking the nearby camp, and a third group occupying nearby villages, ensuring no one came out to help. The firs group brought along crude weapons with which they slashed the tires and smashed the windows the car before setting it on fire. A post-mortem report revealed that Staines and his sons died of shock and suffocation while being burned alive.
The investigation was marred by repeated delays and inaction, with the main accused, Dara Singh, absconding for a year before he was finally captured. In this time, he managed to give multiple TV interviews and commit at least two more murders.
When charges were finally brought, a total of 51 individuals were initially accused. However, as the trial progressed, charges against most were dropped due to what courts described as insufficient evidence. In 2003, a trial court sentenced Dara Singh to death and awarded life imprisonment to 12 others.
But even this outcome did not last. The Orissa High Court later acquitted all but Dara Singh and one associate, citing unreliable witness testimony and lack of corroboration. One other, a juvenile, was also sentenced and has since been released. In 2005, the Supreme Court upheld Dara Singh’s conviction but commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, ruling that the case did not meet the “rarest of rare” standard. The bench, headed by Justice P Sathasivam, also commented,“At Manoharpur, the intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely, converting poor tribals to Christianity.” This remark was later expunged.
Most recently, in April 2025, Mahendra Hembram, the only remaining convict in the case, was released from prison for “good behaviour”. He was welcomed by the VHP with garlands and chants of “Jai Shri Ram”. “It is a good day for us. We welcome the government's decision,” VHP joint secretary Kedar Dash said at the time.
As part of its response to the incident, the Centre appointed a fact-finding commission to investigate the killing, headed by retired Justice DP Wadhwa. In its report, the judicial inquiry concluded that the murders were planned, brutal, and driven by fundamentalist hostility towards Christians. It found no evidence that Staines had engaged in forced conversions.
However, the commission established that Dara Singh acted alone and was not part of any organised extremist network. This conclusion stood in contrast to extensive testimony before the commission, including from police officers, local witnesses, and even the commission’s own counsel, which suggested Singh’s close association with Bajrang Dal and links to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s local structures.
Human rights groups and civil society organisations criticised the report for ignoring the wider national context of anti-Christian violence and for absolving organisations despite substantial evidence of ideological and logistical support.
Graham Stewart Staines was born in Australia in 1941 and arrived in India in the mid-1960s as part of the Evangelical Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj. For more than 30 years he lived and worked in Baripada and surrounding tribal districts of northern Odisha. His work centred on leprosy care, running the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home and delivering primary health and livelihood assistance in remote areas.
After the murders, his widow Gladys Staines continued relief and rehabilitation work for a period and became the public face of the family’s response with some even labelling her the “most well-known Christian in India”.
Gladys refused calls for vengeance and often spoke of forgiveness. She continued social work tied to the leprosy home and remained in India until 2004 before returning to Australia. For her sustained contributions Gladys Staines was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2005 and later received other recognitions for social service.
Esther Staines, the couple’s daughter, currently practices medicine in Australia.
Rabindra Pal, popularly known as Dara Singh, was the identified ringleader in the Manoharpur killings. He had a long criminal record at the time, with five FIRs to his name. During the late 1990s he had been linked by police intelligence and local testimony to campaigns around cow protection and to a pattern of vigilante action. After the Staines killings, he remained at large for nearly a year before being arrested in January 2000.
In that time, specifically August 1999, he carried out an attack on a Muslim trader, Sheikh Rehman, in Mayurbhanj. He led a large mob into a crowded market where they targeted Rehman. First, the mob set his clothes cart on fire, then Dara Singh hacked off his arms and finally set him on fire. Another killing during that period – the murder of a Christian priest, Arul Doss, in September 1999 – was also linked to him later on.
Dara Singh frequently courted publicity. In the months after the Staines killing he gave televised interviews – while supposedly being untraceable by the police – in which he often denied involvement in the crime or accused Staines of forced conversions. Later, in the trial record and press coverage, he refused to show remorse. “No. I've no regrets. And I will never regret,” he said in May 2000.
Despite being awarded a death sentence, this was later commuted and Dara Singh is currently serving a life sentence in the case. In later years he filed mercy and remission pleas, claiming repentance. In March 2025 the Supreme Court asked the Odisha government to decide whether to remit his sentence. The State Sentence Review Board deferred the decision in May 2025.
Since 1999, Hindu nationalism has moved from the margins to the centre of political power. Anti-conversion laws have expanded across states, often used to criminalise religious practice rather than prevent coercion, and accusation of religious conversion are seemingly enough to justify assaults and even lynchings.
In a recent case from December 2025 in West Bengal, where a Muslim vendor was assaulted for selling chicken patties at a Gita recitation event, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari publicly garlanded the perpetrator after he secured bail. Similar incidents have been reported in recent years.
Data from human rights groups, such as the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (ACPR), suggests that violence against Christians has not abated. Between June 2024 and June 2025, at least 1,504 Christian individuals were affected in 85 verified hate-crime incidents, according to compiled civil society data.
Since 2014, advocacy groups such as the United Christian Forum and Evangelical Fellowship of India have recorded a steady rise in attacks, ranging from church vandalism and social boycotts to physical assaults and arrests under anti-conversion laws. In 2014 alone, 147 incidents targeting Christians were documented, including killings.
Conversion rhetoric continues to dominate political discourse. Anti-conversion laws have expanded across states, often used to detain pastors and disrupt religious gatherings despite repeated findings by official bodies that forced conversions are rare or unproven.
More significantly, communal rhetoric has become normalized across the political landscape. Prominent politicians, including PM Modi, regularly engage in dog-whistling and reference conspiracy theories for electoral gains. A recent event organized by the Ministry of Culture in December 2025, titled ‘Sanatan Rashtra Sankhanad Mahotsav’, openly called for the creation of a Hindu Rashtra, with speakers, including Ministers, delivering speeches vilifying minorities.
27 years on, the Graham Staines killings remain a symbol not only of brutality but of missed opportunity. The outrage they generated did not translate into sustained institutional accountability. Instead, the passage of time has normalised what once shocked the conscience of the nation.
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