Graham Staines

Graham Stuart Staines (1941-January 1999) was an Australian missionary who was burnt to death along with his two sons Philip (aged 9) and Timothy (aged 7) while sleeping in his station wagon at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district in Orissa, India in January 1999. In 2003, the Hindu activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the gang.

Graham Staines had been working in Orissa among the tribal poor and especially with leprosy patients since 1965.

He has been accused by Hindus of the Sangh Parivar of being a zealous evangelical. While there is a perception that he converted many tribals to Christianity, the rise in Christian population in the district claimed by opponents is very slight.

Graham Staines was born in 1941 at Palmwoods, Queensland, Australia. He visited India in 1965 for the first time and joined Evangelical Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj (EMSM), working in this remote tribal area, with a long history of missionary activity.

Staines took over the management of the Mission at Baripada in 1983. He also played a role in the establishment of the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home as a registered society in 1982[1]. He met Gladys June in 1981 while working for leprosy patients, and they married in 1983, and have been working together since then. They had three children, daughter Esther and two sons Philip and Timothy. Staines assisted in translating a part of the Bible into the Ho language of India, including proofreading the entire New Testament manuscript, though his focus was on a ministry to lepers.

He spoke fluent Oriya and was very popular among the patients whom he used to help after they were cured. He used to teach how to make mats out of rope and basket from Saboigrass and hand weaving.
On the night of 22 January 1999, Graham Staines had attended a jungle camp, an annual gathering of Christians of the area to strengthen fellowship and for teaching. In the night he was sleeping in his station wagon when it was set afire by a mob. Graham and his two minor sons were burnt alive.