{"id":20479,"date":"2017-02-23T11:38:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T11:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=20479"},"modified":"2017-02-23T11:38:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T11:38:53","slug":"india-christian-convert-killed-for-refusing-to-renounce-christ-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/india-christian-convert-killed-for-refusing-to-renounce-christ-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"INDIA &#8211; Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>INDIA &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis himself recently declared that there are now more martyrs than in the first centuries. One of them is the Indian Christian Bartu Urawan, who preferred to endure torture that led to his death rather than renounce his faith. \u00a0This is the latest episode of violence by Hindu radicals against the Christian minority in India, where the constitution guarantees freedom of worship but this is being increasingly violated.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-20487\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bartu-Urawn-was-killed-for-refusing-to-renounce-Christ-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bartu Urawn, 50, who lived in the village of Kubuaa in\u00a0 Palamu district with his wife and his son Beneswar, died a few weeks ago after suffering brutality for three years from neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>Bartu and his family had converted to Christianity about ten years ago, along with 9 another families from the village. \u201cWe lived in utter poverty and did not have food for a single meal. We were completely broken as a family after we lost my elder sister, elder brother and younger brother one after the other. It was then the gospel was preached in our village,\u201d said Beneswa. After converting to Christianity\u201c we had food to eat, health in our bodies and above all peace in our heart\u201d\u00a0 he added.<\/p>\n<p>Gradually the villagers noticed that the lives of the 10 Christian families began to improve\u00a0 and they began to persecute them. Villagers used discrimination and harassment to force these families to return to \u2018Sarna\u2019&#8221;, or &#8220;the religion of sacred trees&#8221; \u2013 an ancient ritual common to Hindu mythology, Buddhists and Jains, which also carries out animal sacrifice. After receiving daily threats, seven families could not stand the intimidation and returned to their previous faith.<\/p>\n<p>The villagers now turned their attention to the Urawn family.\u00a0 A mob assaulted Bartu, his wife, Beneswar, Beneswar\u2019s wife and Beneswar\u2019s younger brother and locked them inside their own house for several hours. They deliberately polluted the area from which the family fetched their drinking water. Later, they caught hold of Bartu and made him attend their worship, during which they sacrificed an animal. They forced meat from the sacrifice down his throat and made him drink fermented liquor.<\/p>\n<p>When it became clear that the Urawn\u2019s faith did not waver in spite of threats, assault and being ostracised, the villagers tied Bartu and his wife\u2019s hands behind their back and immersed them in a freezing pond with only their heads above water for 17 hours. Beneswar, who was forced to watch his parents\u2019 torture relates:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout the night they were in the cold water shivering and I along with 15-20 villagers were witness to the brutality. The villagers kept asking my father if he was ready to forsake Christ and return to the Sarna fold. He reiterated every time, \u2018I will not deny Christ\u2026.I will continue to believe till my last breath\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next morning Bartu and his wife were pulled out of the pond and hit. They both fell seriously ill as a result of their ordeal. Bartu\u2019s wife eventually recovered but Bartu suffered repeated cardiac arrest, became paralysed and died.<\/p>\n<p>To add to the trauma the family faced, villagers threatened Beneswar and would not him to bury his father unless the entire family returned to their ancestral faith. Eventually, Beneswar along with four Christians walked with the dead body of his father for 10 kilometres on 21 January until he could perform his last rites on government land.<\/p>\n<p>After they returned from the funeral, the villagers demanded that Bartu\u2019s wife should serve food to the entire village according to Sarna rituals. Beneswar refused to abide by those traditions insisting that as Christians they would hold a prayer meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe villagers said that they will kill us just like they killed my father,\u201d said Beneswar.<\/p>\n<p>The Urawn family fled for their lives and took refuge in a village 35 kilometres away. They approached the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe police did nothing about the murder of my father calling it a \u2018natural death\u2019 but invited the villagers on 2 February for \u2018peace talks\u2019 and instructed them to not trouble us further, as faith is our personal matter and we are free to believe whom we want to,\u201d revealed Beneswar.<\/p>\n<p>The Urawn family is back home and continue to move on in their faith amidst trials.<\/p>\n<p>Among the major tribes, 56.6 per cent profess Sarna Dharam, 39.8 per cent are Hindus, 14.5 per cent are Christians and 0.4 per cent are Muslims. According to Aid to the Church in Need\u2019s \u00a0Religious Freedom in the World Report 2016, minority rights are seriously threatened \u00a0in India and many are persecuted because of faith.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>ACN Malta<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INDIA &#8211;\u00a0Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ &nbsp; Pope Francis himself recently declared that there are now more martyrs than in the first centuries. One of them is the Indian Christian Bartu Urawan, who preferred to endure torture that led to his death rather than renounce his faith. \u00a0This is the latest episode&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>INDIA - Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/23\/india-christian-convert-killed-for-refusing-to-renounce-christ-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INDIA - Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"INDIA &#8211;\u00a0Christian convert killed for refusing to renounce Christ &nbsp; Pope Francis himself recently declared that there are now more martyrs than in the first centuries. 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