by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Enraged by her new faith in Christ, the tribal animist relatives of a mother of four in central India have banished her from their village and barred her from harvesting the crop she needs to feed her family, Morning Star News reports.
A childcare worker, Kanni Barse from Palamadugu village in the Sukma District Chhattisgarh had become a Christian and had invited a local pastor to bless the crop she had planted to feed her family during the COVID-19 pandemic, Morning Star News said. However, upon learning of the pastor’s blessing, Barse’s Adivasis tribal animist relatives barred her from harvesting her crop, and threatened to kill her if she returned to the village.
When Barse turned to the Polampalli police station for help, a local inspector told her she had “committed a huge mistake by adopting a foreign faith” and that he “should book cases” against her, Morning Star News was told. Moreover, when Barse asked the inspector: ‘What about my life? There is a threat to my life,’” the officer answered: “We can’t take the responsibility of protecting anybody’s life.”
In a statement to Morning Star News, Barse explained: “Afraid of what was happening, I called the inspector on the phone and told him that I will take the complaint back – it is enough if they would allow me to harvest the crop and work at the childcare center,” she said. “But the officer told me that the village elders said they want to fight this case.”
“It has been over two months now,” Barse told Morning Star News. “The oxen and birds have eaten the grain, and the crop has all got wasted.”