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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Soni Sori: A portrait of an unlikely "woman Maoist" by Supriya Sharma

Soni Sori: A portrait of an unlikely "woman Maoist" by Supriya Sharma

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published Published on Oct 12, 2011   modified Modified on Oct 12, 2011

PALNAR/SAMELI (DANTEWADA): They sat watching cartoons on TV a day after their mother was arrested in faraway Delhi on charges of acting as a conduit/courier for Maoists. 

While adivasi school teacher Soni Sori faces police interrogation in Chhattisgarh for her role in an alleged pay off by Essar group to Maoists, her children, Muskaan (12), Deependera (10) and Amrita (6) are at their uncle Ramdev's house in Palnar village for a month long Diwali vacation. 

"Their mother is taking care of their grandfather who is unwell and hospitalised," said Ramdev, dropping a hint that Soni's case and circumstances not be discussed in the children's presence. 

Taking the cue, this correspondent asked the children about school, friends, and dreams for the future. "I want to be a software engineer," shot off Deependra, in fluent and confident English. "Mother said if you get good marks in school, I will get you a computer soon". 

While his sisters have been enrolled in government schools, class four student Deependra studies an English medium private residential school in Dantewada, that charges a monthly fee of 3000 rupees. Elite education, by Dantewada's standards, and a major expense for Sori whose salary as a school teacher is about 8000 rupees. 

The 36 year old adivasi school teacher's life seems typical of Dantewada's educated and aspirational middle class. Her house in Sameli village opens into a small seating area with a TV, plastic flowers and small wall paintings. The mixer grinder is not placed in the kitchen but carefully perched on a bedroom shelf. The cupboards and boxes are full of attendance registers and neatly folded pairs of children clothes in smart local brands. 

A kilometre ahead, turning away from the asphalt road painted with Maoist graffiti, lies Jabeli village, and the ashramshala or residential school where Soni taught. It is ramshackle building with a tin shed. 

"The Maoists destroyed all school buildings in the area, except Sameli and Jabeli ashramshalas," said a school teacher. "Soni was the only teacher who lived in the area. This made her an easy target for suspicion. And after the police named her in the attack on Avdesh Gautam (a local congress leader), whispers about her links with Maoists grew and officials started fearing her". 

"I asked her to seek a transfer," said Nanda Ram Sori, her uncle, also a former MLA and CPI leader. "I told her tum badnaam ho rahi ho (you reputation is getting tarnished). But she did not respond, possibly since we had stopped talking after she married outside the caste". 

Soni Sori had defied her family to marry Anil Futani, a man about whom not much is known, except that he lived in Geedam, a trading town, and drove a bolero vehicle. 

He was arrested last year after the naxals attacked the house of local congress leader Avdesh Gautam. Soni was also named in the case, but curiously not arrested. She continued to attend school and draw a salary. 

"We wanted to cultivate her, since she was well connected to senior Maoist commanders. If we could get her on our side, we would get a lot of information," claimed a senior police officer. 

Back in her brother's home, as the younger children scampered around, a subdued Muskaan took this correspondent aside, and asked, "Will mother be alright?". The 12 year old had caught a glimpse of Soni on TV, being taken away by policewomen. It frightened her, but she decided not to share the news with her younger siblings. "They are young, they will worry," she says, her eyes turning moist. 

Holding back tears, and displaying a combination of adult knowledge with a child's innocence, she continued, "People used to taunt my mother. When we bought the TV, they said you are taking it for the naxals. When she bought fine rice, that my brother likes, again people said you are taking it for naxals". 

"The naxals often called her. She would not take me. When she returned, she would hold her head in her hands and sit quietly. I told her don't go. She said majboori hai," says the child. 

But the police officer claims it was not compulsion but greed that made Soni work for the Maoists. The same signs of middle class prosperity that make Soni an unlikely Maoist accomplice, he claims, make her a more likely one. But ask him why would the Maoists shoot Soni Sori's father if she was working for them, he offers no clear answer, except the claim that after the attack on Soni's family in June, the police had "redoubled its efforts to win her over".

The Times of India, 12 October, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Soni-Sori-A-portrait-of-an-unlikely-woman-Maoist/articleshow/10323298.cms


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