ABSTRACT
This interview was conducted on July 20, 2016 at Geedam, a town in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh at Soni Sori’s residence. Soni, a schoolteacher, was arrested on charges of being an intermediary for Maoists in 2011 and granted bail in 2014. The custodial torture and sexual assault that she faced, her subsequent release, and her continuous struggle against the state’s excesses against the tribal population resisting corporate acquisition of tribal land has made her the face of adivasi resistance in contemporary Chhattisgarh. In 2014, she contested as a candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and lost the general elections in Bastar. Four months prior to this interview, in March 2016, she was attacked by miscreants who threw chemicals on her face and threatened her family with dire consequences if she did not desist from speaking out on state atrocities against the tribal population. In this interview Soni describes her work, the manner in which she was persecuted, the custodial and sexual torture inflicted upon her, and her continuing fight for justice. The interview was conducted in Hindi and has been translated and edited by the interviewer.
