Sonaram Chutia

Sonaram Chutia[1] (also known as Vaishnav Pandit) was a Vaishnav scholar, freedom fighter and educationist from Assam, India. Born in Bamkukurachowa village in the Jorhat district of Assam during the British Raj, Chutia was educated in Jorhat and completed his B.Sc from Cotton College. Throughout his education, Chutia witnessed insulting comments from upper-caste boys and instances of disrespectful mistreatment from religious establishments towards certain communities. It is said that these experiences prompted Chutia to take up his cause against casteism and racism.

Sutiya[2] began his career as a science teacher at the Sivasagar Government Higher Secondary School in 1939 but left his job and joined the Jatiya Mahasabha. He was jailed during the Quit India Movement, and he met Pitambar Deva Goswami, Satradhikar of the Garmurh Satra, in prison in 1943. In 1946, Sutiya joined the Srimanta Sankaradeva Sangha, devoting himself to working for the organisation for the rest of his life.

Sutiya[3] was honoured as a freedom fighter by the Union government in 1972 and the government of Assam in 1973. He received the Srimanta Sankardeva-Madhabdeva Award in 1994. In 2000, the Assam government bestowed the Srimanta Sankaradeva Award on him. In 2005, he was awarded as Jorhat Ekalabya and Dalit Daradi by North Eastern Research Organization. A Gandhian in life, Sutiya was a student of Class X, when he saw Gandhiji for the first time and met him personally later in Maharashtra.