Sonaram Chutia (also known as Vaishnav Pandit) was a Vaishnav scholar, freedom fighter and educationist from Assam, India. Born in Bamkukurachowa village in the

Jorhat district Jorhat (pron: ˈʤɔ:(r)ˌhɑ:t) is an administrative district of the Indian state of Assam situated in the central part of the Brahmaputra Valley. The district is bounded by Majuli on north, Nagaland state on the south, Sivasagar on the east an ...

of Assam during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, Chutia was educated in

Jorhat Jorhat ( /) is a major city in Upper Assam division, Upper Assam and among the fastest growing urban centres in the state of Assam in India. Etymology Jorhat ("jor" means twin and "hat" means market) means two hats or mandis - "Masorhaat" and ...

and completed his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from

Cotton College Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as ''Saint Wilfrid's College''. The school buildings were centred on Cotton Hall, a country house used by religious communities fr ...

. Throughout his education, Chutia witnessed insulting comments from

upper-caste Forward caste (or General caste) is a term used in India to denote castes which are not listed in SC, ST or OBC reservation lists. They are on average considered ahead of other castes economically and educationally. They account for about 30.8% ...

Hindus and instances of disrespectful mistreatment from religious establishments like the

Satra Satra Corporation was a US trading and metal processing company. It is primarily known in the United Kingdom for its Satra Motors Limited subsidiary, which was the official importer and distributor of Soviet Union cars and motorcycles in that co ...

s towards certain communities. It is said that these experiences prompted Chutia to take up his cause against

casteism A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. Sutiya began his career as a science teacher at the

Sivasagar {{Infobox settlement , name = Sivasagar , settlement_type = Metropolis , image_skyline = Sivasagar.jpg , image_alt = {{multiple image , border = infobox , total_width = 270 , image_style ...

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 Pitambar Deva Goswami (10 June 1885 – 20 October 1962) was a spiritual leader and social reformer in the Indian state of Assam. At age six, he was accepted into the monastic order of the Garamur Satra. Goswami was schooled in Sanskrit by ...

, Satradhikar of the Garmurh Satra, in prison in 1943. In 1946, Sutiya joined the

Srimanta Sankaradeva Sangha The Srimanta Sankaradeva Sangha, established in 1930, is the largest socio-religious organization in Assam. History The beginning of the twentieth century saw the onset of different types of movements in Assam. It was a movement of the sear ...

, devoting himself to working for the organisation for the rest of his life. Sutiya was honoured as a freedom fighter by the Union government in 1972 and the government of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

in 1973. He received the

Srimanta Sankardev Srimanta Sankardev (, ; 1449–1568) was a 15th–16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of ...

a-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 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

for the first time and met him personally later in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chutia, Sonaram 1915 births 2013 deaths Ekasarana Dharma Hindu revivalists Scholars from Assam People from Jorhat district Cotton College, Guwahati alumni Indian independence activists from Assam

See also

References