By Sneha Rajaram

Update: Shortly after suffering an acid attack last week, Soni Sori was transferred to a hospital in Delhi. Here is an update about the state of her health. And here’s something worth reading while she recovers: letters she wrote to the Supreme Court, and to the public a few years ago, after her release from police custody, where she had been severely tortured.

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Tribal activist Soni Sori was attacked last night. Three men threw acid in her face as she was on her way to Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh. The media has been quick to point out that it wasn’t acid, but some sort of chemical mixed with grease that caused a ‘burning sensation’.

Sorry, but a ‘burning sensation’ is what one feels when one rubs Moov on one’s back, when one hasn’t been attacked by anyone. Of all the ways to portray an attack on someone who has suffered infinitely at the hands of the government and police, downplaying it without outrage is just downright sinister. Many mainstream news reports don’t even contain a single adjective like ‘shocking’ or ‘outrageous’.

Sori received what she felt were police-instigated death threats a few weeks ago; she suspected Inspector General SRP Kalluri of making the threatening pamphlets happen. But those threats weren’t widely reported. Apparently it’s only when she’s attacked that reporters are obliged to write a couple of flat paragraphs.

For more context on Soni Sori, this is a good place to start.