Nandini Sundar is an Indian professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics whose research interests include political sociology, law, and inequality. She is a recipient of the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in 2010. She was also awarded the Ester Boserup Prize for Development Research in 2016 and the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for Distinguished Contributions to Development Studies in 2017.
In 2007, Sundar along with others filed public interest litigation against human rights violations in Chhattisgarh, arising out of the Salwa Judum vigilante movement. In 2011, the Supreme Court of India banned Salwa Judum, ordered compensation for all those affected, and investigation and prosecution of those responsible. It also ordered the disbanding and disarming of Special Police Officers, many of whom were underage youth who had been armed by the state to fight Naxalites. In October 2016, the Central Bureau of Investigation on the Supreme Court's orders in the ongoing case filed by Sundar and others, filed chargesheets against seven Special Police Officers and 26 Salwa Judum leaders for their role in the burning of three villages in the Sukma district in March 2011 and the attack on Swami Agnivesh. The arson had allegedly been accompanied by rapes and murders of villagers. Almost immediately afterwards, the police burnt effigies of Sundar and other activists, and the Bastar police filed a first information report against her on 4 November 2016, as an alleged co-conspirator in the murder of Shamnath Baghel, a tribal in the Sukma district of Chattisgargh. The wife of the victim told a national television channel, NDTV, that she had not named anyone. The National Human Rights Commission summoned the IGP of Bastar Range SRP Kalluri and Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary for retaliation, and has said there was no apparent connection between the visit of Sundar and other human rights activists and the murder of Shamnath Baghel. The Indian Supreme Court recorded the Chhattisgarh government's statement that they would not arrest or investigate Sundar, and ruled that if the Chattisgargh state government wanted to undertake any investigation, they should give four weeks' notice during which time Sundar and others could approach the Court. Eventually, her name was dropped by the Chhattisgarh police from the murder case in February 2019 for lack of direct evidence. In 2017, Podiyam Panda, a key Maoist operative surrendered to Chhattisgarh police and told Times Now reporters that he was the “only link” for meetings between senior Maoist terrorists and Nandini Sundar and Bela Bhatia. Panda said he used to drive activists from Delhi including Sundar and Bhatia from Delhi to deep jungles of Sukma to meet the Maoists. Sundar claimed that Panda made the statement under coercion.
Personal life
Sundar is married to Siddharth Varadarajan, former chief editor of The Hindu—an Indian English-language national newspaper—and a founding editor of The Wire.
