The smile was always warm and wide, even as softness of voice and a calm yet determined demeanour concealed her remarkable clarity of ideology and focus. The years and a debilitating illness that she never wore on her sleeve but which crept over her slender frame rendered her frail and also fragile. Sonya Gill, that committed communist, meticulous organiser and mentor of thousands of party activists, 70 years old, departed suddenly from this life after cutting short an evening walk with lifelong partner and husband, P. Sainath, icon of independent media, outside their home in Bandra on the evening of August 25.Sonya was both feminist and communist, committed to working class and agrarian rights as much as gender consciousness within. She was secretary of the Maharashtra All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), known to all as Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana in Maharashtra and in the state party. Together with fellow women activists also committed to the laal bauta (red flag) she would learn about and organise women from the BDD Chawls Worli and Delisle Road, also in central Mumbai. As fellow AIDWA leader Mariam Dhawale recalled, when she took charge as AIDWA secretary in Maharashtra, she overcame the language barrier and took the organisation forward in the state.Less than a week ago, Sonya and Sainath were in Hyderabad to celebrate his elder sister’s 75th birthday. That sister-in-law was bereft today as she travelled from afar to bid her farewell. She recalled to me what her mother, Sonya’s ma-in-law, would often say to Sainath, admiring the couple’s work, “You – you do all the writing, but Sonya does all the work!”One moment she was there and the next moment she is gone, Sainath said to me, lips trembling as sobs took over, while the now familiar CPI(M) party tribute and farewells were paid this afternoon at the Janshakti office in central Mumbai. Fellow women activists from the Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana, AIDWA, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Mumbai and national CPI(M) members, as also writers, civil liberties activists from fraternal organisations paid tribute. Comrade Sonya Gill ko Laal Salam, Comrade Sonya Gill Amar Rahe, were the slogans that burst forth accompanied by the raised arm and fist!Sonya Gill. Credit: Teesta Setalvad.Never before have I witnessed this man of suave turn of phrase, depth of thought and perspective so bereft, at a loss, shaking his head in utter disbelief at the loss of a forty-year steely companionship. Forty years, Sainath said to me, forty years we were together, how do I even think of how I will cope?Not a week passed that she did not visit either the Worli or Azad Maidan offices of the party, constantly at work, rebuilding a vision of left mass organisations and politics, he said.This party, the people stand by you through thick and thin, he said, still in disbelief. Last evening, after her sudden demise, Sainath had, apart from his Sonya now gone, Sugandhi Francis, a 38-year old saathee from Janwadi, a fellow working class organiser, Shailendra Kamble, Mumbai president of the party, CITU’s Dr Vivek Monteiro, all by his side while the formalities were completed. Today, comrade S.K. Rege and Mariam Dhawale, national vice president of AIDWA were also present.Sugandhi, wife and partner of Dr Monteiro is heartbroken. They were, for many of Mumbai activists, a duo seen everywhere, their close cameraderie of 38 years, one an academic trained at the famed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the other a foot soldier of the party from the working class. Sugandhi recalls the ease with which Sonya related and reflected with all. Sugandhi was self-effacing about her own natural ease and charm with people and within the organisation.The first post on social media that I read, bringing this loss to us all, was from the revered People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) network, of which Sainath was founder and Sonya the cofounder and trustee. Among the first of many to deepen notions of reportage and journalism, PARI has grown to be a formidable voice over the past decades.With deep regret, we share the sudden passing of Sonya Gill, PARI Co-Founder and Trustee, on August 25, 2026.. Sonya worked for decades on women’s rights issues and had been Secretary of AIDWA, Maharashtra. She was the wife of PARI Founder, Journalist P. Sainath. pic.twitter.com/ZMHSXsM0Xx— People’s Archive of Rural India (@PARInetwork) August 26, 2026People’s Democracy, the CPI(M)’s weekly organ, the Janwadi’s booklets and pamphlets, all had writings by Sonya Gill, be it on public health, right to an equitous public distribution system or communal harmony. They can still be read online.But it is the training workshops conducted by the mass women’s organisation of the party, where activists were trained, where Sonya Gill with other women comrades regaled new recruits with historical accounts of valour by women comrades – the February 1946 shooting to death of veteran communist comrade Kamal Donde during the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) uprising at the Parel junction in Mumbai, while Ahilyatai Rangnekar and Kusum Ranadive also faced the bullets – that are remembered with awe.Sonya Gill’s own quiet revolutionary journey will and must be treasured, by comrade husband Sainath, family, women saathees and party as it undoubtedly will. Adieu and Lal Salaam, Sonya.Teesta Setalvad is co-editor of Sabrang India and secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP).