Rohith's death inspired Dalits but discrimination in higher education lives on

Rohith Vemula's suicide a year ago arguably sparked off a movement that made him symbols of protests against oppression of different kinds.

Rohith’s family has put up his photos along side the portrait of BR Ambedkar at their home on the outskirts of Guntur | Sathya Keerthi

HYDERABAD: Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide a year ago arguably sparked off a movement that made him -- and by extension his family -- symbols of protests against oppression of different kinds, predominantly of caste. In the year since his death, his face and name have been seen and raised at protests ranging from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi when students were arrested for allegedly chanting anti-national slogans to Una in Gujarat where Dalits were publicly whipped by cow protection vigilantes.

The overarching, unifying effect of his life and death can be seen in the list of people expected to attend events marking Vemula's death anniversary in the city on Tuesday. These include victims of the Una attack, the mother of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed and the family of Mohammad Akhlaq who was lynched in Dadri in 2015.

It could be argued that this coming together was sparked by the articulation we saw in Vemula's suicide note. "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living," he had written, expressing an acute despair. His death sparked a national debate. However, within the hallowed spaces of higher education -- presumably the most enlightened -- little appears to have changed with regard to equality and caste.

Professors from UoH, JNU, Osmania University and English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) maintain that caste discrimination is practised in various forms in universities. “Individuals don’t see students getting reservation to come to the mainstream as equals and that is where it all begins. Students or academicians who are privileged and have no understanding of the struggle their excluded counterparts have gone through have drawn their conclusions. There have been many cases where students and faculty members have told students to go back to doing their occupation,” said Professor Laxmi Narayan of the Department of Economics at the University of Hyderabad.

Karthik Navayan, a coordinator of the campaign for the elimination of caste discrimination in educational institutions who got his PhD from EFLU, raised the matter of how five Dalit students were convicted for defaming a faculty member. “People from the administration don’t have an understanding of caste discrimination. There is no academic discourse that advocates for annihilation of caste... The first page of the judgment where the students of EFLU were convicted for charges of defaming their professor Meenakshi Reddy itself says that Reddy comes from a good family. It is a kind of social normative that the judiciary did not look into the case from the aspect of considering the students’ identities as equal to that of Reddy’s.”

Birendra Kumar, a student, who is among the Dalit students suspended from JNU for disrupting a council meeting on December 27, said, “My name was removed from the list and I was regarded as a former student. However, I am a part of the university still and am yet to finish my PhD. Blatant violation of proctoral norms and discriminatory witch hunting of students who are OBCs, SCs, STs or minorities is being done by the proctor’s office at JNU.”

The professors from these universities underlined that the proctoral board inquiry bodies and probe committees formed to check cases of caste discrimination have participation of Dalit students only in discussions and not in the decision-making process. “This is how the results of the committees are so disillusioning and insensitively hold the victims as solely responsible for their demise. An example of this was the conclusion drawn by the Roopanwal Committee in Rohith’s suicide case,” said Professor K Sathyanarayana of Department of Cultural Studies of EFLU.

Jignesh Mevani of Rashtriya Dalith Adhikar Manch who led a mass movement following the Una violence, said. “In our country, caste is endowed in every institution. At present, groups like ABVP are trying to exercise hegemony on campuses. Spaces for free speech are under constraint. It’s the need of the hour to break out of these barriers which are like a blot on the education system,” Mevani said.