Rohith Vemula was only the latest in a long line of Hyderabad college students who committed suicide. Yet, the politicisation of his death has less to do with this tragedy and more to do with his Dalit activism
The suicide of 26-year old Rohith Chakravarthi Vemula, a Dalit research scholar at the life Science Department of the University of Hyderabad, is tragic, to say the least. But it would be ironic to turn it into another example of ‘Modi-sponsored intolerance’. There were apparently seven cases of suicide, mostly by Dalit students, in the UoH when the Congress was in power, both at the Centre and the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. These, for certain reasons, did not become national issues.
The UoH is not the only university in Hyderabad that is battling the problem of suicide. Osmania University has also been struck by the scourge. Narayan Educational Institute, founded by Andhra Pradesh Urban Development Minister P Narayana, has become notorious for multiple cases of suicides. In September 2015, workers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad conducted a dharna against this institution in Visakhapatnam. Earlier, in June 2013, the Andra Pradesh Human Rights Commission had set up a panel over a girl’s suicide in Narayana Junior College.
After P Raju, a student of Integrated Master of Arts in the UoH committed suicide on March 19, 2013, Acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court NV Ramana and Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar initiated a suo motu petition on the problem of suicides in the State. The Chief Secretary, Principle Secretaries of Home and High Education, Collectors of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, Police Commissioners of Hyderabad and Cyberabad, Chairman of University Grants Commission, and Registrars of 10 universities in Hyderabad were summoned to give their statements and opinion on the suicide menace. The court also called for a copy of the report prepared by the Neerada Reddy Committee, which was set up in 2000 to study the reasons behind spate of suicides in corporate college hostels in Andhra Pradesh. The suo motu petition also led to a conclave of the Vice Chancellors of Hyderabad universities. But nothing concrete seems to have come out of those efforts.
The Solidarity Committee of University Students carried out a a fact-finding mission after the death of P Raju. It threw up some glaring lapses in the system. These included the disadvantageous position of students from rural backgrounds and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe families. Such students are often victims of class and caste bias, and unable to cope up with the environment of the university. Non-timely payment of their stipend or fellowship amount was another contributing factor. SC/ST students are often from poor families with meagre resources; they do not have much backup to fall upon in case their stipend is delayed.
The UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2012, notified on January 19, 2013, provides for the establishment of Equal Opportunity Cells and the appointment of an Anti-Discrimination Officer in every higher education institution. This writer is not aware of its current status.
We do not want Rohith Vemula to become a statistic. A death, especially in the prime of youth, is a shocking incident. Hopefully, Rohith Vemula’s death will bring structural changes at UoH. However, does the politics being played around his death have more to do with his being a Dalit activist rather than a Dalit studentIJ Rohith Vemula’s Facebook posts are quite illustrative. On January 8, 2015, he shared a post titled, “Why I hate Vivekananda — 16 Casteist quotes of Vivekananda” (an article published in the blog, Ambedkar Caravan). The writer is refraining from reproducing Rohith Vemula’s own comments because those are quite provocative.
On December 1, 2015, on the occasion of World Human Rights Day, Rohith Vemula invited everybody to attend the Beef Food Festival at Osmania University. On November 11, 2015, he posted this on Facebook: “Hardcore Hindutva is burning Muslim, Christian and Dalit houses. Soft Hindutva is burning crackers in the name of God and performs pujas. Progressive Hindutva is criticising Hindutva, on Diwali Day, in online, while having head bath and wearing New Clothes (Sarees) and walking in campus roads proudly”.
On November 4, 2015, he shared a piece from Scroll.in that said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. On October 30, 2015, he said he loved Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddarmaiah who had said that he would eat beef and nobody had the right to question him. On October 23, Rohith Vemula had wondered why “comrades” (meaning communists) celebrated Durga Puja, Onam and Saraswati Puja but not Christmas or Muharram. There were also several posts denouncing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ‘Brahmanic’ Sitaram Yechury, while praising MP Asaduddin Owaisi, disparaging RSS members as terrorists, praising the burning of the Manusmriti etc.
It is evident that despite his professed love for astro-physicist and exobiologist Carl Sagan (which the media is playing up), Rohith Vemula was not thinking about space and atoms. He was blinded by rage towards upper caste Hindus, Hindu practices, and anything associated with Hindu interests. But he was silent on jihadi terrorism round the world, whose practitioners themselves claim to have been inspired by the Quran. He even condemns the 26/11 Mumbai attacks on its anniversary with a reference to “religious extremism”.
This writer is yet to see a Hindu nationalist’s Facebook post that are hurtful towards Dalits. At the most, such posts decry the reservation policy through a funny cartoon. But the Facebook feed of Dalit activists seldom has anything else other than the denigration of Hindutva. Paradoxically, Dalit activists accuse Hindutva-minded persons of hating them. But why do the formed need to burn Manusmiriti every yearIJ How many Hindus have even seen a printed edition of the ManusmritiIJ But Dalit activists burn it every December 25 because they can find nothing more recent in Hindu literature to condemn.
No Hindu, at least intellectually, has defended discrimination against Dalits in the last 200 years. Did any section of Indian society turn against the Constitutent Assembly for abolishing un-touchability through Article 17IJ Rather, everybody welcomed it. This is in contrast to the ‘civilised’ US, where Confederate States turned against the Unionists who had abolished slavery.
Dalit activism today seems destructive rather than reformatory. It isolates Dalits from spiritual, religious and cultural moorings, which offer psychological succour. Dalits identify themselves in opposition to others. But to students, this writer’s humble submission is: Please, concentrate on your studies rather indulging in activism. If you fail in life, your comrades (whether they are Dalits, communists, Hindu nationalists or Dravidians) are unlikely to look back at you with sympathy.