The agony of Rohiths suicide

Now, it is the responsibility of leaders from all walks of life, including the Dalit students and faculty, to have the august responsibility and a patriotic duty to bring all Indians together, not divide them and rouse them to resent each other and the nation and their religion but to unite them and exhort them to become one as a nation and start a journey towards progress and growth

How can we glorify a suicide committed by a fully grown man of 27 years age and had the opportunity to be working for a doctorate in social studies through hard work and good fortune? Two days before the High Court hearing, unfortunately, Rohith Vemula committed suicide at Central University of Hyderabad. It was a disciplinary action, not social boycott, but not so severe that one would contemplate suicide. Any activist would be fully aware of potential hardships.

Financially, Rohith was in an enviable position; he was drawing Rs 25,000 per month from government scholarship. I am from the 1969 Telangana Agitation era. As students, we participated in that movement not for selfish motives of gaining benefits for ourselves or for our castes. Some of us, including me, have been lathi-charged, beaten and even faced bullets. We were even imprisoned under Preventive Detention Act, which was enacted to prevent possible commitment of crimes by enemy aliens, and lost all Constitutionally guaranteed rights and protections.

But, none of us thought of ending our lives. Nobody committed suicide but yes, many of us were shot down by the State. It is claimed that Rohith’s suicide is due to social boycott without fully comprehending its meaning and extent. A "Social boycott is a voluntary act of the shunning of a person – a society's collective refusal to engage in the normal social and commercial relations” and that is not what happened. He was suspended from living on the campus as a disciplinary action for violating the student code of conduct.

Rohith's suicide note indicts his compatriots, not adversaries, and blames his lonely and unappreciated childhood: “... I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt. ... I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past ...”

The issue of primary concern is political interference in universities but, who is responsible for that? Did the political interference in universities start just a year-and-a-half back? Isn't it the Congress party, which has ruled India since the day of independence that is for 60 out of 68 years that is responsible? Really, the blame can be equally applied to all politicians of all political stripes. Appointments of VCs and other administrators was based not on ability and qualification but on political alliances.

We seem to label every lost soul as a genius. A genius “is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge." It is widely acknowledged that it is "the brawl between two student groups at the university" that led to the disciplinary action against those students who started and spearheaded that brawl.

Even if we do not take into account all those preceding campus disruptive activities, can a responsible university administration turn a blind eye to gross violations of student conduct, a physical attack by a large group of students on a student in his own room and in the dark of the night? Should the university administration condone this kind of violence and vandalism just because the attacking students belong to a Dalit Association and the victim is a non-dalit?

Isn't it true that the original disciplinary action, approved by the university's statutory Proctorial Board, stipulated the expulsion of those five students? Isn't it true that the Ambedkar Student Association, of which the expelled students were members, did not allow the university administration to function for two days until the in-charge VC withdrew the expulsion order and appointed a committee to reconsider the disciplinary action? Is this how a civil society functions?

The unvarnished truth is that these students were not expelled or suspended or even prohibited from any normal student activities. They were only expelled from living in the hostels on campus. They were not permitted as part of groups in the hostels, administrative offices or other public places on the campus to avoid potential disruptions. But, even that did not prevail as evidenced by the agitations on the campus since then.

Rohith's suicide is a sad event but we cannot glorify it. We cannot blame the society at large for that. All of you politicians know the facts fully well then, Why are you all making it a case of Dalit abuse or oppression? Why are you creating a permanent nation of victimhood? Even the Blacks in US who have been enslaved with the help of the governments at all levels and the courts for more than 200 years have not accused their nation and their religion the way we are doing in India.

American Blacks were counted as 3/5ths of a human being and treated as property worse than cattle. Their family structure was decimated. Teaching alphabets to them was a crime. The fact is that 90% percent of Indians were illiterate and less than 1% were employed at the time of India's independence. The British abused and treated Indians as second-class citizens in their own land and literally called them dogs. Remember? The British posted signs saying "Dogs and Indians Not Allowed" at their private clubs.

So, who stole jobs or denied education when they themselves had none? But the nation of India provided equal rights to all and special privileges and benefits and concessions to all those who claimed themselves as oppressed and marginalised. These special privileges have been on books for the past 68 years. Nowhere in the world are such special privileges provided. Not even in South Africa or Zimbabwe or to the Jews or to the Japanese or the Germans who were literally destroyed in the Second World War.

So, how come you are all repeating the same lie that India and Hindu religion is still oppressing people of various castes. Instead of calming the agitators and others, you are adding fuel to the fire by making horrendous statements about caste abuse as if the whole nation is complicit in it. India cannot progress as long as it claims to be a permanent victim of one or other atrocity. All the suspended students have been readmitted and all cases have been withdrawn and a High Court Judge has been appointed to investigate the issue.

Let us honor Rohith's last wishes: "Let my funeral be silent and smooth. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.” Now, it is the responsibility of leaders from all walks of life, including the Dalit students and faculty, to have the august responsibility and a patriotic duty to bring all Indians together, not divide them and rouse them to resent each other and the nation and their religion but to unite them and exhort them to become one as a nation and start a journey towards progress and growth. “Hatred is like a poison which you inject into your veins, before injecting it into your enemy" (Buddhist Wisdom).