Lower Caste Student’s Suicide Sparks Anger in India

Amin Masoodi
2016.01.21
160121-IN-protest-620 Radhika Vemula (center), the mother of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide at the University of Hyderabad, joins protesters on campus, Jan. 21, 2016.
AFP

The suicide earlier this week of a suspended research scholar who belonged to a community considered backward in India has thrown a spotlight on a centuries-old issue – caste discrimination.

Rohith Vemula, 26, a doctorate student of life sciences at the University of Hyderabad, hanged himself Sunday in the campus hostel in the southern Andhra Pradesh state. Hyderabad police have confirmed that Vemula committed suicide.

About four months ago, he and four other students and fellow members of the Dalit community, were suspended following an altercation with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leaders over “ideological differences.” The ABVP is backed by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Long considered as untouchables, India’s nearly 180 million Dalits form the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy in Hinduism, the dominant religion in the country of about 1.2 billion people.

Vemula’s death sparked widespread protests across the country that kept going on Thursday, with protesters demanding the ouster of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and university Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, who are being held responsible for the student’s suicide.

Even though the police have booked Dattatreya, Rao and ABVP member Susheel Kumar – on whose complaint the five Dalit students were suspended – for abetment of suicide, protesters are demanding that the trio be charged with murder under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.

The act is designed to safeguard the rights of low-caste communities in India.

“Rohith ended his life due to sheer discrimination and mental torture at the hands of the university management,” Amit Kumar, a student at the University of Hyderabad, told BenarNews.

“The accused should be charged with murder and given exemplary punishment so that it acts as a deterrent against those targeting members of a particular community. If this does not happen, we will not only continue but intensify our agitation,” he said.

Anti-national charge

Rao is accused of ordering the suspension of the Dalit students on the recommendation of Dattatreya, who in August 2015 wrote to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), urging action against the five students. He had described them as “anti-national” – a charge, protesters believe, that drove Vemula to take his own life.

“He (Vemula) was forced to take the extreme step as he had been accused of being anti-national,” protester Manoj Kumar told BenarNews.

“The university management had withheld his stipend for four months, besides banning him and the four other Dalit students from using the campus hostel and library, among other facilities. He was living under tremendous mental duress and ended his life under depression,” he added.

Suspensions revoked

Buckling under mounting protests, the university Thursday revoked the suspension of the four surviving Dalit students.

“We have revoked their suspension as a sign that we intend to reach out to the students. We appeal to the protesters to maintain calm and engage in a dialogue with us,” the university’s Student Welfare Dean Prakash Babu told reporters.

But the revocation was rejected outright by the suspended students and protesters who are seeking justice for Vemula’s family.

“Initially, one of our demands was that our suspension be revoked. But, now, that Rohith is no longer with us, we are turning down the revocation until our demands for sacking the culprits and justice for Rohith’s family are met,” Vijay Kumar, one of the four suspended students, told reporters.

Damage control

As protests spread to several major cities across India, the BJP on Wednesday addressed the issue.

“This is not a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue as being projected by some to ignite passions. A malicious attempt is being made to show it as a caste battle which it is not,” said HRD Minister Smriti Irani in a clear reference to political rivals who have made a beeline to the Hyderabad university campus.

While referring to a suicide note left behind by Vemula, Irani said the document did not blame any minister or organization.

The two-page handwritten letter, which was found in the hostel room where Vemula died, said: “No one is responsible for this act of killing myself. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. 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.”

But protesters said the university management has been known for its unfair treatment of Dalit students in the past, resulting in a string of suicides over the last decade.

Zuhail Kp, president of the university’s student union, told Times of India that, besides Vemula, eight other Dalit students had resorted to killing themselves.

“Eight suicides is not a small number, but the university has still not woken up to the issues of Dalit students. Rohith’s death only highlights a larger issue of caste-based discrimination,” he said.

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