News Suicides of Dalit students not new in Hyderabad university

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Though the recent death of research scholar Rohith Vemula has drawn the country’s attention to the University of Hyderabad, suicides among Dalit students here is not a new phenomenon.

Members of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) claim that as many as 12 students belonging to scheduled castes have ended their lives since the central university came into existence in the early 1970s, largely due to caste prejudices that many say are omnipresent.

This problem, however, has assumed alarming proportions in recent years. Rohith is the sixth victim since 2008, noted P Vijay Kumar, who along with Rohith and three other Dalit students was suspended from the university hostel and was allegedly being subjected to a ‘social boycott’ of sorts.

Senthil Kumar, who committed suicide in 2008, was the first. He was pursuing PhD in physics at the university and after being denied a supervisor to complete his research, had taken his own life by consuming poison in his hostel room.

Senthil Kumar hailed from Tamil Nadu and belonged to the small ‘Panniyandi’ sub-caste of the Dalits known for pig-rearing.

The Vinod Pavarala committee, which investigated the circumstances that led to his suicide, found that discrimination against students from marginalised sections of society was one of the main reasons for the drastic step.

The year 2013 saw two Dalit students committing suicide.

Madari Venkatesh, a third year PhD scholar at the Advance Centre for Research in High Energy Materials, took the extreme step on November 24 that year. Hailing from a Dalit family in Ibrahimpatnam, Andhra Pradesh, Venkatesh too fell victim to caste discrimination.

A seven member fact-finding committee headed by Prof V Krishna investigated the case. Earlier that year, the same committee had probed the circumstances that led to the suicide of Pulyala Raju, a student of MA in Applied Linguistics.

“He (Venkatesh) was not provided a guide and a lab, even after three years, even when other students started their researches, and published international papers,” an independent committee, which probed the suicides of both Venkatesh and Raju, said in its report.

The independent committee, called the ‘Raju Venkatesh solidarity committee’, comprised three Dalit students — Dontha Prashanth, Dickens Leonard and Ashok Kumar.

The Krishna committee’s report of December 2013 too pointed out that its earlier report as well as the Pavarala committee report highlighted glaring instances of insensitivity and lack of diligence, especially towards students from marginalised sections of society.

“The university needs to show greater alacrity in setting up and adequately monitoring the mechanisms for making the campus a more inclusive and rewarding experience for its students,” the report had said.

Suicides of Dalit students not new in Hyderabad university | india | Hindustan Times
 
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Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), allegedly hanged himself to death 15 days after he was expelled from his hostel along with four other researchers.

The five Dalit students of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) had been on a sleep-in strike in the open on the campus ever since their expulsion. On Sunday morning, following his 15th nightout, the student had strayed away from the protestors’ camp and spent his day in one of the rooms of New Research Scholar’s hostel. At 7.30 pm on Sunday, he was found hanging in the same room. He hanged himself using the blue banner of ASA, a student outfit which has been fighting for Dalit rights on the campus.

Suicide note

In the five-page suicide note recovered from the room Rohith had mentioned how he always “looked at the stars and dreamt of being a writer” and an established academic. The research scholar hailed from Guntur district . “His mother is a daily wage labourer with an agricultural background. His JRF fund also used to support his family,” a student leader said.

The victim was a second year research scholar of the science, technology and society studies department and also a University Grants Commission’s Junior Research Fellowship holder. The student is survived by his mother and a younger brother. In his suicide note, the student had also pointed out that for the past six months he had not got his JRF funds.

University Vice-Chancellor P. Appa Rao expressed shock at the incident. “I am as shocked and worried as anyone else,” he told The Hindu. Cyberabad police who had to rush to the campus following protests, however, did not comment on whether any case would be booked. Scores of students of the varsity laid siege to the hostel even as the Gachibowli police had to be rushed to the spot.

As per the university orders, five students, including Vemula, were denied entry into the hostel and permission to gather together following a scuffle between two students organisations — Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and ASA that took place on August 3, 2015.

It may be recalled that a scuffle broke out after ASA staged a protest at the university against ABVP’s attack on screening of the documentary, Muzzafarnagar Baqi Hai, at Delhi University. Till reports last came in, tension was mounting on the campus with agitated students preventing the police from shifting the body to the hospital. A case under section 174 of CrPC was registered in Gachibowli police station. As a precautionary measure, additional police forces were positioned on and around the campus.

Dalit student Rohith Vemula suicide: An open letter to Vice-Chancellor of University of Hyderabad - The Hindu
 
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We of the global scholarly community make an urgent appeal that justice be done in the most recent case of caste discrimination in Indian higher education, that of the University of Hyderabad’s prejudicial suspension of five young Dalit men pursuing PhDs. It was ordered under political pressure, without even allowing the young men in question to speak in their own defense. It directly contravened an earlier decision made by the University administration itself, which had exonerated them of any charges of wrongdoing-charges which had been trumped up by political rivals opposed to the activism of these young men.

This prejudice has now exacted a terrible price. One of the five, a scholar of great promise, Rohith Vemula, committed suicide on January 17. Unable to bear the despair of having his one chance at a future snatched from him, of his value being reduced, in his own eloquent parting words, to nothing but “a vote” and “an immediate identity,” he took his own life. As scholars we know that individual actions are never just that. This suicide is not an individual act. It is the failure of premier higher educational institutions in democratic India to meet their most basic obligation: to foster the intellectual and personal growth of India’s most vulnerable young people. Instead, Rohith now joins a long list of victims of prejudice at premier institutions in the country, where pervasive discrimination drives so many Dalit students to depression and suicide, when not simply forcing them to quietly drop out.

As international scholars of South Asia, we ask the authorities at the University of Hyderabad to immediately reinstate Mr. Vemula's four peers, to provide support to his family, and to launch a police investigation into his passing. But that is not enough. The University of Hyderabad must ensure not only that justice be done now, but that further injustice be rigorously prevented. It is vital to the life of any academic institution to actively nurture students exactly like Rohith, whose contribution to civic life and healthy political debate made the university the place of learning and personal transformation it should be. Measures must be implemented to ensure that such students are supported and allowed to thrive when they enter what is all too often the hostile, casteist environment of higher education in India. A university where students turn away from life with the regularity they have at the University of Hyderabad requires urgent and massive rehauling.
Dalit student Rohith Vemula suicide: An open letter to Vice-Chancellor of University of Hyderabad - The Hindu
 
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