Suicide of Rohith Vemula

Suicide of Rohith Vemula
Date 17 January 2016
Location Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Cause Suicide by hanging

Rohith Chakravarti Vemula was an Indian PhD student at the University of Hyderabad who committed suicide on 17 January 2016.[1]

His death occurred after a controversy which extended over several months starting in July 2015.[1] In July 2015 the University reportedly stopped paying him a fellowship of ₹25,000 (US$370) per month after he was found "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)" as part of institute's disciplinary inquiry.[1]

On 3 August 2015 Rohith Vemula and four other ASA-activists demonstrated against the death penalty for Yakub Memon, a convicted terrorist involved in the 1993 Bombay bombings and condemned the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attack on the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai in Delhi University.[1] In response ABVP's local leader Nandanam Susheel Kumar called them "goons," where-after Kumar was confronted in his hostel room.[1] The next day Kumar was taken to hospital and operated for an acute appendicitis.[1] He stated that he was "roughed up by around 40 ASA members who barged into my room."[1]

The ABVP wrote a letter to Union Minister Dattatreya, alleging that the ASA members were indulging in 'casteist' and 'anti-national' activities.[1] The letter was forwarded to Union Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani, and then to the university’s Vice-Chancellor professor P. Appa Rao,[1] whereafter Rohith Vemula and four other ASA-members were suspended and barred from their hostel.[1] After the confirmation of the suspension in January 2016, Rohith Vemula committed suicide.[1]

His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and low status caste in India, in which elite educational institutions have been purportedly seen as hotbeds of caste-based discrimination against students belonging to lower caste.[2]

Background and death

Rohith Vemula solidarity rally in Kerala

Vemula was born on 30 January 1989 in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to Manikumar Vemula and Radhika.[3] He was an Indian PhD student at the University of Hyderabad, belonging to the Mala community.[4][5][6][7][8] His father is from Veddera (OBC) community and his mother is from Mala (scheduled caste) caste[9]

In July 2015, the University reportedly stopped paying him the fellowship of ₹25,000 (US$370) per month after he was "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA),"[1] though a university official denied the allegation of non-payment of scholarship, citing the delay on "paperwork."[1]

Beginning of August 2015 Rohith Vemula and four ASA members protested against the death penalty for Yakub Memon, a convict in 1993 Bombay bombings in which 257 people were killed. They also condemned the ABVP attack on the screening of the documentary ‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai’ in Delhi University.[1] At 3 August 2015 Rohith Vemula and other ASA activists demonstrated at the Hyderabad campus. In response, ABVP’s university unit president Nandanam Susheel Kumar called them "goons" at Facebook.[1]

The next day[1] Kumar was taken to hospital and operated for an acute appendicitis,[1][10][11][12] but stated that he was "roughed up by around 40 ASA members who barged into my room."[1][note 1]

According to the Indian Express, an anonymous ASA member stated that "When we confronted Susheel in his hostel room, he tendered a written apology in the presence of the university’s security officer. But the next day he got himself admitted in a hospital and alleged that members of ASA had manhandled him. The university ordered an inquiry while ABVP lodged a police complaint."[1]

According to the Indian Express, "the ABVP wrote to BJP MP from Secunderabad and Union Minister Dattatreya, alleging that the ASA members were indulging in 'casteist' and 'anti-national' activities.[1] Dattaatreya stated that he "forwarded the letter on my official letterhead to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I do not know what happened after that. ABVP or BJP has nothing to do with that."[1] The letter was then forwarded to the university’s Vice-Chancellor professor P. Appa Rao.[1] In response, further action was taken against Rohith Vemula by college on 5 August 2015, expelling him from his hostel along with the other four members of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA),[1] while "ABVP’s Kumar was let off with a warning."[1]

In September the five students were suspended, a decision which was upheld at 17 December 2015.[1] Meanwhile, his family struggled to help him, and Rohith Vemula had to borrow money from a friend.[1] At 3 January 2016, after the supension was confirmed, "the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a "relay hunger protest"."[1] At 17 january 2016 Rohith Vemula committed suicide,[2] hanging himself with a banner of the Ambedkar Students Association.[13] In the suicide-note which he left behind, he blamed the "system" for his death.[13] According to the suicide note, he committed suicide in the room of one Umma Anna, in whose room he was staying after being expelled from the hostel by the authorities at the University of Hyderabad.[14] In this note he further wrote:

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 stardust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.

I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense. Maybe I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this.
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don't believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my 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.[14]

According to Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, speaking in the Lok Sabha, no doctor was allowed near Vemula to help him. "Instead, his body was used as a political tool. No police was allowed till 6:30am the following morning."[13] University of Hyderabad chief medical officer (CMO) Rajashree M on Thursday contradicted Union HRD minister Smriti Irani's statement in Parliament on the circumstances of Rohith Vemula's death.[13]

His father, Manikumar, has alleged that his son's death was not suicide and demanded a judicial inquiry.[15]

Dattatreya was accused of being responsible for the suicide of Rohith Vemula. According to Dattatreya's critics, his letter to the Education Minister, complaining about degraded student politics, had led to Vemula's suspension and ultimate suicide. Vemula's suicide letter did not blame anyone, and Dattatreya denied these allegations.[16][17] After a complaint from students of the University of Hyderabad[18] a police case was filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bandaru Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party's MP from Secunderabad and Indian government's Minister of Labour and Employment; Ramachandra Rao (BJP MLC); and Appa Rao Podile (University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor).[18][19][20]

Caste Controversy

Rohith had arranged a Dalit cast certificate for Hyderabad University admission. However politicians were considering him Dalit for making it agenda against Hindu nationalist and ideologically right BJP, which is considered as party of upper cast. After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj claimed that Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit,[6][7] a police investigation was started to determine his caste status.[18] The case against Dattatreya, Rao and Podile "is likely to collapse if Vemula is not a Dalit.[18] His brother's caste certificate lists him as Vaddera,[21][22] and Rohit Vemula's uncle gave a statement to the police that Rohith's father was from Vaddera caste which is Backward and non-schedule caste in Andhra Pradesh. Intelligence reports also claim he was not Dalit.[23][24][25] Yet, Raja Chaitanya, Vemula's brother, stated "We have a certificate to prove that we belong to the scheduled caste [...] We are Dalits."[18] According to the Hindustan Times, "A certificate from the revenue department of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government states that Rohith Vemula was a Dalit."[5]

Reactions

His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and low status caste in India, in which elite educational institutions have been purportedly seen as hotbeds of caste-based discrimination against students belonging to lower caste.[2]

In his suicide note, 26-year-old Rohith had shared that he always wanted to be a science writer like Carl Sagan. American astronomer Carl Sagan's third wife Ann Druyan, depressed by discrimination against Dalit students, said that she mourned Rohith's death and lost promise, and responded to Rohith's words in a letter:[26][27]

To read his suicide note and to learn the details of his predicament is to get a vivid inkling of the actual cost of bias to our civilization. If we could somehow quantify the totality of lost contributions and innovations as a result of prejudice, I believe we would find it staggering [...] You tell me, Rajeev: Is it possible that the attention paid to Rohit's story will lessen its chronic repetition? I am trying to find something hopeful in an otherwise heartbreaking example of needless suffering and squandered potential.[26][27]

Rohith's suicide has been called an "institutional murder" by Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati,[28] Sitaram Yechury of Communist Party of India (Marxist).[29]

Demand of justice for Rohith was raised at UN on 31st session of Human Rights Council.

In demand to justice for Rohith, protests all over the world (London, Michigan, San Francisco to Boston to Johannesburg etc.) were organised by Dalit organisations and supporters of human rights.

One commentator alleged that the death of Vemula is a continuation of the long history of discrimination against Dalits which continues today, including at institutions of higher learning.[30]

The poet Ashok Vajpeyi returned his D.Litt degree awarded to him by the University of Hyderabad in protest against the circumstances which led to the death of Vemula, for which Vajpeyi holds the University culpable.[31]

An open letter was written to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad by over 120 worldwide academics, "expressing their shock and anguish" at Rohith Vemula suicide...[32]

Notes

  1. ↑ According to reports, Susheel Kumar was admitted to hospital on August 4 by his brother, where he was operated upon for acute appendicitis on August 7. Dr Anupama Rao, Senior Medical Officer of the University of Hyderabad, said:
    "After collecting all the medical reports of Susheel Kumar and examining them, I could not reach the conclusion that he developed appendicitis due to the alleged assault. There was one line that there was a bruise on his left shoulder. I could not say if he was allegedly punched or beaten up. I did not examine him as he did not come to me and the hospital’s report does not mention that he had any external or visible injury.".[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 "Behind Rohith Vemula's suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door". The Indian Express. indianexpress.com. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  2. 1 2 3 "Outrage over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula suicide". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  3. ↑ Mondal, Sudipto. "Rohith Vemula An unfinished portrait". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Henry, Nikhila (15 June 2016). "It's official, Rohith Vemula was Dalit". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  5. 1 2 Saubhadra, Chatterji (20 January 2016). "Official certificate scotches doubts over Rohith's Dalit identity". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Have certificate proving Rohith Vemula's SC status: SC/ST commission chairman". dna. 1 February 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  7. 1 2 Offensive, Marking Them (1 February 2016). "Rohith Vemula was a Dalit,says SC/ST panel chief Punia". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Ghildiyal, Subodh (5 February 2016). "Dalit bureaucrats turn e-warriors for Rohith Vemula - After claims that Rohith wasn't a Dalit, his caste certificate was circulated.". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "Rohith vemula,an unfinished portrait". Hindustan Times.
  10. ↑ Service, Express News (21 January 2016). "Malicious intent to present Rohith Vemula suicide as a caste battle: Smriti Irani". The Indian Express. The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "How Rohith & others attacked me, recalls ABVP student who was allegedly beaten in Hyderabad University". IBNLive. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Is ABVP leader lying about being attacked by ASA members?". ABP News. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Preeti Biswas, Hyderabad university doctor counters Smriti Irani, says 'Rohith was dead when she reached hostel'
  14. 1 2 "Full text: Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide note - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  15. ↑ Rituparna, Chatterjee. "Rohith Vemula's Father Claims Son Was Murdered, Suicide Note Not Written By Him". Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  16. ↑ Protests in Hyderabad University after suicide by scholar thrown out of hostel
  17. ↑ "Bandaru Dattatreya says his letter has nothing to do with Dalit student's suicide". IBNLive. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Aji, Sowmya. "Probe suggests Rohith Vemula's family not dalit: Police". The Economic Times. economictimes.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  19. ↑ "Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral". Deccan Chronicle. Jan 20, 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  20. ↑ Ghosh, Deepshikha (19 January 2016). "Huge Student Protests Against Rohith Vemula's Death: 10 Developments". Hyderabad: NDTV. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  21. ↑ "AP officials verify Rohith's caste". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  22. ↑ "Probe suggests Rohith Vemula's family not dalit: Police". The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Bharati, Jain. "Ajit Doval gets report saying Rohith Vemula was not a dalit". Times of India. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  24. ↑ "Merit, and not SC status, got Rohith Vemula into University of Hyderabad". timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
  25. ↑ "Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral". Deccan Chronicle. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  26. 1 2 "Carl Sagan's Wife Ann Druyan Writes Letter on Rohith Vemula, Mourns 'Lost Promise'". NDTV. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  27. 1 2 "Carl Sagan's Wife Writes Moving Letter Mourning Rohith Vemula's Letter". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  28. ↑ "Govt terrorism forced Dalit scholar to commit suicide: Mayawati". The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  29. ↑ "Sitaram Yechury dubs Rohit Vemula's suicide as 'institutional murder'". newswala.com. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  30. ↑ Ramanathan, S. "Rohith Vemula wasn't alone, it is not easy being a Dalit science scholar in Indian universities". The News Minute. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  31. ↑ "Rohith Vemula suicide: Poet Ashok Vajpeyi returns his D. Litt degree awarded by the University of Hyderabad : India, News - India Today". indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  32. ↑ An open letter to vice-chancellor of University

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