The UGC submitted the new draft to the Supreme Court last month in a six-year-old petition filed by Radhika Vemula and Abeda Tadvi. In the petition, the two mothers, after losing their children, sought accountability and the establishment of adequate mechanisms by the UGC to address caste-based discrimination in university spaces.

The UGC, unprompted by the court or the petitioners, has submitted the Equity Regulations Draft, which undoes some of the crucial clauses from the 2012 regulations. The petitioners had moved the court to highlight the ineffectiveness and lack of government will to put its act together. Instead of addressing these issues, the UGC has further diluted the existing regulations.

‘New regulations will make redressal more difficult’

Vemula and Tadvi argue that the newly submitted draft regulations will make redressal more difficult, as the UGC has decided to group all forms of discrimination – including those based on gender, disabilities, religion and caste – under a single umbrella. In contrast, the 2012 Equity Regulations primarily focused on caste-based discrimination. Existing mechanisms already address other forms of discrimination, and expanding the scope of the Equity Regulations will only lead to more chaos in the dispensation of justice, the petitioners assert.

The petitioners, represented by lawyers Indira Jaisingh and Disha Wadekar, have pointed out the lack of adequate mechanisms to address the growing number of discrimination cases and suicides on campuses. They argue that the UGC’s proposal to dilute the existing regulations on caste discrimination and introduce other forms of discrimination will not only hamper the redressal of caste-based discrimination but also “risk undermining the effectiveness of current regulations related to gender and persons with disabilities (PwDs).”

In addition to filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court in response to the UGC’s draft regulations, the petitioners have submitted detailed suggestions to the UGC, comparing the 2012 regulations with the proposed ones. They have identified gaps and provided effective suggestions to the higher education governing statutory body.

One crucial suggestion is the need for a clear definition of what constitutes caste-based discrimination in higher education. Wadekar notes that the draft regulation fails to specify what constitutes caste-based discrimination. “Discriminatory practices in university spaces often get normalised, and without a clear definition, universities may exercise their discretionary powers and, more often than not, attempt to shirk responsibilities,” Wadekar said. Her observation is based on past data showing how universities have denied the existence of caste-based discrimination on campuses.

In the past decade, as caste-based discrimination and suicides rose, the UGC was compelled to notify the UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations 2012, also known as the Equity Regulations. These regulations required all colleges and universities to establish an Equal Opportunity Cell to oversee the promotion of equality and appoint an anti-discrimination officer to investigate complaints regarding discrimination in violation of equity. However, the regulations were not fully implemented as intended.

The proposed regulations, besides lacking clear definitions of discrimination, also exclude the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community from their scope, applying only to students from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). In 2012 regulations too, students from OBC communities were excluded. The petitioners argue that this will be unjust to OBC students, who are equally vulnerable to discrimination on campuses. Data shows that many students from the OBC community have resorted to suicide or dropped out of colleges because of caste-based discrimination in the past decade.

The proposed regulations do not include staff or faculty members. Wadekar argues that the suggestion to include staff members comes from numerous anecdotal instances where faculty members have reported discriminatory practices based on their caste identities.

The 2012 regulations lacked a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the equity measures were effectively implemented. Vemula and Tadvi have suggested that the UGC should expressly mandate that “all Universities and Colleges submit periodic reports to UGC on the working of the Equity Regulations.”

While the proposed regulation has several problems, it also contains some concrete measures, such as the registration of FIRs once a case under penal laws is established. To this, the petitioners have suggested that “the heads of institutions should be mandated to register FIRs within 24 hours for complaints where a case is made out under penal laws.”

2012 regulations’ failure

In January 2016, Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), along with five other Dalit students, was expelled from the university housing facility for an alleged attack on an ABVP member. As the expelled students intensified their protest against the university administration’s decision, a few days into the protest, on January 17, 2016, Rohith died by suicide. UoH Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile, then BJP MLC N. Ramachandra Rao, and two ABVP members (Susheel Kumar and Rama Krishna) were accused of abetting Rohith’s suicide. An FIR was filed against them, but the police failed to take any action.

In Dr. Payal Tadvi’s case, her suicide notes and her mother Abeda Tadvi’s testimony ensured that her three harassers – senior doctors Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare, and Ankita Khandelwal – were immediately arrested. A damning 1,200-page chargesheet was filed against them. They have been accused of torturing Payal for an entire year and hurling casteist slurs at her. The Tadvis belong to the Bhil (of the Tadvi sub-caste) tribal community, and Payal was perhaps the first woman from her community to become a doctor. Advocate Wadekar is representing Abeda Tadvi in the criminal proceedings as well.

If the 2012 regulation had worked effectively, both Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi would not have needed to take drastic steps. The existing regulation has made it difficult for students to report instances of discrimination. Most of these cases are known because of individual efforts undertaken by anti-caste activists or organisations, which have, from time to time, highlighted extreme cases of discrimination on Indian university campuses.

Besides Rohith and Payal’s deaths, numerous other suicides have occurred in Indian universities over the past two decades. While some of these deaths were covered by the media, many were documented in an independent study conducted by a Delhi-based organisation called the Insight Foundation, headed by educationist Anoop Kumar.

But instead of focusing on these cases and encouraging students to come forward and report incidents of discrimination, the draft regulations mention “false complaints.” Wadekar says the draft doesn’t differentiate between a false complaint and a mere inability to substantiate a complaint with adequate evidence. “This clause,” Wadekar said, “should be completely removed.” “Students already find it hard to approach the Equity Committee, and such clauses will only act as a deterrent,” she added.

UGC’s hasty actions

This is not the first time that the UGC has acted hastily in response to the petition. In 2024, the UGC had set up a nine-member committee to look into the concerns highlighted in the petition. The Wire, in February last year, had looked into the composition of the committee and highlighted the chequered past of several of its members, including allegations of caste discrimination levelled against them.

Even as the division bench of Justice Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh of the Supreme Court have been hearing this petition, another petition, Amit Kumar and Others versus Union of India, highlighting identical issues, is being heard before Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan. On March 24, in a significant order, the apex court directed the formation of a National Task Force to address the mental health concerns of students and prevent the rising number of suicides in higher educational institutions (HEIs). This National Task Force is being constituted as a ten-member committee, with retired Supreme Court judge S. Ravindra Bhat as its chairperson. Other members include mental health experts, teaching professionals, among others. This order too refers to the ongoing petition filed by Vemula and Tadvi.

Courtesy: The Wire

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Supply Sodium Cynanide and a Rope to every Dalit student-Rohit to the VC a month before he took his life

This letter, dated December 18, 2015 has not been so widely quoted nor has it gone viral. It is a comment on all of us, especially those of us in the media, that we failed to read the warnings or feel the anguish.  After all it is since August 2015 that the social boycott and ostracizing of Dalit students, including Rohith was systematically afoot. That is close to five months ago.

Nearly a month to the day that he tragically gave up the struggle to live and took his own life, on December 18, 2015, a hand-written letter from Rohith Vemula to Vice Chancellor Appa Rao says it all. Taunting and tragic, the note will now be read as a precursor of what was to come. In a hand-written scrawl that hints at acute desperation, he says, “Your Excellency (addressed to the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao) “make preparations for the EUTHANASIA for students like me from the Ambedkarite movement…and may your campus rest in peace forever.”

The letter traces the officially sanctioned “social boycott” of Dalit students after they took on a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for his derogatory remarks to the Dalit students. “Donald Trump will be a Lilliput in front of you,” Rohith tells Appa Rao then offering a piece of chilling advice. “Please serve 10 miligram of Sodium Azide to all the Dalit students at the time of admission…Supply a nice rope to the rooms of all Dalits students..”The text of the letter can be read here and a scanned hand written copy seen here.

Now we know, and fret over the fact that his Rs 25,000 per month stipend (as of all his other suspended colleagues) was stopped after suspension and he had to borrow money, even from home, to survive the struggle. Now that he is dead we listen to the plight and anguish of his family. Why did we not listen before? As the isolation and anguish built up to make Rohith take a step so final that it signalled no return? Yes, we are all to blame.

“After the stipend was stopped, his family was struggling to support him. He borrowed Rs 40,000 from a friend and was living frugally. Almost every day, he used to say that his money was stuck,’’ said Velmula Sankanna, a fellow PhD scholar and one of the other five students who were suspended. “In December, Rohith wrote an angry letter to the V-C, sarcastically asking him to provide euthanasia facilities for Dalit students. Since then, he was scared to go to the administration building and ask about his stipend. He became silent and withdrawn. He said that he was falling into depression because he was being defeated by the system at every turn. He blamed himself, his caste, and the circumstances around him. He did not take much interest in anything except studies,’’ added Sankanna, a close friend.

We did not rise to feel, see or appreciate the seriousness implicit in the warnings. In August 2015, a questionable mode of ‘suspension’ of five singled out students of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) followed by the arbitrary stopping of their scholarship stipend, further followed by their being locked out of their rooms from January 4, 2016. Yet they fought on, sleeping out near the shopping complex in the cold. Awaiting fair hearing, democratic space for protest(s) and justice.

From the night of January 4, 2016 until today the sleep out protests continue.

After the tragic and unnecessary loss of the life of a budding science scholar, a proud Ambedkarite, will justice and fair hearing happen? Yesterday in a fully articulated representation to PL Punia, Chairperson of the National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Commission, the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has demanded:

• Punish the Culprits under the SC/ST Atrocities Act:
• Banadaru Dattareya, Union Cabinet Minister of State for Labour and Employment
• P Appa Rao, Vice Chancellor
• Professor Alok Pandey, Chief Proctor
• Susheel Kumar, ABVP President
• Ramchandra Rao, MLC
• Remove P Appa Rao from the post of Vice Chancellor
• Employ a family member of Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad and give his family Rs 50 lahs in compensation
• Drop the fabricated cases against five Dalit Research Scholars immediately and unconditionally
• Revoke the suspension of Students immediately and unconditionally

The Anger Spreads; Demands for resignation of Vice Chancellor Appa Rao

Anger and grief are potent combinations and both were visible in plenty at the mortuary of the Osmania Hospital on Monday, January 18 where Rohith Velumal lay, a day after he tragically ended his own life. His mother’s anguished cry says it all, ““I used to proudly tell everyone in my village that my son was doing PhD at Hyderabad University. Today, I have come to collect his dead body.’’ The family is from Gurazala near Guntur, his mother a tailor and father, Manikumar a security guard at the Hyderabad University. Rohith has two siblings, an elder sister and a younger brother.

Over 1200 students of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) participated in a rally on Monday evening and have resolved to protest on Tuesday, January 19 and not allow the university to function until the current Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao steps down. Before the rally, his close friends and colleagues, along with his family were present at the cremation of Rohith in Hyderabad. (see Image story)

Simultaneous and spontaneous protests continued through the day yesterday at Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Mumbai and Delhi. The road outside Shastri Bhavan, the office of Smriti Irani, the Ministry for Human Resources Development (MHRD) was cordoned off akin to a war zone (see pictures). In Hyderabad, a visit from the chairperson of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Commission allayed feelings somewhat.

Though it is Rohith is the one who has made the most recent and most tragic sacrifice, the question is whether it will still open India’s eyes and hearts?

We read every other day not just of the social boycott of Dalit children in the mid day meal schemes. In ‘Dravidian’ politics ruled Tamil Nadu colour bands on Dalit students brand them with their caste. There is little political, social or cultural outrage. The television channels, packed as they are with ‘journalists’ most of whom sport a myopic caste consciousness of the elite Indian that simply excludes any mention of discrimination or exclusion while badgering home ‘the banner of tolerance’, rarely flag anti-Dalit atrocities as an institutional ill to be faced squarely then remedied.
In ‘progressive’ west India the discrimination takes similar forms, and examples abound. In Phugana, three young Dalit children, one a baby was burnt alive in a burst of Rajput rage.

Just like the Blacks fought (and have barely won) the Civil Rights battle in the West – last year’s incidents at Fergusson are evidence of how thinly layered this success is –it is privileged India, caste Hindus who need to hang their heads in acknowledgement, first, and the, shame.

We need to internalize what Dalit students experience when they enter schools, colleges and universities and break the glass ceiling and enter India’s famed institutions of higher learning, the IITs, the IIMs and Universities.

Not only is the percentage of Dalit students who enter higher educational institutions small. They are subject to insidious caste practices and exclusion that batters the hard earned self-esteem. A dangerous argument of ‘meritocracy’ cloaks well organized money and caste induced privilege.

This everyday institutional and societal exclusion and othering needs to be acknowledged squarely by each and one of us.

It is time we ask difficult ourselves some hard and uncomfortable questions.

What kind of history do we teach? Who are our heroines and heroes?
How many Dalits are there in the media, print and television?
How many Dalits in Institutions of power and governance?

The Dalit experience says that entering the corridors of elite educational institutions like Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) and Indian Institute of Managements and Central Universities for scores of Dalit students is like walking into a living hell, where the fear of being shamed and humiliated hangs heavy on the heart and soul of every student.

Before Rohit, we lost Senthil Kumar and Nagaralu Koppalas, also in the Central University of Hyderabad. Have these earlier losses, deaths of young men in their prime been internalized and taught the UoH any lessons worth learning? The recent and continuing unfair suspension of Dalit scholars would appear to suggest that no lessons have yet been learned.

Is India willing ready and able to accept her Not So Hidden Apartheid?

The post Rohith’s death: We are all to blame appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Justice Bopanna had told UGC, “Ultimately it is in the interest of the students and the parents whose children have lost their lives. In the future, at least some care should be taken that this doesn’t happen,” as reported by the LiveLaw.

In addition, Justice Bopanna advised the UGC that since the case was non-adversarial, it was important to be specific about how the UGC intended to address and resolve the issues mentioned in the petition rather than responding in the form of objections.

Furthermore, Justice Sundresh asked for details from the UGC regarding any actions the organisation has already taken as well as any upcoming plans.

Senior Advocate Indira Jaisingh, appearing for the Petitioners, requested the Court to urge the petitioner to ensure some action taken in a consultative manner. “It would be good if it is done in a consultative manner.” On this, Justice Bopanna informed the counsel for UGC, “Tell the UGC this is a sensitive matter and you have to take some action. Since it is non-adversarial you can also discuss with the petitioner’s counsel for suggestions,” as per a report by LiveLaw.

Justice MM Sundresh also suggested to the UGC to propose steps to facilitate students from the SC/ST backgrounds to the mainstream. “How do you facilitate them to get into the mainstream? Because they have come from a different backgrounds. There are many scenarios, some might drop out, while some may not perform well.”

Additionally, Advocate Jaisingh informed the court that the “equity regulations” the UGC created in the year 2012, to address concerns of caste discrimination on campuses, were insufficient. “It is unfortunate that these regulations do not have a binding nature, because they don’t have any sanction for violation of the regulations. When these regulations are compared to regulations under statues such as POSH and anti-ragging regulations, they fall short” Advocate Jaisingh argued, as per LiveLaw.

Pointing out that notice was issued to the Centre in the matter as far back as in September 2019, and more suicides due to caste-based discrimination have taken since then, Advocate Jaisingh further submitted that there was an urgent need to address the issue:

“It is rather unfortunate that in the year 2023, 3 more suicides of have taken place of students. One of them in a National Law School, one in a medical college and one in an IIT. Therefore, there is a sense of urgency about this petition. It would be in the fitness of things if the UGC in a non-adversarial manner could be persuaded to frame binding guidelines which will bind all institutes of higher education.”

The matter has now been posted after 4 weeks.

The order can be read here:

Brief about the PIL filed:

In August, 2019, mothers of Rohit Vemula and Dr Payal Tadvi had approached the Supreme Court with the aim of seeking for an effective way to abolish caste-based discrimination in institutes of higher education. Through the petition, the petitioners had submitted caste-based incidents of discrimination against SC and ST community members are rampantly prevalent, combined with institutional indifference to such practise as well as brazen disregard for the rules and regulations already in existence. It was also contended that the norms and regulation already in place are insufficient, failing to adequately address the incidence of caste-based discrimination on campuses that affects both teachers and students. Additionally, these rules did not offer a mechanism for complaints to be resolved in an independent, unbiased and impartial manner, and do not impose any sanctions on higher education institutions on their failure to take proactive and preventive measures to stop caste discrimination on campuses.

“Caste – based discrimination on the campus of HEIs, which is violative of Article 15, came to be recognised by the media in the year 2006 with reports that highlighted the rampant prevalence of caste based discrimination on the campus of All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi which included instances such as referring to students from the SC/ST with derogatory slurs and remarks, unmeritorious, by Professors by purposely marking students from the SC/ST community with lower grades. Additionally, AIIMS served as a hotspot for anti-reservation protests which further fuelled casteism on campus.” (Para 10.2)

The petitioners also claimed that an independent study was conducted by the New Delhi-based Insight Foundation in the year 2012, under the direction of Anoop Kumar, wherein a list of suicides of students from the Dalit, Adivasi, and Bahujan communities was compiled. According to the said research, 19 students belonging to the marginalised communities had taken this extreme step in various higher education institutions across the nation between the years of 2007 and 2012.

“The frequent episodes of caste discrimination demonstrate that the state has not only completely failed to protect the fundamental rights of the SC/ST/OBC students, faculty and employees on campus but also refused to take action against the perpetrators of these incidents. In multiple incidents it is noted that Universities have refused to take action against incidents of caste-based discrimination or have been perpetrators of such discrimination themselves resulting in the institutionalised form of discrimination on the basis of caste. It is also noticed that the UGC has abdicated its responsibilities by turning a blind eye to multiple lapses of universities by failing to enforce existing regulations in Universities and not developing effective mechanisms to combat caste based discrimination”. (Para 10.37)

A list of Dalit and Adivasi students that have died by suicide can be read here

As a part of ground, the petitioners provided that there is need to form new guidelines as “UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012” does not provide for an independent mechanism of grievance redressal since the Anti- Discrimination Officer under the regulations and the Appellate Authority are both the Professor/ Associate Professor and the head of the institution respectively. This has a chilling effect on the students who may fear adverse consequences if they raise complaints against the administration.

“Because Regulation Nos. 3(2)(f) of the Equity Regulations prescribe that a Professor/Associate Professor shall be appointed as the ADO is violative of the principles of fairness since they do not provide students recourse to an independent and unbiased adjudicatory mechanism since as has been evidenced by the cases referenced above, often it is the professors and deans itself who are responsible for such discrimination. Thus, the ADO who is often likely to be a colleague/employee of the accused and functions as the sole adjudicator, is not capable of functioning in an independent and unbiased manner” (Para W, grounds)

Our analysis of UGC’s anti-discriminatory guidelines failing Dalit-Adivasi students can be read here.

What do the petitioners seek through the PIL?

Through the petition, the petitioners had sought a direction to strictly ensure enforcement of and compliance with the above-mentioned UGC, (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012, dated December 17, 2012, issued by UGC (“UGC Equity Regulations”). Petitioners also sought issuance of directions to all Universities and Higher Education Institutions to establish Equal Opportunity Cells on the lines of such other existing anti-discrimination internal complaints mechanisms and to include members from the SC/ST communities and independent representatives from NGO’s or social activists to ensure objectivity and impartiality in the process.

Another prayer in the said petition was for the issuance of direction to all Universities to take strong disciplinary action against victimization of students/staff who file complaints alleging caste based discrimination and to take necessary steps in the nature of interim reliefs that restrain the Higher Education Institutions from creating a hostile environment against students who file such complaints.

The PIL can be read here:

Courtesy: Live Law

Who were Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi?

Rohit Vemula was a Dalit student, a PhD scholar at Hyderabad Central University and the son of Radhika Vemula, who died by suicide on January 17, 2016. He had been suspended along with four others after a complaint by the local unit of the Akhil Bharatatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP. ABVP had branded him as casteist and anti – national. Vemula’s fellowship of Rs 25,000 was suspended for raising “issues under the banner of the Ambedkar Students Association” (ASA). On January 17, Vemula committed suicide and left behind a critical note talking of unfinished dreams and how he felt his “birth was his fatal accident”.

Twenty-three-year-old Payal Tadvi hailed from the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, and was a Bhil Muslim, she belonged to the scheduled tribes. She was a student at TN Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai. On May 22, 2019, she was found hanging in her room in the Nair hospital premises. She had committed suicide after months of alleged harassment by three college seniors who subjected her to casteist slurs and other forms of caste violence. Both these suicides have been attributed to have been instigated due to facing caste-based discrimination in educational institutions.

Related:

Lessons Unlearned: Nine years after the Thorat Committee report

The Death of Merit: Dalit Suicides in institutes of higher learning

Systemic Prejudice, Absence of Grievance Redressal reasons for Dalit Suicides: Teacher Testimonies

A letter that should shake our world: Dalit scholar suicide triggers outrage

Rohith Vemula’s ‘institutional murder’: Five years on, family and friends still wait for justice

REPLUG: Rohith Vemula, Your Sacrifice was Not in Vain

“Highly appalling to see SIT ignoring rank caste discrimination Darshan faced despite overwhelming evidence”: Ramesh Solanki

IIT Bombay Dalit student death: Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar, ex Rajya Sabha member, demands SIT probe into his death 

Mumbai Dharna for Darshan Solanki makes calls for law against caste discrimination

The post SC deems caste-based discrimination in higher education system to be a ‘very sensitive matter’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

“Please give us poison at the time of admission itself instead of humiliating us like this” 
– Late Rohith Vemula in a letter to Vice Chancellor Appa Rao a month before he took his own life

On February 26, the Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, addressed the issue of ostracisation and harassment that a student belonging to the Dalit or Adivasi community faces in top institutions of India. He was speaking at the National Academy of Legal Studies. He said that he was disturbed by incidents of students from marginalised communities taking their lives in top institutions, and that there was a pattern in Dalit and Adivasi students dying by suicide that needs to be questioned.

The CJI had further said that the time had come to have a model of education that had empathy at its core rather than excellence. Talking about the suicides of a Dalit student at IIT Bombay, Darshan Solanki, and a tribal student at PG Anaesthesia in Kakatiya Medical College, he had said that these numbers are not just statistics, these are stories that embody centuries old struggles. The first step, he pointed out, is to acknowledge and recognise the problem.

This is neither the first time that a student belonging to the Dalit or Adivasi community has committed suicide due to systematic callousness failures, nor the first time that words of anguish over such an act have been uttered.

Educational institutions, especially institutions of higher learning, have been consistently identified as sites of caste-based discrimination and violence.[1]According to the report by the All India Survey of Higher Education in 2019-2020, students from among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) constitute only 14.7% and those from Scheduled Tribes (STs) 5.6% of all enrolments in higher education.[2] The gross enrolment ratio in higher education for SC students is 23.4% and that for ST students is 18.0%; where the national average in India is 27.1%.

Even though the Indian Constitution contains numerous safeguards and provisions for the protection of people belonging to marginalised communities, Dalits and Adivasis have continued to face discrimination and exclusion within universities and such higher learning institutes. The Constitution of India contains provisions promoting the rights and interests of the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), in the form of both Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles for State Policies (DPSP). In addition to this, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) contains sections that provide punishments for those who commit crimes against the SC/ST community. Special laws have been passed, such as the Protection of Civil Rights Act of 1955 and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 (amended in 2015), both of which prescribe harsher punishments for crimes against Dalits than the IPC. Special courts have been established in major states to expedite the trial of cases registered solely under these Acts. The SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, which was passed by Parliament in December 2015, made several critical changes. New offenses are added to the list. Among them are prohibitions on Dalits using common property resources, entering places of public worship, and entering educational institutions.

While these laws remain largely on paper, the reality is chilling. Dalit students face discrimination from the inception of their academic careers. While discrimination might be more visible at the university level than it is in primary schools, this, however begins these and happens on a daily basis. Students from Dalit communities who strive to enter the competitive educational system are squeezed out by systemic (and often, violent) caste-based discrimination. Daily caste prejudice that they then experience, drives some of the most exploited to commit suicide. Time and again these issues have been brought to the forefront, typically after a young person belonging to the Dalit or Adivasi community loses her or his life.

This struggle against institutional casteism is not new, and the existing constitutional and legal legislations, stated-above, have not been successful in fully protecting either Dalit and Adivasi students. Caste is embedded in the social and cultural construct of our universities. It is not simply just a law-and-order issue. There is a popular and commonly held misconception that universities are caste-neutral. Casteism in fact is structural and rooted however, manifest in how the institute itself, department heads, institution heads, or management conduct themselves and respond. Especially when it comes to the specific othering and discrimination faced by students from these sections Typically, the determinants of caste can be read through language, the “command over English”, submissiveness, articulation, mode of dress, and colour of the complexion. While most students overlook individual bigotry, others are driven to the brink by systemic ridicule. Most non-Dalits regard those belonging to the marginalised communities as sub-humans, and frequently verbally abuse, demean, and ostracise them.

Through this legal resource, we are going to scrutinise the guidelines and safeguards that have been put in place to protect and support the Dalit and Adivasi students, and analyse whether these guidelines have been at all successful in doing so.

History of Caste Discrimination in Higher Institutions: 2007 Thorat Committee Report

In 2007, the then prime-minister Manmohan Singh had set up the Thorat Committee following grave and widespread allegations of differential treatment and discrimination against students belonging to Dalit and Adivasi communities. This decision had come after the Dalit and Adivasi students complained of direct and subtle forms of discrimination that were painstakingly documented by the Committee.

The committee was headed by professor SK Thorat (chairperson), and consisted of Dr. K.M. Shyamprasadand Dr. R.K. Srivastava as members. It was set up with the objective of “enquiring into allegations of differential treatment of SC/ST students in the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMMS).”

In the 77 pages report, it was revealed that 76% of the students were asked about their caste directly or indirectly during evaluations, while 84% of the students claimed that their grades were affected owing to their caste. The report had further provided that students belonging to the marginalised communities were forced to live in isolation in hostel rooms, faced discrimination in the mess (where students ate their food), faced abuse and violence by dominant castes and external examiners that were invited for the viva (oral interviews) of SC/ST students. The report had also provided that SC/ST students experienced discrimination in various forms, from avoidance, contempt, non- cooperation, and discouragement and differential treatment by teachers towards these students.

A deeper analysis of the report can be read here.

Sixteen years have since this report was passed but the situation is only gotten worse. In 2019, while speaking the New India Express, Professor Sukhdeo Thorat had said that “Nearly 25-30 students in top educational institutes have died in the last decade or so but the subsequent governments have failed to take any concrete policy decision to end caste discrimination in educational institutes.”

Initiatives to prevent discrimination in Higher Education by the UGC

• In order to check discrimination and harassment of any section of students and to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism, the University Grants Commission (Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012 has been formulated. These regulations had intended to give effect in letter and spirit to the provisions of the Constitution and other statutory provisions and policies for prevention of discrimination on the grounds of caste and to safeguards the interests of the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The regulations also sought to provide for advancement of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students through setting up of Equal Opportunity Cells in each Higher Educational Institution.

• The UGC had also approved the establishment of SC/ST Cells in various Universities with a view to safeguard the interests of SC/ST students.

• In order to make the universities/colleges more responsive to the needs and constraints of the disadvantaged social groups, the UGC is giving financial assistance to all eligible Colleges/Universities to establish Equal Opportunity Centres. The aim and objective of this Scheme is to oversee the effective implementation of policies and programmes for disadvantaged groups, to provide guidance and counselling with respect to academic, financial, social and other matters and to enhance the diversity within the campus.

• Other initiatives included provisions of Anti Discriminatory faculty advisors for SC/ST students who look into their problems and advise accordingly, appointment of Student Counsellors to address personal, academic, psychological and family related problems, providing sports and extra-curricular activities, setting up counselling centres, provision of anxiety helpline, and setting up disciplinary action committee to take urgent action in case of any complaints of reported ragging, discrimination based on caste, creed, religion and gender etc.[3]

As had been provided by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the Lok Sabha in the year 2019, the UGC has issued several instructions from time to time to all State Governments and Centrally Funded Education Institutions to curb discrimination of any kind in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)/Universities. 

In June 2019, UGC had advised all the Vice-Chancellor of all Universities to constitute a committee to look into the discrimination complaints received from the SC/ST/OBC Students/Teachers and non-teaching staff.[4]

In September 2020, had issued an advisory against caste-based discrimination in higher education institutions. It had asked institutions to look into such cases seriously to avoid discrimination against students from the historically marginalised Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC and ST) on grounds of their backgrounds.[5]

The UGC has issued a notice stating that the officials and faculty members of educational institutions should “desist from any act of discrimination against SC/ST students on grounds of their social origin”.

It had also urged the institutions to create a page on their website for lodging such complaints by SC, ST students and also place a complaint register in the registrar or principal office for the purpose. 

In February 2021, the UGC had asked all the higher educational institutions to ensure that no official and faculty members indulge in any form of caste discrimination against Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) students. The Commission had also directed the institutions to develop a page on their website for lodging complaints of caste discrimination and to ensure prompt action against erring official and faculty members, re-iterating the direction they had issued in the previous year’s advisory note too. [6]

Furthermore, the UGC also sought the constitution of a committee to look into discrimination complaints received from the SC/ST/OBC students and teachers and non-teaching staff. It added that faculty members and officials of colleges/universities must be advised to be more sensitive while dealing with incidents of caste discrimination.

The circular is as follows:

Norms framed by AICTE to prohibit discriminatory incidents in technical institutions:

1. For protection against harassment and discrimination of Scheduled Castes in AICTE Approved Institutions, it is essential for all AICTE approved institutions to Establish Committee for SC/ ST (As per the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, No. 33 of 1989, dated 11.09.1989).

2. As per AICTE norms each (AICTE approved) Institution shall upload the number of complaints and grievances received and action taken on their Web site and update AICTB through the monthly online status report.

3. In case of receipt of any complaint(s) about an Institution, the same shall be processed by Public Grievance Redressal Cell (PGRC) of AICTE established to dispose of the complaint cases.

4. AICTE takes action against such institutions (AICTE Approved) for violation of AICTE norms as mentioned in Chapter VII of the Approval Process Handbook (APH) of year concerned and punishes them as appropriate.[7]

Are these Special Cells in Higher University actually working?

The Case of Indian Institute of Technology

According to Ministry of Education data, the IITs recorded 34 suicides from 2014 to 2021, with 18 from the SC and OBC communities losing their life.^[8] Dalit rights activist Anoop Kumar had stated in the 2011 documentary named ‘Death of Merit’ that a significant portion of those who committed suicide in the IITs between 2007 and 2011 were Dalits. ^[9]

A survey cited in the Economic & Political Weekly investigated how caste influenced students’ perceptions at IIT-Banaras Hindu University. Thirteen percent of students in the SC/ST category reported that their teachers’ attitudes toward them were hostile.^[10]When asked about the perceived academic ability of students in the SC/ST category, 61 percent of the respondents in the general category felt that it was ‘less than others’. In comparison, 46 percent of SC/ST category students also thought it was ‘less than others’. ^[11]

In the year 2020, a panel of IIT directors and some government officials had submitted a report to the Ministry of Education suggesting that IITs should be exempted from reservation in appointments as they are ‘institutes of national importance’.^[12]  They had further said that to preserve the ‘higher merit’ of these institutions, reservation policy shall be barred.  In a subtle way, this report had argued that candidates chosen through the reservation policy are unqualified, and thus may jeopardise the ‘efficiency’ criterion.

According to the testimony given by the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) of IIT Bombay, it was a long struggle to get the IIT institutes to establish a SC/ST cell in the IITs. A struggle which had begun in September 2014, after Aniket Ambhore, a 22 year old fourth year B. Tech student of IIT Bombay, died from falling from a hostel building on the campus at IIT Bombay.^[13]As per their narrative, it was due to their consistent struggles that a special cell was established in IITs. It took them 7 years to set up the SC/ST Cell on the campus. These SC/ST Students Cell are supposed to addresses academic and non-academic issues and complaints received from students belonging to the SC and ST birth categories, which could be scholarship issues, opportunity issues or any other guidance.

But the struggle had only just officially started. Even though many IITs have counselling and mental health services, they are only designed to meet the needs of Savarna (upper caste) students. Furthermore, these counsellors are not trained to understand the social realities of caste that affect students from SC/ST communities, making them ineffective in providing support and, at times, exacerbating students’ problems. Furthermore, IITs do not hire Dalit Bahujan Adivasi (DBA) mental health experts as counsellors, exacerbating the situation.

In 2022, the APPSC had complained to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) that the head counsellor at the Student Wellness Centre (SWC) on the Mumbai campus had signed a public petition to end caste-based reservation and posted about it on social media.[14] The students highlighted that this revelation significantly discouraged SC/ST students from visiting the SWC.  

The institute, responding to the NCST’s investigation, had said the counsellor had been warned about avoiding any such posts on social media and immediately asked to take down the post in question. It had added that the counsellor continued to work with the SC/ST Cell of the institute and the SWC. 

Pursuant to the latest case of suicide of the 18-year-old Darshan Solanki at IIT Bombay, prompted by the culture of hegemony and institutionalised caste discrimination, the NCST, one year after the filing of the complaint, took charge and asked the IIT-B as to why it had allowed a counsellor with “casteist sentiment” to continue working with the SC/ST Cell on campus. As the NCST panel continues its investigation into complaints of the institute lacking mental health support for SC/ST students, the institute has been defending charges that it was the alleged failure to create safe spaces for marginalised students led to the suicide on February 12. 

Thus, starting from the lack of care shown by the institutes, to the commissions put in place by the union to oversee the complaints filed against atrocities committed against the tribal communities, there is a certain level of indifference as well as failure to take appropriate steps for safeguarding the interest of the SC-ST community.

Other colleges

A perusal of the National Law University’s website shows that NLUs, considered the top colleges for studying law, do not have SC/ST Cells, but have equal opportunity cells. On surface, these cells have a similar description as the SC/ST cells and have been set up to ensure that every student is granted equal opportunity and are not discriminated against. Many other universities, such as the Delhi University, Punjab University, Mumbai University, etc. had a page on their website showing SC/ST Cells or Equal opportunity cells. The question that arises now is: if these cells are in place, in accordance to the UGC guidelines, then why are the students belonging to the SC/ST community still facing discrimination and humiliation, to the point that they are pushed to take their own lives?

A closer examination on the complaints registered by these cells and the quality of response needs an independent assessment and scrutiny.

Why are these guidelines not working?

The very composition of the SC/ST Cells creates a roadblock, It has been found that in the current structure, the SC/ST cells are being constituted with members belonging to the dominant castes, which decreases both the legitimacy and trust of the DBA students towards this corrective mechanism. As a result of this, people with only a superficial understanding of caste hegemony in education and academia are suddenly given the power to solve such issues that they are themselves responsible for, directly or indirectly, without having received any stringent educational sessions for the same. In fact for most persons from the dominant castes, systemic caste discrimination is barely superficially understood. This ends up creating a void, instead of a safe space for the students. It is essential to ensure that such safe spaces are actually created where one can question the structures rooted in ensuring that Dalit-Bahujan students experiencing a sense of isolation and otherness. It is equally critical to ensure independent and consistent monitoring of their functioning.

Additionally, it is crucial to note that these cells, both SC-ST Cells and Equal Opportunity Cells, are only advisory in nature. Hence, if a person belonging to the marginalised community is facing any type of discrimination, these cells do not have any power to take any punitive action. Furthermore, if the recommendations given by the aforementioned cells are not implemented or abided by, there is no mechanism or procedure to ensure compliance with recommendations. All these lacunae create a dependency of the SCST cell. The anti-ragging committees are again bodies which have largely only dominant caste members; most of the time these are not interested in taking any action over issues concerning students from marginalised communities. A major factor behind the inefficacy of the SC-ST cells is their composition, jurisdiction and lack of power.

Finally, even after having realised the criticality of having mental health counsellors for marginalised communities, SC-ST cells have no mandate to appoint such counselors from within these depressed communities (SC-ST). Only such sensitivity and diversity can help the students –through their time at university – to navigate a semi-hostile environment that privileges the elite.

Conclusion

In the case of BK Pavitra and others vs Union of India and others, Justice Chandrachud has observed that “The Constitution is a transformative document. The realisation of its transformative potential rests ultimately in its ability to breathe life and meaning into its abstract concepts. For, above all, the Constitution was intended by its draftspersons to be a significant instrument of bringing about social change in a caste-based feudal society witnessed by centuries of oppression of and discrimination against the marginalised.”

Whenever cases of suicides by students belonging to the Dalit and Adivasis community have been reported, many judges and top functionaries touch upon the topic of discrimination faced by the marginalised communities in educational institutions. Why then are no concrete changes brought in? In higher institutes, anti-ragging policies are put in place, but the same are just lip-service attempts by the authorities. It is worrisome to see that even after being aware about the caste prejudices that exist in our society and the way casteism works, educational institutes have refused to adopt special safeguards towards ensuring that students from the SC/ST community do not face any bias. It is a question of acknowledgement of deep rooted and structural discrimination by and through caste.

In institutions of higher education, caste-based violence and discrimination continues to be rampant due to the upper-class dominant-caste heteronormative structures in place. Barely a day had passed since the death of Darshan Solanki, even as people were protesting his death, Dharawath Preethi, a tribal student of PG Anaesthesia in Kakatiya Medical College (KMC), Hyderabad died by suicide allegedly due to harassment by a senior student. Previous instances of violence perpetuated by both classmates and teachers has led to instances of violence, which in extreme cases has led to students committing suicide, as was in the cases of RohithVemula, MuthukrishnanJeevantham and PayalTadvi.

All of these institutional murders were a result of the failure of the system to acknowledge the existing societal iniquitous structures. PayalTadvi was constantly humiliated and discriminated against by her peers because of her caste background. The above-mentioned Professor Thorat’s committee report, which had presented the findings of bias on the AIIMS campus much before her, had highlighted that those students had felt discriminated against because of their caste background and had been ostracised by teachers and professors for it. However, instead of acknowledging the report’s findings and implementing the recommendations, the institution dismissed the report. The recommendations have yet to be put into action.

A list of Dalit and Adivasi students that have died by suicide can be read here

The Rohith movement had begun with people demanding legislation to combat the dominant caste’s naturally discriminatory system of hegemony, in which the marginalised sections are regarded as malfunctioning, unworthy of belonging within dominant caste spaces. If India wants to correct this malaise, this poison of systemic discrimination, if we want to prevent more Vemulas and Solankis succumbing to the existing casteist structure, we have to also think outside the n the framework of the system.

Education is frequently referred to as the “magic bullet” for progress. It through acquiring education that the marginalised communities can be empowered, and the gaps between the classes –dominant and marginalized– can be decreased. However, as long as caste-based discrimination exists in educational institutions, this magic bullet will be ineffective. Several structural changes must be made in order for education to fully realise its transformative and liberating potential.

Education institutions must commit to “undoing the idea of merit as a random consequence of individual ability” in order to be inclusive. Staff and faculty must recognise that their social position influences their ability. Students and teachers should be made to acknowledge that centuries old Brahmanical hegemony continues to shape our perception of capability, and that it has more to do with denying communities opportunities for advancement than with individual talent.

Until there is a profound acknowledgement of this structural bias, it is crucial that existing legislations are put into active force and stricter guidelines are given to the universities to abide by for ensuring that no individual is discriminated against. The current mandates fall miserably short. Those commanding both acknowledgement and implementation are from the dominant castes and communities, ill-understanding the experiential realities of a person belonging to a caste minority.

Genuine equity, dignity within a democracy requires a somber understanding of the shadows and silences behind the obvious hurdles. For our young from among the Scheduled Castes and Tribes to feel empowered within institutes of higher learning, it is they and their representatives who must be in charge and control of spaces that make this happen.

The post How long will Dalits and Adivasis students succumb to violent caste discrimination before effective measures are created? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Lucknow: Eight years after his death, clashes broke out between two student groups at Lucknow University over an event to commemorate the death anniversary of Rohith Vemula.

The two student organisations got into a heated argument and raised slogans against each other. However, the police and the university administration intervened and separated both the groups.

Rohith Vemula, a Dalit Ph.D scholar, hanged himself in his hostel room on January 17, 2016, 12 days after he was expelled from the hostel.

He was one among the five research scholars suspended by the Hyderabad Central University administration. All five of them were accused of assaulting an ABVP student leader.

His death triggered widespread protests across India as a case of discrimination against Dalit students.

The student groups, belonging to different ideologies, clashed when one group blamed the other for driving the Dalit student to end his life.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

The post Student groups clash in Lucknow University on Rohith Vemula’s death anniversary appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Someone who fights his entire life against injustice and ultimately sacrifices his life deserves to be called a martyr, even if martyrdom is formally reserved for those who battle on the borders. Today, many such thoughts come to mind on the sixth anniversary of the death of Rohith Vemula.

Academics and society

Rohith Vemula paid the ultimate sacrifice, of his life, to make academia introspect. His self-abnegation has become the most well-known instance of the widespread atrocities against the Dalits that prevail in academic spaces. He might have thought that the system is so callous that it will take not less than a living sacrifice to jolt it. Unlike many other incidents in academic institutions before and after him, the system got jolted by Rohith’s death, but it was obviously not shaken. That the system continued its atrocious practices is illustrated by the cases of Deepa Mohanan and Vipin P. Veetil. Scholarships continue to elude Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe students. SC/ST teaching positions continue to remain vacant in academic institutions.

So, the foremost lesson we can draw from Rohith Vemula’s sacrifice is that it is critical to fight the subtle atrocities that prevail in academic institutions in the name of excellence and academic autonomy. What is the use of the academic excellence and autonomy that takes so many students’ lives? The minority of Dalit scholars cannot in any way obstruct the so-called excellence of the majority in educational institutions. The real story is not the question of pursuing excellence but the age-old quest to suppress the Dalits. Some of the “excellence” in academia is about using every possible way to prevent the Dalits from excelling.

Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) academia in India avoids the caste question using the tacit excuse that STEM has nothing to do with caste. For them, something like a “sociology of science” does not exist. On the other hand, cleverly, even the social science academia either avoid or distort the caste question. They sweep the caste question under a cloak of what can, at best, be called “vintage academic fashion”. They do not transpose critical race theory to the Indian context, which would translate into BR Ambedkar’s statement, “Turn any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.”

While the world changes rapidly, academia in India is still stuck with vintage academic fashion. Many students and faculty in academics mistake this fashion for substance and create a vast gulf between the academic world and the world outside.

The word “Ambedkarite” became popular after Rohith Vemula’s sacrifice. Currently, vested interests are trying to turn this into a fashion, reducing its substance. For example, it is now acceptable to talk about discrimination against Dalit students but not Dalit teachers. It is fashionable to talk about the discrimination by “the system” but not by peers. It is fashionable to create institutions, chairs and journals in the name of Ambedkar, but the space is filled with non-Dalits. This sort of Ambedkarism is basically a fashion without any substance. In this context, it is helpful to teach and internalise notions like “360-degree discrimination” and “discrimination audits”. Unless the academic sphere practices holistic thinking rather than fashionable thinking, it will not impact the wider society but remain an ivory tower for a privileged few. While living in an ivory tower is comfortable, such a life is always vulnerable to a rebellion by the public.

Most importantly, a nation cannot make itself better by hiding its problems but only by recognising them upfront. Therefore, to recognise caste in academia is to identify the problem forthrightly. A caste census will be the ultimate acknowledgement of India’s problems!

The art and science of protest

Not for nothing did the Buddha prescribe a middle path that avoids the extremes. The Indian Constitution, which is a liberal democratic one, is neither revolutionary nor conservative but follows the middle path. If we observe Ambedkar’s fighting strategy, we find that he followed the middle way, too, the route of avoiding extremes. It is said that Ambedkar practised pragmatism, which is not opportunism. (Roscoe Pound, applying pragmatism to law, conceived the law as a conflict resolution mechanism at a minimal cost.)

Ambedkar gave a lot of weight to the law in a protest project; it must adopt a pragmatic approach. It must be both art and science. A strategy for a protest that does not make any calculation of the costs involved is not a good strategy. A judicious mix of protests in the street and the courts seem to be a pragmatic strategy.

This leads us to the next point, whether a so-called Rohith Act is possible. After Rohith Vemula died, many proposed a law in his name to counter atrocities in academic institutions. While nobody defined the contours of such an act, the crux of the matter is indirect discrimination. Thankfully, what was recognised in the West in 1973 was acknowledged in India in 2021. Last year, the Supreme Court defined indirect discrimination in Lt. Col. Nitisha vs Union of India. So, Rohith’s sacrifice has not gone all in vain. Somewhere, the social stir that has taken place after he died has contributed to change.

‘Rohith Guidelines’ can be a fitting tribute

Unlike American laws, laws in India are not named after individuals. The Vishaka Guidelines are a rare instance when a Supreme Court-made law was named after an individual. These guidelines are equally applicable to all organisations, including private ones. The society also accepted these guidelines, while the State transformed it into a Parliament-enacted law, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Act, 2013.

Even more radical than this, society accepted the Me Too movement. While civil society has no problem acknowledging gender violence, it is yet to show the same generosity to acknowledging caste violence. Could there be Rohith Guidelines in the manner of the Vishaka guidelines? Would civil society accept a “Caste Too” movement?

The author is Professor and Dean in the School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The views are personal.

Courtesy: newsclick.in

The post REPLUG: Rohith Vemula, Your Sacrifice was Not in Vain appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A Sabrangindia Special

India’s campuses have become the favoured site for the brute implementation of a militaristic agenda. With the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula (January 17, 2016), the sustained and violent attack on the JNU Campus and criminalization of protests including incarceration of Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar (2016), this regime in its first term had made its intentions clear. Then came the disappearance of post graduate student, Najeeb in which ABVP’s clearly alleged role has been left uninvestigated. There were also sustained attacks on the FTII, Pune, Pondicherry university and Hyderabad Central University (HCU) that was completely fortified off by the authorities.

That was then, the first term. Now, as we are nearing the end of 2022, we see how over the past year especially, as before, the immunity enjoyed by the ABVP continues.

From the campus of the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh, the ABVP’s hand in fomenting targeted incidents is visible

The past eight years, coinciding with the brute majority earned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre has seen the aggressive, often violent, activities of the RSS-affiliate, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) especially on the nation’s university campuses. Law enforcement agencies and governments have displayed a visible soft touch in curtailing these, ensuring that they function with complete impunity.

December 4, 2022, between two rounds of elections in the state, ABVP members forced the Ahmedabad-based HA College Principal chant “Jai Sri Ram” and made him apologize to students who were rebuked earlier for raising slogans during an ongoing class. Sources told the Times of India that a couple of days ago, a few students had started shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan while the class was in progress at the HA College which is affiliated to the GLS University and is on the GLS campus near the Law Garden in the city. The teacher had earlier rebuked these students for disrupting the class and took them to the college principal, Sanjay Vakil. Vakil had scolded these students and made them write an apology letter. “The teacher later brought them to me and I also scolded them. Today, some students affiliated with ABVP came to the principal’s office and created a ruckus. They started chanting ‘Ram Dhun’ and demanded an apology from the principal for hurting religious sentiments,” said Bhalchandra Joshi, the provost of GLS University. Joshi said that the principal apologized to them explaining that he had no intention of hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. Sources said that the ABVP members forced the principal to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ with them and made him apologize to the students whom he had rebuked earlier.

December 1/2, 2022, a law college principal in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was forced to resign. The decision, was precipitated by pressure exerted by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing affiliated with the RSS. Hours after putting in his papers, the academic was booked for promoting enmity amongst religious groups along with three of his colleagues. His travails began on December 1, when ABVP members submitted a memorandum, alleging “religious fundamentalist thoughts being promoted by four Muslim teachers of the college”. A day later, the activists took offence to the presence of a book, Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System, in the institution’s library. Portions of the book, according to them, showed the RSS in poor light.

December 1, 2002, students of the Delhi University (DU) protesting demanding the release of GN Saibaba were gheraoed and attacked reportedly by ABVP persons who also injured some students and gheraoed the hospital where they were being treated. Around five students of Delhi University were seriously injured after they were allegedly attacked by over 50 Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members during a protest demanding the release of former DU professor GN Saibaba. The attack on students involved with the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) were, according to Quint first attacked with stones and then lathis.

December 2, 2022, six professors were pulled off duty in the same college in MP on the strongarm tactics of the ABVP. The Indore-based Shasakiya Navin Vidhi Mahavidyalay (Government New Law College) pulled off six teachers, including four Muslims, off duty temporarily on complaints by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) who accused them of promoting fundamentalism and ‘negative thoughts’ about the government and Army These teachers will now not be allowed to teach classes for five days while a judicial inquiry is conducted into the allegations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student union, the college principal said on Thursday, December 1. It was Dipendra Thakur, head of the ABVP unit at the college, who alleged in a complaint to principal Dr Inamur Rahman that some teachers promoted ‘religious fundamentalism and negative thoughts about the government and the Army’ among first-year students. Further he also said that on Fridays, the principal, Muslim teachers, and students offer namaaz and during this time classes are not held. 

August 30,2022, a week after ABVP blamed him for security guards’ ‘attack’ on students, JNU rector was compelled to resign. Reportedly, along with student organisations, the students affiliated to the ABVP, were demanding disbursal of ‘pending’ fellowship grants clashed with JNU security guards last week, with both sides going on to get FIRs registered against each other.  While the university administration claimed that two guards were beaten up “mercilessly” by the students, the ABVP JNU unit, in a press statement issued after the incident, laid the blame on the rector.

The ABVP statement had read, “It should be known that this attack on the students was done at the behest of Dr Ajay Dubey of JNU, who is also the varsity’s rector. The JNU rector has been already exposed for running two ‘illegal’ NGOs from his JNU address. “The two NGOs in question are the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives (ODI) and the African Studies Association of India (ASAI). Dubey has denied the accusations, which were reportedly made by a group of teachers.

July 30 2022, ABVP Activists Storm Karnataka Home Minister’s Residence (Jnanendra’s bungalow at Jayamahal in Bengaluru) In Protest Over BJP Leader’s Murder. These activists affiliated to the ABVP were protesting the killing of BJYM leader Praveen Nettar, who was killed in Dakshin Kannada district on Tuesday. They were baton-charged on Saturday when they barged into the residence of Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra in a protest over the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader in Dakshina Kannada district. 

June 10, 2022, clash between the ABVP and Campus Front of India (CFI) affiliated to the mow banned Popular Front of India (PFI) at the University College, a constituent college of Mangalore University, at Hampankatta with three students were admitted to a hospital stating that they suffered minor injuries in the clash. Reportedly the clash took place over a matter relating to some students mounting portraits of Veer Savarkar and Bharat Mata above the black board in a classroom without the permission of the college on June 6. The college removed the portraits the next day. Some students had complained to the principal about the portraits. And, a video clipping of the students mounting the portraits had gone viral on social media.

May 23, 2022, reported clashes at Gorakhpur Varsity as ABVP Calls DJ at College Fest ‘Porn Star’. ABVP members arrived at Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology to submit a memorandum against the college fest hosting DJ Zabylla, whose show they claimed was ‘obscene’.

 Half a dozen people were injured in a clash at a Gorakhpur university after activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad allegedly stormed the campus claiming that an Indonesian DJ who performed at the college fest was “obscene” and a “porn star.”

ABVP has filed a police complaint against three, including two teachers of the university, accusing them of attempt to murder, assault and rioting. The university has also filed a complaint against ABVP activists.Gorakhpur’s Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMMUT) had invited Indonesian DJ, Zabylla, to perform at the annual cultural event of the varsity, ‘Tech Srijan 2022’. Various academic and cultural programmes were also part of the annual fest.  Terming the ABVP’s allegations as baseless and an attempt to defame the varsity, Vice-Chancellor J.P. Pandey told various media houses that ABVP activists stormed the campus without any prior notice to submit the memorandum and started raising slogans in an aggressive manner. “College authorities tried to pacify the protesters, invited them to discuss the matter and told them that their allegations were not true,” he added. Pandey also directly alleged that the ABVP activists misbehaved with the teachers, which angered the varsity students.  “Shubham Chaurasia, a final year student of the university, suffered grave injuries in the clash,” Pandey said.

After this violent clash, the Council has been asked to submit a report, Pandey said. In addition, a committee of four teachers have been directed to submit a report after investigating the complaints of the ABVP about the event. This committee was supposed to submit a report on the incident of May 19.  Pandey has also written a letter to the District Magistrate requesting him to nominate an administrative officer and a police officer to the committee so that a fair investigation can be conducted. The V-C also said that the university, too, has lodged a complaint at the Cantonment police station.

May 18, 2022, professor of Lucknow University Ravi Kant Chandan, a Dalit thinker, was physically assaulted –for the second time–by a student leader associated with Samajwadi Party’s student wing on Wednesday, May 18. This was the second such attack on Chandan in about a week since he made comments deemed “derogatory” by Hindutva outfits in connection with the ongoing row into Gyanvapi mosque and Kashi Vishwanath Mandir. On May 10, eight days before, he faced a physical attack from the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The latest attack, on May 18, was carried out by one Karthik Pandey of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, the student wing of the Samajwadi Party. Chandan was attacked near the proctor’s office on the campus moments after leaving the Hindi department after delivering a lecture there.

The attack stunned everyone on the campus as Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, along with several other student bodies and faculty members, protested on Tuesday, May 17, at the Lucknow University gate against the ABVP attack on Professor Chandan and lent its support.

Apeil 10, 2022, a clash between students affiliated to left student organisations and others with the RSS-affiliate, the ABVP broke out after then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh o accused Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members of stopping students from eating non-vegetarian food on campus and thereafter indulging in violence. Left members also accused ABVP members of resorting to stone-pelting in the evening in which some students were injured. The mess secretary was also allegedly attacked by ABVP students. Deputy commissioner of police (Southwest) Manoj C said six persons from both sides have sustained minor injuries. 

February 15, 2022:  ABVP members on Tuesday protested outside the Tamil Nadu Bhavan in the national capital demanding the probe in the Thanjavur student suicide case be transferred to the CBI. ABVP Delhi State Secretary Siddharth while talking to ANI alleged that the accused in the case were welcomed by the ministers in the state government when they were released from jail. “To ensure an independent investigation, the state government should distance itself from the probe,” he said. He also demanded that the members of ABVP who are arrested for protesting outside CM house over the same issue should be released immediately.

February 4, 2020, following attacks, ABVP, SFS students hold protests at Panjab University. Protests and counter protests were held amidst slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘SFS hooliganism will not be tolerated’, members of the ABVP gathered to condemn the attack outside Boys Hostel No 3, which had left one of its members severely injured on Saturday evening. Several SFS members at the protest claimed that the attack took place in response to the lewd and “misogynistic” comments that Divyansh, the ABVP student who was attacked, had posted on a Facebook group (reported by The Indian Express). “We cannot tolerate those who treat women like this, and post such derogatory comments,” said some SFS members during the protest.

After the attack which took place on Saturday night, Divyansh registered an FIR naming four members of SFS, including the PU SFS president Varinder Singh. The FIR was registered under the Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 147 (for rioting), 141 (show of criminal force) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Following the incident, an SFS student, Antarpreet Singh, who was also named in the FIR, was allegedly attacked outside Boys Hostel No 1 by a few ABVP members on that night. “I was outside the Boys Hostel No 1 when they attacked me. They tore off my turban and said you survived 1984 but you will not survive anymore,” said Antarpreet. A DDR was registered regarding the incident and the police said, it needs to conduct an inquiry before registering an FIR.

January 31, 2022, police used violence to control two protests reportedly against both the ABVP which was protesting the delay in issuance of marks cards, another organisation comprising Bangalore University Post Graduate and Research Scholars was protesting condemning the recent incident of a district judge asking officials to remove the photo of Dr BR Ambedkar during the 73 Republic Day programme in Raichur. Jurisdictional police officials denied any such incident took place

Violence had broken out on the Jnanabharati Campus of Bangalore University after the city police resorted to hitting protesting student activists of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat (ABVP) with lathis (sticks). Jurisdictional police officials however have denied any such incident ever took place!

December 15, 2021, an incident at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), members of the right-wing student outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) allegedly attacked a study circle organized by students to discuss an essay by Friedrich Engels, a 19^th century German philosopher of repute. This an eye-witness account of the incident.

November 14, 2021 members of ABVP, most of them upper-caste men, disrupted a study circle that was going to be held in Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) office, Teflas at 9 p.m. by Hundred Flowers Group on Friedrich Engels’ essay, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. ABVP was quick to jump in to disrupt the academic exercise, with its divisive and violent politics. After forcibly occupying the office, restraining the members of the study circle, and disrupting the discussion, the members of ABVP attacked the students who wanted to attend the session and study. The office-bearers of ABVP along with the newly inducted members allegedly harassed women and assaulted many students present at the office. When some students attempted to take the injured ones to the hospital, the ABVP members forcibly intercepted the movement and assaulted the student who had fainted. The saga of atrocity didn’t stop here. From shouting caste and gender insensitive cuss words to disrupting democratic dialogue and arbitrarily inciting one-sided violence, these ABVP members damaged property, tore books and broke tambourines. Their sloganeering, which has been recorded, was filled with offensive statements, caste remarks and ridicule.

[[ On the next evening of November 15, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) took out a rally on Monday evening in protest the attack on students by alleged members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Sunday. Hundreds of students took part in the protest rally.  JNUSU had alleged that students belonging to ABVP heckled and attacked students who had booked the JNU union room for a reading session on Sunday, November 14. Several students sustained injuries during the attack.

In a statement posted on social media right before the attack started, Students’ Federation of India (SFI), JNU, said: “In a continuation of ABVP’s hooliganism on campus — the union room booked by an organisation to conduct a reading session has been occupied by them. The organisation has been campaigning for the conduct of this session for the past few days.”  The statement also added that ABVP goons were refusing to leave the room and were resorting to tactics of criminal intimidation. “SFI-JNU calls on all democratic students to reach the union office and protect campus democracy from ABVP’s lumpenism,” it said.]]

October 29, 2021, an obvious pattern emerges from the ABVP’s intimidation tactics when a similar major incident propagating hate against minorities, and which resulted in the violence against students from the minority communities took place (October 29, 2021). Then, the Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU, had announced a webinar on ‘Gendered Resistance & Fresh Challenges in Post 2019 Kashmir’. Without understanding the academic context in which the webinar was being organized, ABVP complained against the same and began its usual extremist narrativization. The webinar was cancelled followed by a Victory March organized by ABVP, which was filled with threats and warnings to the students. Abuse and hate were taken to the next level when ABVP members reportedly also verbally abused minority students.

January 16, 2020, Anti-CAA protest: ABVP members attacked us at Visva Bharati University, alleged SFI activists; The two students who were attacked had taken part in a protest BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta on January 8. The ABVP has, however, denied its involvement and said the activists are not a part of the organisation. Two students of Visva Bharati University were allegedly attacked by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists for supporting anti-CAA protest inside the campus. The two students belonging to the Students Federation of India (SFI) had taken part in a protest BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta on January 8. The ABVP has, however, denied its involvement and said the activists are not a member of the organisation.

The students from the Economics department – identified as Swapnaneel Mukhopadhyay and Phalguni Pan– have reportedly been admitted to Pearson Memorial Hospital. According to them, ABVP members Achintya Bagdi and Sabbir Ali beat them up with sticks when they were returning to their hostel and tried to attack them inside the hospital. They also alleged that the guards had to lock the hospital gates to prevent another assault.  On January 8, SFI members confined BJP MP Dasgupta, Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, and several others to a room for over seven hours to protest the university’s decision to invite Dasgupta to deliver a lecture on the new citizenship law.

January 5, 2020:   ABVP members barged into JNU hostels, attacked students with sticks, claims JNUSU. Students at Sabarmati Hostel, Mahi Mandvi Hostel, Periyar Hostel of the JNU were attacked on Sunday evening. The JNUSU has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). “The ABVP attackers, with covered faces, are trying to enter Periyar Hostel by climbing the pipes,” the JNUSU said on Twitter, adding, “ABVP members wearing masks were moving around on the campus with lathis, rods, and hammers”.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and a few faculty members reportedly helped the masked mob enter the campus to unleash a brutal attack on students and teachers of the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5. While the Delhi Police has portrayed the JNU violence case as a result of a clash between “Right” and “Left”, it was in fact an ABVP-led attack, assisted by some newly-recruited faculty members who sympathise with the saffron students’ group and the university administration helmed by vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar had then stated the JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union). At around 6 am, on January 5, 2020 a few masked guards were seen moving aggressively towards a group of protesting students who sat in front of the School of Biotechnology (SBT). Alarmed, students made many SOS calls to JNUSU office-bearers. When JNUSU president, Aishe Ghosh reached there at around 7 am, the masked guards allegedly slapped and assaulted her. He said a few ABVP students also joined the guards to beat up protesting students. It is after this incident, according to various students, that the protesting group switched off the main switch of the CIS server system which is near the SBT in protest.

The situation soon escalated after ABVP jumped in. ABVP leaders on campus mobilised their activists in front of the School of International Studies between 10 am to noon. Moon claimed that faculty members like Tapan Kumar Bihari, Ashwini Mohapatra, Jaikhlong Basumatary and Nagendra Srinivas came in support of the ABVP and led the group which assaulted many students, including many women, through the day. He also alleged that the said teachers repeatedly provoked the ABVP activists to beat up protesting students. JNUSU general secretary Satish Chandra Yadav was also attacked by this mob. On the same day, the ABVP mob gathered at various places of the university and assaulted many students without any provocation. It has been alleged that all this happened in the presence of the police personnel who were stationed in JNU since 23 December.

The JNUSU even named many ABVP members and a few faculty members who were seen participating in attacks on students. It also released videos which show them as part of the mob, demanding an inquiry against them. It also showed emails sent from JNU administration from the time when the registrar had claimed the servers were down. The JNUSU said that servers were functioning throughout and there was no grave damage to them because of the protesting students. To date, despite video and electronic footage revealing the aggressive activities of the ABVP-led mob, not only has no fair investigation taken place, but no one has been detained or arrested.

January 17, 2017:  Brutally carrying on its ‘campaign’ to free Delhi University’s campus of ‘anti-national’ elements, the supremacist Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad attacked other students protesting the violent way the RSS-linked organisation had disrupted a programme at Ramjas college the previois day. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) All India Students’ Association (AISA) had organized a march from Ramjas college to Maurice Nagar police station to protest the cancellation of a seminar in which JNU’s Umar Khalid was supposed to speak. The Hindustan Times had then that at least 100 police personnel in riot gear were brought in while the Hindu also reported   that the police resorted to lathi-charging to control the situation.

As dozens of thugs wielding lathis laid siege inside the college, students and teachers who were participating in the march to uphold the freedom of expression on campus were caught in the fray. According to a detailed NDTV report at the time, at least 20 people were injured, and some journalists were also caught in the clashes. While the ABVP denied attacking the students and teachers, Shehla Rashid, then Vice President, JNUSU, who was also invited to Ramjas for the seminar, has been quoted by NDTV as saying, “We were attacked, the cops did nothing. Our students were bleeding. They hurled bricks at us…They pulled the hair of women.”

October 15, 2016, Sinister disappearance of PHD student, Najeeb who had been pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). One evening -in October 2016 –after a minor altercation with the aggressive members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the very next day he went missing. Najeeb’s friends have suspected foul play and Fatima started demanding an explanation about what happened to her son. No action has been taken against the ABVP or its members.

March-April 2016: Criminalisation of Protests and Incarceration of Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar (this was repeated in 2018 and today, Khalid remains a serious target, being in jail for several months over the protests to the Citizenship Act 2019-NPR-NRC under the dreaded UAPA law.

January 17, 2016, the Institutional murder (suicide) of Student Icon, Rohith Vemula at the Hyderabad Central University led to sustained protests over the suspension of Appa Rao Podile, the vice chancellor. Every attempt was made to curtail and prevent the protests.

Immunity comes with State Power

All these listed incidents, and they are simply illustrative of the ABVP’s growing clout on India’s campuses, reveal how immunity from swift and fair action from law enforcement comes from the proximity of the outfit with state power. Be it Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, or the capital city of Delhi – policed by a force under the direct control of India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) this immunity flows from the ideology of the outfits in power.

Questioning, thinking probing young minds with the ability for independent and analytical thought are a threat to a regime that believes in policing free expression and stratifying and controlling state and society.

In all the instances here, and more which may not be listed here, the strategy is simple. After creating an atmosphere of intimidation and terror, ABVP members use violence accompanied by verbal abuse. They are rarely pulled up, no police action, never do they face prosecution. Opponents to their ideology are “warned” by ABVP men and women on the prowl to “leave the campus.” Bullying is common, the hooliganism includes use of ridicule, obscene gestures, sexist parlance and even threats of gendered violence, rape. Provocative and stigma-driven slogans against student voices from India’s minority communities has cornered and isolated them further. Yet, despite these organized attacks, student organisations have resisted.

India’s campuses, once safe, diverse, defiant, and vibrant are today sought to be converted into controlled military camp like outfits, policed and fearful. Despite crude and consistent political attacks however, vibrancy still prevails, and the battle is still, very much on.

Related:

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Madhya Pradesh: Home minister Narottam Mishra orders arrest of author, threatens to revoke PHD

Six Govt Law college teachers taken off duty after ABVP complaint: MP

The post ABVP’s strong arm tactics have received a soft touch from law enforcement & the Indian state: 2014-2022 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Hyderabad: Congress leader and former president, Rahul Gandhi was joined by the mother of Rohith Vemula, on November 1. Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student of the University of Hyderabad who died by suicide ( fellow students called it an ‘institutional murder’)  in 2016 following alleged harassment, in the Bharat Jodo Yatra here.

Radhika Vemula walked with Gandhi briefly during the morning leg of the Yatra.

“Extended solidarity to Bharat Jodo Yatra, walked with Rahul Gandhi, and called upon Congress to save Constitution from BJP-RSS assault, Justice for Rohith Vemula, passing Rohith Act, increasing representation of Dalits, oppressed sections in higher judiciary, education for all,” Radhika Vemula tweeted after the meeting.

The Congress from its official Twitter handle and several party leaders tweeted pictures of Radhika Vemula walking with Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The death of the 26-year-old Dalit student on January 17, 2016 has triggered a nationwide agitation against not just casteism in institutions of higher learning but specifically the Modi 1.0 regime as two ministers from the central government were alleged to have been directly involved in denial of legitimately acquired scholarships by students as also criminalising protests. 

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The post Rohith Vemula’s Mother Joins Rahul Gandhi, Extends Solidarity:Bharat Jodo Yatra appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Rohith Vemula’s mother kisses his forehead, then cheeks gently, and plants a final one on the tip of his nose. It is his fifth death anniversary, commemorated as Rohith Shahadat Divas, and Radhika Vemula showers her kisses on his larger than life bust of her son, installed at the university from where he would have earned his PhD, had he not fallen prey to the demon of caste discrimination.

Radhika Vemula is hailed as ‘amma’ or mother by the thousands of Dalit and Bahujan scholars, who continue to draw strength from her scholar son Rohith’s legacy. Rohith Vemula’s fifth death anniversary was a special one for the Vemula family, as his brother Raja Vemula, now an advocate brought along his law degree, laid it at the memorial, dedicating to Rohit. For the proud mother, this was a bittersweet moment. Rohith, a promising Dalit scholar had died by suicide at the University of Hyderabad campus, allegedly driven to it by extreme caste discrimination. His death had been called an “institutional murder”.

“I wait 364 days for this one day. We think about him all the time. Not a single day has gone by without remembering him,” said Radhika Vemula, her voice still soaked in the deep grief of losing her son, but her tears held back as she dedicated her younger son Raja to seek justice not just for Rohith, but for all those who suffer. 

In December, Radhika Vemula had announced that her younger son Raja was now a lawyer, and a month later, the young man, came to place his degree at his brother’s memorial.  
 

Raja Vemula, my younger son, is now an Advocate. After 5 yrs, It’s one of the major changes happened in our lives since Rohith Vemula. Adv. Raja Vemula will now work/fight for the people & their Rights in the Court of Law and it’s my “Pay Back to Society”. Bless him.

Jai Bhim ?

— Radhika Vemula (@vemula_radhika) December 18, 2020

According to Radhika, encouraging Raja to become a lawyer is her “pay back to society” and now he will fight for all the disadvantaged people in the court of law, and teach them about their legal rights. She said she was inspired to make him a lawyer after she met Fatima Nafees the mother of Nazeeb Ahmed a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Delhi who is reported missing under “mysterious circumstances” since 2016. He simply ‘disappeared’, after an attack in JNU allegedly by members of the BJP’s student wing the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that year. Fatima has been fighting for information about her son since.

Radhika said, “Our demands for justice have remained unheard. We do not know enough about laws and courts, so I wanted Raja to become a lawyer. He will  fight against injustice and for the rights of people now with legal knowledge.”  

As her fight for justice continues, even five years after Rohith’s death, Radhika has had to face even more of caste based discrimnation and villification has constantly been challenged to prove that she does belong to a Dalit caste. Rohith, was one of the five Ph.D students who had been expelled and had been protesting the discriminatory attitude of the university authorities, sleeping out in the open since the night of January 4, 2016, a spot dubbed “Velliwada” for that is where Dalit students were forced to sleep. On January 17, a Sunday, he died by suicide. He was just 28-years-old, and was in his second year as a Ph.D scholar.

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions this year the memorial meeting organised by the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) was a virtual one on Sunday January 17. The hashtags however were impactful:  #FiveYearsOfDeniedJustice #NeverForgetNeverForgive.

After she visited the memorial of her son earlier in the day Radhika Vemula, joined her son’s admirers including activists, scholars and lawyers online, and recalled the impact he has had on their lives and on the Dalit rights movement.

According to Dr. D Ravikumar, Member of Parliament from Villupuram, Rohith Vemula has become “a symbol for Dalit students,” and an inspiration for demorcratic forces of the country. Ravikumar called Vemula’s death an “institutionalised murder” and said he would continue to fight in Parliament for a Rohith Act, a legislation against caste based discrimination in academic institutions, just as the death of Delhi’s ‘Nirbhaya’ had also created a national outrage, leading to a commission being apppointed and eventually the Nirbhaya Act being enacted.

However he said both the state and central government have so far “ignored the death of Rohith Vemula, they did not even appoint a comission, but we have to fight for the rights of Dalit students.” As an MP Ravikumar recalled that he has often raised the issue of scholarships for higher education, and that of discrimination in educational institutions in Parliament. He spoke about the need to bridge the skewed Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and bring  more Dalit students, and those from the marginalised communities into higher educion. However, he warned that the new National Educatio Policy (NEP) was also targetting Dalit students, in various ways, creating an environment that will result in higher drop out rates. “We have to create institutions not only to remember, pay tributes, but to take up the cause which Rohith and others laid down their lives for: ending discrimination in education,” he said, asking the civil society to “come together to create a forum to help research scholars. For Dalits involved in research, especially in the sciences it is difficult, the Union govt has put many obstacles. Without outside support Dalit PhD scholars cannot complete their studies. You have to support them from outside institutions also … start a journal in every language to support scholars” he added, that there was a need to create a forum to support scholars, economically support scholars from marginalised communities. “Even in Rohith’s case, the university denied him a stipend, he used it to support his family too… Dalit scholars do that… financial help is very essential” he stated.

Joining the online memorial from Maharashtra, Disha Pinky Shaikh, Spokesperson of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi said that many activists like her came to know of Rohith’s struggles only after his death. However, they began to live his legacy and his activism in their own lives. “We see the mother of the Ambedkarite movement in Radhika amma. She is taking his fight ahead… today thousands of Rohiths are fighting for equality, Ambedkarite rights in schools and colleges” said Shaikh. She added that the  legacy of Rohith Vemula is alive and he remains at the centre of the students movements, and added  all Ambedkar rights workers will keep him alive even though “the Manuwadi government is trying to end it, we have to keep an eye on it… be aware that education is taking a backseat in all the mandir masjid issues. Education is being hindered, Ph.D scholars are not being enrolled. Rohith always fought or that… became its face, and even ended his life for it. His death was the start of a new fight. So many of us began to live Babasaheb’s legacy then.” According to Shaikh, now in every college Rohith Vemula is a symbol of struggle and revolution, and as a gender rights activist she too drew strength from him to fight “right wing groups who are trying to end democracy.”

According to Shaikh the Lefist wing is also to be critiqued as it has “kept the youth engaged with foreign revolutionaries like Marx” and appealed to the youth to learn about Ambedkar as well, “Do not go left or right.. Babasheb gave us the rights in the Constitution”.

Academic Prof. Sowmya Dechamma, Centre for Comparative Literature read a dedication to Rohith from the works of Carl Segan to illustrate the juxtaposition of scientific thought with social awareness, “Rohith was a science student who took social religious issues head on.  We cannot retire until we achieve justice.” 

Advocate Bhimrao who has been on the forefront of seeking justice for Rohith said the fight began even before he died, “We started filing legal cases when the expulsions were first ordered. Since then, I notice that even after the sacrifice of Rohith, the university has not changed its attitude in dealing with students, especially those from the downtrodden communities,” he said adding that several students have been harassed by various inquiry committees. However, out of those facing the accusation of killing Rohith, several accused have obtained orders that stay arrest. Only the vice chancellor has not got this order, but he continues in his post, has not been taken into custody,” said Bhimrao.

He added that even after many witnesses have been examined and spoke confirming the caste status of Radhika Vemula, no order has been passed yet. “Instead she has been served another notice issued in Guntur asking Raja and Radhika to prove their caste status. This is harassment of the revenue authorities,” he added.

Related:

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A letter that should shake our world: Dalit scholar suicide triggers outrage

Rising Dalit voices against CAA

Rohith Vemula March: The Caste Turn for Student Delhites?

The post Rohith Vemula’s ‘institutional murder’: Five years on, family and friends still wait for justice appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Rohith (right) carrying a poster of Ambedkar along with other belongings, after his suspension

Rohith Vemula will live on

Anguished and shocked at Rohith’s death, expelled students vow to continue the protest with support of others

Nationwide protests will take place following the suicide by Vemula Rohith, a Dalit student at the university of Hyderabad (UoH) on the evening of Sunday, January 17. The first protest, spontaneous and angry, took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) late night, about 9.30 p.m. on Sunday January 17, 2016 itself. Vemula Rohith left a poignant suicide note before he took his life by hanging himself in the room of a colleague-friend in Hyderabad.

The next protest will take place outside the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and its minister, Smriti Irani at 2 p.m. on Monday January 18. Irani had, according to protesting students and a letter written by a ruling party Member of Parliament (MP)—see https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/we-shall-not-be-silenced-protest-against-expulsion-dalit-research-scholars — obviously interfered in the matter of unlawful suspension of five PHD students and in protecting the student saffron wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The students belonging to the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) of which Rohith Vemula was an active part, had been furthering a debate on issues related to social justice, including communalism, ensuring that they get effectively flagged on the campus. Irani’s alleged interference can be traced to a letter written by none less than Bandaru Dattatreya , Secunderabad BJP MP and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, to the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) dubbing ASA “casteist, extremist and anti-national”. The communication demanded that the “dynamic leadership” of Smriti Irani, Minister of Human Resources and Development, bring about a “change for the better” in the institution. The ‘change for the better’ in ideological terms (for the Sangh Parivar) meant overruling an earlier decision of former Vice Chancellor of the University RB Sharna who revoked an earlier suspension of the same students after the decision was found to be not in accordance with the decision taken by the Proctorial Board of the UoH (August-September 2015). Sharma soon retired after which the newly appointed and more politically compliant, Appa Rao ‘fell in line’ with Dattarayera’s communication and Irani’s interventions.

Anguished at the loss of life of one of their own, one of the five PHD students unlawfully suspended, students from the ASA and other students organizations including the Students Federation of India (SFI) told Sabrangindia that though deeply disturbed there is a steely determination among the students that the late night, sleep out protest will continue.

Vemula Rohith, was one of the five PHD students who had been expelled had been successfully protesting the high-handedness of the authorities, sleeping out in the open since the night of January 4, 2016, when the doors to their rooms were illegally locked though they had been quietly studying in their rooms following the suspension. Sabrangindia had carried a story on the protest on January 12. His colleagues were in a day-long meeting and it appears that Rohith Vemula hanged himself in another room of his friend-colleague on Sunday evening. The 28-year-old, hailing from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, was a Ph.D second year student. His letter tells a poignant tale
 

“Good morning, 
 I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. 

I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then 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. 
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 star dust. 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. 

May be 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. 

If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that. 
 Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive. 

 “From shadows to the stars.” 

 Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing. 
 
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future. 

For one last time, Jai Bheem 

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. 

Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone. “

A Hindi translation of the note left by Rohith Vemula can be seen here
 
It is a battle for freedom of expression. The Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) decided to screen Muzaffarnagar Baqi Hai on campus last year (2015). The ABVP tried, unsuccessfully, to disrupt the screening. The saffron outfit began abusing students affiliated to the ASA on facebook and social media. Widespread protests by all students at this hate-mongering forced the student to submit a written apology. However, local BJP and RSS supporters joined with ABVP to force the VC to expel the ASA leaders on fabricated charges, although, a committee appointed by the VC had already given a favourable report finding no fault in the ASA or the students affiliated to it.

The persuasion in this communication appears to have worked. The Vice Chancellor buckled under pressure and without looking into the background of the case or even hearing the students, expelled them.

This expulsion from the hostel of five Dalit student leaders of the Ambedkar Students Association(ASA) at the Hyderabad Central University is illustrative of the manner in which politico-ideological considerations and governmental authority are being abused with impunity to suppress all points of view other than the self professed ‘nationalism’ of the Hindutva  brigade. Another reason for the expulsion was the claim that they had opposed the death sentence to Yakub Memon!

Several students groups from the university have also launched a legal battle. They have challenged the University of Hyderabad (UoH)’s decision to expel five Dalit scholars for allegedly attacking a student and a member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).  Seeking justice, the suspended students, on December 18, filed a writ petition in the Hyderabad High Court. This development has come in the wake of university issuing orders, banning the Dalit scholars from hostels, barring their entry into common places in groups, administration building and disallowing their participation in students union elections as a punishment.

The unique sleep out research protest of the research scholars is backed by 10 student outfits on campus. Student supporters have been gathering singing slogans and participating in the seep out protests. All of us all over India most now organise protests and sleep out protests against the highhanded intolerance and authoritarianism of the present government.  The death of Rohith Vemula must not go in vain. 

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