Read Editorial with D2G Ep – LVI

In Read Editorial With D2G
January 20, 2016

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EPISODE – LVI
TOPIC: Death of a Dalit scholar
BLOG: The Hindu
WRITER: Editorial
GENRE: Editorial

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MEANINGS are given in BOLD and ITALIC

The suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, is yet another tragic testimony (If you say that one thing is testimony to another, you mean that it shows clearly that the second thing has a particular quality) to the feudal (Feudal means relating to the system or the time of feudalism – Feudalism was a system in which people were given land and protection by people of higher rank, and worked and fought for them in return) passions of caste that roil India’s institutions of higher education, which are known to harbour (If you harbour an emotion, thought, or secret, you have it in your mind over a long period of time) delusions of being meritocracies (A meritocracy is a society or social system in which people get status or rewards because of what they achieve, rather than because of their wealth or social status). Vemula was one of five Dalit students, all belonging to the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), who had been suspended by the administration. The ‘suspension’ order allowed them to continue their studies in the university but denied them entry to the hostels, administration building and other common places in groups. It is difficult to imagine a more blatant (You use blatant to describe something bad that is done in an open or very obvious way) exhibition of social boycott than such a punitive (Punitive actions are intended to punish people) measure, directed at a group of students from a socially disadvantaged community. That this comes from the governing elite of a central university makes it even more appalling (horrifying). The ostensible (alleged) reason for the suspension of Vemula and the four others was an alleged clash between students belonging to the ASA and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), an affiliate of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. An inquiry by the university culminated in the suspension order. It was against this punitive measure that they had been protesting. On Sunday, the young scholar decided to cut short both his protest and his life. His suicide note, which was posted on social media, states categorically that no one is responsible for his act, a statement that should not be taken at face value.

The police have registered cases against Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya, the University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor P. Appa Rao, and two ABVP activists on charges of abetment (to encourage) to suicide, and violation of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities (cruel Action)) Act. Activists say the circumstances leading to Vemula’s death were sparked by a letter from Mr. Dattatreya to Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, charging the ASA with being “extremist” and “anti-national”. Trying to make sense of a death by suicide is an onerous (If you describe a task as onerous, you dislike having to do it because you find it difficult or unpleasant), and frequently futile, exercise. But Vemula’s death demands it, not least because it is a national shaming. It brings the Indian state face to face with its utter failure in addressing the social evil of caste and casteist discrimination. The Thorat Committee, constituted some years ago to investigate differential treatment of SC/ST students in just one institution, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, had come out with a damning indictment of the way Dalit students were treated. Forced into ghettoes (A ghetto is a part of a city in which many poor people or many people of a particular race, religion, or nationality live separately from everyone else) in the hostel, discriminated against by teachers, denied access to sporting and cultural activities, SC/ST students in India’s premier educational institutions walk into an environment that’s virulently (Virulent feelings or actions are extremely bitter and hostile) hostile to them. Not surprisingly, according to one estimate, in the last four years 18 Dalit students chose to end their lives rather than continue to battle on in these dens of caste prejudice (Prejudice is an unreasonable dislike of a particular group of people or things, or a preference for one group of people or things over another) and social exclusion. The first step toward treating the rot of caste is to acknowledge it — after Vemula’s tragic death, it would be a crime not to.

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