Revision as of 08:57, 26 January 2016

The suicide of research scholar Rohith Vemula in January 2016, and its politicisation; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, January 22, 2016

Caste tension on the campus

The Times of India, Jan 22 2016

Kingshuk Nag

Hyd univ itself a case study in caste politics

A little over two years ago, in December 2013, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was invited by the University of Hyderabad (UoH) to accept an honorary doctorate and deliver a talk on an esoteric subject: `Are Coffee Houses Important for Education?' But protesting students -mainly Dalits -would just not allow Sen to talk on this subject. Holding placards and armed with black bands, the students declared that the Nobel laureate rather speak on discrimination against Dalits on university campuses even as cries of Jai Bheem' and `They want us to die' rent the auditorium. The protests came against the backdrop of suicides of two Dalits on the campus earlier that year -including one that had taken place three weeks before Sen's talk. Ultimately the protesters allowed the nonplussed Sen to speak but not before interrogating him why had he accepted the honorary doctorate from a vice-chancellor who resorted to “discrimination“ on the campus.

“What you saw that day was a Dalit reaction to decades of discrimination against them on the campus. Andhra Pradesh's has been a highly feudal society and I have been on this campus for 20 years and can assert that there is institutionalised caste discrimination,“ says a professor who hails from elsewhere.

Concurs a Dalit IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh: “I have studied in Jawaharlal Nehru University and although Dalits are on the receiving end everywhere it is nothing like the kind seen at UoH.“

Most of the Dalit students come from rural areas with little knowledge of English, which is the university's medium of instruction. “They find themselves somersaulted to a totally alien environment with nobody to help,“ says social activist Anant Maringanti. “Many higher caste profes sors instead of helping them openly chide them for being worthless,“ confides an OBC professor of the UoH.

Delays in disbursement of scholarships and fellowships is common on UoH campus and this affects Dalit students more as they come from poor backgrounds. Part of the scholarship money of a Dalit student is often sent to the family.

With growing Dalit consciousness, the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) was formed a few years ago. But to broadbase its support, ASA included all those who felt discri minated against, including pu pils from the northeast and Muslims. For one year the head of ASA was also a Brahmin student. Rohith Vemula star ted with SFI and shifted allegi ance to the ASA, which often took up larger issues beyond Dalit discrimination. Now the Dalit students have become very strident and a progressive professor remembers how a Dalit student when rebuked for poor research work walked out after unfairly calling him “you bloody Brahmin“.

Analysts say that this sort of conflict and disputes are bound to happen in campuses in a society in transition. But what has further complicated issues is the growing assertion by the ABVP on the campuses after a BJP government took charge in New Delhi.