When students from the Ambedkar Student Association (ASA) at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) had a skirmish with a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August 2015, little did they know that their lives would never be the same again.
Following allegations of assault by the ABVP leader, the events that unfolded – including letters to and from two Union Ministers – saw the suspension of five Dalit students from the varsity.
One of them, 26-year-old Rohith Vemula, would go on to pen a moving suicide note, before hanging himself in a hostel room, thereby sparking a massive Dalit youth movement across the country.
A year after his death, Dontha Prashanth, Seshaiah Chemudugunta, Pedapudi Vijay Kumar and Sunkanna Velpula, the four students who were suspended along with Rohith, speak about life after his death, and how things have changed for them over the past year.
The four said that despite being burdened with one failure after another, they were resolute in their demands for justice and equality.
While three of the students are still at the university completing their education, Sunkanna is working as a post-doctoral fellow in IIT Bombay.
Dontha Prashanth
I don't think we are any closer to justice than we were a year ago. The battle is longer and we have to fight it out.
Rohith was a spirited and committed Ambedkarite. He was always the one who would push you to take action. He always wanted to be present at the scene. He would write on every issue that was close to his heart, and he had no inhibitions about making his opinions public.
I miss those days of the struggle when we fought together, organising protests, speaking out, and always standing up for what we felt was right.
It has not been a smooth year for us. We have been fighting against big people – people heading ministries and institutions, who have complete government backing.
However, there are two sides to it. On one hand, 2016 witnessed a major awakening of Dalits. We came to the streets and fought for rights, despite countless accounts of backlash from the state and certain sections of the public.
On one hand, 2016 witnessed a major awakening of Dalits... on the other hand, we experienced injustice in its worst form, while battling harassment and discrimination.
The concern for individual rights has clearly grown among the youth, and they showed that they will fight their own battle.
On the other hand, we experienced injustice in its worst form, while battling harassment and discrimination. Even though the general public is with us, we had a tough time because we have taken on people in power, from the university administration to the government.
One thing has become clear to me as to how these things work out. Look at the machinery involved. A person gets instituted by the BJP. When his authority is questioned, he gets support from Union ministers to the Prime Minister. A case is filed against him, but still it makes no headway, clearly because there is pressure on the police.
In return, there are four or five cases slapped on the people who are fighting. They think that they can bring down our morale through this, but given the ultimate sacrifice that one has seen through Rohith, we will not stop fighting.
When people in remote villages can organise and fight against caste oppression, we, being in institutions of education have to speak up on the issue.
As far as justice is concerned, as Ambedkarites, we believe in constitutional methods. Those methods can only be implemented when people who believe in those same values, govern.
With the institution led by casteist individuals and the country being headed by a person like Narendra Modi, there is not much hope. There is also constant state repression.
Despite all this, we won't step back from our fight and will continue our struggle for justice.
Seshaiah Chemudugunta
Not much has changed over the past year. The one good takeaway is that the Ambedkar movement has spread across the nation following Rohith's death.
I miss Rohith’s intellectualism the most, especially his writings. I loved the things that he wrote and the way he criticised several things from the caste system to certain ideologies in society.
On a personal level, I miss the days when we all used to gather together in a room to eat beef, mutton and chicken biryani. We used to do it at least two or three times a week. After his death, those meals are not the same anymore.
I have no hopes of justice presently, especially from an administration that considers his killer a ‘science genius’, and awards him for it.
The legal system also seems to be failing us. The police are stalling the case citing one reason or another, while it appears to be a clear case of pressure from the top.
Rohith became a symbol of discrimination, but the root cause is far from solved
There are still many people like Rohith, who are fighting the system and fighting injustice; Our fight is not over until that issue is addressed.
Sunkanna Velpula
When Rohith died, a mother lost her son and we lost a true friend and a real Ambedkarite.
The Dalit community needed a face like Rohith’s. His death brought about one of the biggest Dalit movements in the country since Independence.
However, I’m personally disheartened because nothing happened. We could not even shake the government. The entire system, whether it is the law, the police or the state, I realised that we can’t even scratch the surface.
There have been many incidents of injustice to Dalits in the past. Justice is denied in most of these cases. We are suffering the same fate. We put a lot of effort, and put everything aside in the fight for justice, but there has been no change.
There is only one reason for this, and that's because caste is political. The BJP and other parties only see a voter base whenever they talk about Dalits or take sides. There can be no real change for as long as parties continue to perceive minorities only as voters.
However, we will continue our struggle and continue to fight. We have no other option but to fight.
Pedapudi Vijay Kumar
What I miss the most about Rohith is his ideology and his enthusiasm for everything. The Dalit society needs people like him today.
Rohith inspired us, and the things he stood for have become the cause that brought us all together.
I only wish that Rohith was with us today, to fight with us by our side; but he has left us and gone away. I don’t see even an inkling of hope that we will get justice. The Centre is not ready to punish anyone involved in the case. Instead, it goes one step further to actually award the accused. It is an act that disrespects the Constitution of this country.
There is only one message that such an act gives out. It is that the ruling government is not going to hear your voice and just wants dissenters to shut up.
I don't have any faith in our judiciary and the police, because the state government is also not taking any further action. The case hasn’t even come up for hearing in the high court.
However, we are fighting with hope. Our goal is to take the movement further so it reaches the minds of the people and finally the government. That is when things will really change.
(This story has been published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
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