Rohith Vemula did not anticipate that someone would carry forward the fight after his death. If it was notfor the expressive suicide note, his death would have been buried in the silence like many other Dalit deaths. If it was not for political opportunism, the case would have disappeared from political and media radar forever.
This aspiring scientific writer’s suicide note shocked the conscience of several people across the globe (this article is inspired from the discussions at an event “Rohith Vemula – A journey from the cradle to cremation” in New Jersey, USA on February 6). His suicidelit the caste discrimination awareness torch again. Opposition will continuously demand for an action against ABVP/BJP members to stay relevant in politics, but a rationale debate over the core issue is unlikely.
“All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident” – this two line excerpt from his suicide note summarizes the manmade calamity a.k.a caste discrimination. As it is widely shared on social media, “Caste, Religion and Nationality were not chosen by you, instead imposed on you at birth. And you live all your life defending them”.
By taking a cue from imposing the caste at birth, the patriarchal society is now engaged in a debate whether Rohith is a Dalit or not, as his father belongs to a non-Dalit caste. The fact-finding discussion conveniently ignored the fact that Rohith was raised as a Dalit (through his divorced Dalit mother) and was discriminated all through his childhood. If we reflect on the issue beyond political rhetoric, he was pushed to death by consciously designed calamities.
People always needed a mechanism to reinforce power in the society. It was caste back then, but class is now added to suit modern developments. We compartmentalized ourselves into caste system for centuries to accept hegemony. The only change we are able to bring is sub-compartmentalizing now with class.
We in a republic society for long believed that manual scavengers clean up human waste to purify their souls. We still believe in past life’s karma haunting us through the caste at birth, ignoring the good/bad conduct in the present life. Our caste practice is so influential that people renouncing Hinduism still carried this nuisance to their adopted religions in India.
Rohith did not become a star and not watching us from the skyafter his death. He is now burnt to ashes and what had done to him is irreversible. But, we could do something for our children who are looking upto usinnocently in this turbulent period. We should not let them go through this nuisance and form of power struggle in the society.
This is the least that we could do for next generations. New ideologies or isms are not becoming part of solutions, instead adding fire to existing problems. Apologists of (all) ideologies are confining themselves to silos and their defence on respective ideologies are increasingly becoming revengeful.
Moving close to any particular ideology should not mean moving away from humanity. We are lucky enough to be born as a better thinking animal just like 7 billion other humans.
We are jeopardizing our very own existence by ignoring the fact that we are born equal. There should be more and more healthy discussions and is the only way forward.Let birth not decide the future of any individual and lets not make birth a fatal accident.
Note:
Let's also acknowledge, it was not caste alone that consumed this bright scholar’s life. Ineffective student unions, irrelevant ideologies, shabby governance in universities andpolitical influence on campus also played a major role. The whole issue also exposed the deficiencies of student politics in campuses.Struck-off lines from his suicide noteexposed how student unions failed him.
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