Rohit Vemula, a Ph.D. scholar at the University of Hyderabad committed suicide on 17
January 2016 due to facing continuous caste discrimination from faculty and administration. He
was denied his monthly stipend of 25,000 INR under suspicion of his work on campus as a
member of the Ambedkar Student Association. The administration blamed the delay of payment
on other logistical issues. After his suspension in December, Rohit left a message for the world
and hung himself. In his final letter, he talks about his experience as a person from SC
background and his desire for not wanting to be treated as just that. He wrote, "Never was a man
treated as a mind." His caste identity tagged him from the moment he stepped onto campus, and
although this case is not that of an IIT student, it reflects countless sentiments of many students
from across the country. The violence originated in the form of denial: of denial of stipend,
denial of education, and lastly, denial of equality. The death of Rohit has echoed in the minds of
parents, students, and general media as it sparked controversy over the issue of caste based
discrimination. Rohit Vemulas's case and others also reflect the acute violence one faces in the
form of castlessness. Being termed as an outcast due to being a reservation kid to alleged claims
against him in the form of a suspension, the voyage of being a Dalit lies in their hypervisibility
by the upper caste and denial of merit by the administration.
History recounts the power that upper caste people have held across decades, but
castlessness is attributed to the modern invisibility that it offers those in the general category. Its
notion is derived from the belief that those who get into IITs without reservation do not have to
use their caste identity to request for accommodations, thereby terming them casteless.
Castelessness provides brahmins with a perspective that their standing is one of merit, as they
had no use for reservations. It is often never thought that reservations are placed for those who
historically have not had access to resources, coaching centers, books, or even quality education.
When placed in the context of those from the lower castes, the caste problem offers itself in the
form of hypervisibility. If students get into an IIT through reservations, they are looked at and
treated as though their caste identity is what gave them accommodation for their lack of merit.
Ambedkar's ideal, when fighting for reservations, was a protest for affirmative action to achieve
an equitable and leveled field where a first-generation Dalit college-goer who dares to go into
such an elite institution does not have to be compromised of an education simply because of the
historical violence and denial of opportunities that has occurred towards them.
There is an occurrence of suicides in premier institutions across the country that happen
due to poor mental health support systems. This is an entirely different topic that has been
discussed by many news outlets, but attributing the exact cause to suicides that have occurred
due to caste discrimination denies the backward caste students to claim cognition of their plight,
even after death. Multiple scholars now address these suicides as institutional murders, and any
semblance of reform in these elite institutions is likely to come when the issue is appropriately
worded, and the perpetrators accused.
In the case of Rohith Vemula, he was named an OBC in official reports so that
administrators could escape facing the SC/ST atrocities act. In denial of all forms, IITs display
an extraordinary performance of caste discrimination in the form of invisible torture. IITs, even
amongst other central government institutions, reflect the epitome of meritocracy, an undying
dream not plagued by corruption. They are distinguished from other central government backed
institutions by their ability to offer hopeful dreams in an elite field of science and engineering.
This dream is often understood by many as an opportunity to escape life and its discrimination.
Due to their central government backing, IITs lead all abetters of this institutional murder free,
and all perpetrators do not just walk free but continue to uphold insensitive systems that allow
for both covert and overt forms of caste-based discrimination. Education is the only system that
allows Dalits to achieve equal footing in life. By denying education, the IITs infringe on their
right to life, therefore acting as abettors of this contemporary violence.
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