Rohith Vemula, Kanhaiya and Umar Khaled

I first heard of the Rohith suicide on the HCU campus, from a friend whose lecture that day was cancelled on account of the suicide, exactly one month back.

A normal first reaction...that of a distant onlooker......yet another student suicide...so sad

And then I read his suicide note, and you see what a fine and courageous mind that was, and how yet, it has fallen victim to the still prevalent caste bias that has such a vicious hold in our system....more so in educational institutions where power vests with those in control. It's subtle yet venomous in its grip.

Rohith's suicide note

Our system seems to have consciously ensured a lack of general awareness on the issue. We don't learn about it at any level, not school, not college, not anywhere. So the ones who struggle it and suffer it are the only ones who know, and they get not even empathy or understanding from their peers....maybe just some perfunctory sympathy when someone like Rohith commits suicide. And worse, random opinions which come from a space of ignorance and bias. And we're talking of a significant forty percent of the country. It reeks of a complete failure of a social system.

It wasn't until this incident made me read more, that I got to know even the little I do now. That the 'dalits' (where did this term come from? how racist is it?) are not even a part of the Varna system, which otherwise categorizes the whole of the county's populace. Shows how deep the ignorance is. Who gives anyone rights to decide who belongs where? Who gave Gandhi (with all due respect otherwise) a right to coin a term which puts varied and diverse communities into this one bucket of Harijans. It's racism and casteism of the worst kind. Give identity and give pity,  and then you feel you've done good. Where is fairness and equality?

For anyone who has read the Gita, it's clear that the Varna system was not even based on birth, but that's of course conveniently buried even by the most learned.

Guess, I'd only get more emotional if I write, and that serves no purpose. It's best to listen to our second hero ( a true hero) Kanhaiya, a student from Bihar,  from a family that has lived on an income of three thousand rupees, and now President of the DSU at JNU. His clarity of thought and articulation of issues are of a rare intelligence.

And what happens? He gets jailed for sedition.

Kanhaiya's speech

And there's now a witch hunt on for his friend Umar Khaled..... a hunt for a scapegoat. What are the grounds? That he's a muslim and a supporter of the cause for Kashmir and a terrorist, and that he has travelled to Kashmir and Pakistan and Bangladesh in recent past, when it is now found that he does not even possess a passport. Again, zero evidence of charges, but his life is now under threat.

Swara Bhaskar, a JNU alumus has written an open letter to Umar Khaled. I loved her letter for reasons beyond courage and articulation.....in the letter is an openness and honesty of process...of her shift from an attitude of disdain and irritation at activism and student politics, to one of belief and love, which could speak for a lot of us.

Swara Bhaskar's letter

All the happenings of the month, her letter, speeches of students and professors at JNU,  the objective and thought out articles in newspapers, bring with them a feeling of hope......of hope that there are voices out there who have the courage to raise up, and how, what started as a university issue, a tremor in a corner, has now risen to this beautiful loud rumble, and I pray it keeps the momentum.

And this if nothing else has clearly indicated that Modi is still the Modi behind the Godhra massacre. He is yet silent in the face of this whole issue, and it makes you wonder what we've elected into power. Barkha Dutt has written an open letter to Modi, raising some pertinent questions.

Barkha Dutt's letter to Modi

When Amir Khan recently mentioned that he feels his son may not be safe in this country, there was so much self righteous noise. Now you understand he has every reason to have felt what he did. Look at all the false aspersions ...... sedition, anti nationalism, terrorism.....not just on no evidence, but on doctored evidence.

I honestly haven't heard a more powerful, meaningful, and nationalist speech than Kanhaiya's in a long while, and he's arrested for anti-nationalism. 'Bunyadi sawaal' as he said... so true, his questions are so fundamental. We need those answers.

Keeping fingers crossed that this brings out many more Rohiths, Kanhaiyas and Umar Khaleds