For whom the Bell
Tolls
A Tamil proverb goes
like this: “Not only did the horse throw the rider down, it also dug his
grave”. The charges against Rohith Vemula
and Ambedkar Students’ union(ASA) prove the above Tamil adage right. Five
students including Rohith were suspended, evicted from the university hostel
and Rohith’s scholarship money was withheld even after they had been exonerated
by an inquiry committee set up against them on charges of assaulting the leader
of the ABVP students union. But in trying to defend the justness of the
punishment, the spokespersons of BJP, the parent body of the ABVP has called
the ASA anti national because it sought the abolition of capital punishment in
the wake of the hanging of Yakub Memon. What
is still more pathetic is to suspect Rohith’s ‘Dalit’ credentials to make out
that he was not only anti national but also a non dalit who faked his ‘dalit
’identity.
Rohith is gone. All the
charges and counter charges, tears and protests, commiseration and disreputable
comments cannot bring him back to life. He was the sole breadwinner of his
family and has left behind his mother, a widow to live the rest of her life in
unmitigated sadness and endure financial hardship. But for the media and the
opposition it is a god- sent newsy event that can be bled dry till the next
Breaking News happens. The Media will spend 24x7 for the next few days wearing
different hats as the omniscient investigator, the prosecutor, the pontificating judge like
Solomon, the wise and quiz all
the hapless party spokespersons on their channels with a hectoring voice that drips
with arrogance, un-civility, discourtesy
and impoliteness. As for the opposition parties, it has been waiting for such
events when it could shed tears(mostly crocodile) with the victim and heckle
the ruling party for their visceral hatred of the marginalized groups that go
by the name ‘dalits’. The ruling party in trying to defend itself from an
indefensible occurrence accuses the opposition of inflaming caste politics and failing
to take cognizance of the anti-nationalist rhetoric of the ASA. For all the distinguished daily commentators
on the visual media, it is an opportune moment to garner high visibility. It
does not matter if they are heard or believed. The media charade goes on endlessly-
only the issue changes every week if not in less than a week. Then all is
forgotten and the political truth that the public has collective amnesia (sparing
the politicians and the media of this cardinal sin of memory loss) provides them
a relief from the exercise of lung power.
Rohit’s suicide has
flagged a lot of questions that confront educationists, psychologists and last
but not the least politicians. His tragic self- perpetuated end is an
indictment of our society, its division along caste lines, its elected
governments’ policies that apparently genuflect to political correctness but in
reality kowtow to the upper caste and elites, its hypocrisy of handing out
caste reservations while preserving the archaic mindset of the privileged class
, its pathological fear and anxiety over
forced sharing of the welfare state with the underprivileged groups and its
callous indifference to the social,
economic and the psychological needs of the deprived class.
For the last seven
decades successive governments and politicians, irrespective of the clash of their
ideologies have paid lip service to the traditionally oppressed and backward
groups by holding caste based reservations as a means to uplift them. The
annual ritual of garlanding Ambedkar’s statue in the Parliament and outside and
the use of highfalutin lingo of empathy for the downtrodden reveal the
society’s hypocrisy of “bearing a stone in one hand and carrying a piece of
bread in the other”. While schools do not have caste based reservations but
have only EBC quota( thank God for this small mercy),institutes of higher education and in particular professional
education have adopted caste based reservations. It is a fact that students who
get admitted on the basis of special concessions are never asked to identify
their caste at any time during the years they are in college. During the four and a half decades I had
taught in Delhi University, I had no
occasion to seek the caste identity of any student and this is the case with
every faculty member. But these students huddle together as a group and sit
separately that classifies them as belonging to the reserved category. The
mainstream group ignores them and does not integrate them into their fold. They
remain where they are with increased inferiority complex, frustration and
suppressed anger that boils over at some point of time. It is time that our educational institutions
delete the SC, ST and OBC columns in the application forms and reservations are
only for the economically backward group –primarily for those who have been
traditionally disadvantaged by birth. This has to purely an administrative
matter and admission is given as per the EBC admission guidelines on production
of income certificates or Aadhar cards. The immediate reform is to replace caste
identity by economic identity that gives the student his identity as a citizen
of the nation.
But still this does not
resolve the issue as to how to ensure that these students do not remain
isolated and accepted by the rest of their fraternity. The institutions have a huge
responsibility to attend to the needs of
the EBC students. College life is different from school life. In schools,
uniforms are compulsory and to that extent the economic disparity is not
perceptible. The use of school buses by a large number of students irrespective
of the class they belong to also contributes to a certain degree of social
equality. But in colleges, it is a different story. The free use of wallets by
the moneyed students and the fashionable dress and accessories they flaunt do
hurt those who do not enjoy the luxury that money can buy. On top of it
communication and that too in English with a cultivated accent is the biggest
barrier for these quota students to cross over to the elite group. Though there
are schemes such as remedial classes in English, they remain on paper only. No
faculty mentor takes interest in these students to discover their strength and
help them to build on it. In American colleges and universities, crooners,
sportspersons, dancers are spotted for their talent and encouraged to realize their potential and not
all of them are expected to be good in studies. Many of the professional
players of Tennis, baseball, basketball and athletes are blacks who are
intergrated into mainstream through recognition and encouragement of their
talent. Unfortunately our higher educational
institutions have failed to nurture the innate
talent and aptitude of this group and
thereby reduced them to ciphers as they fail to cope with studies which remains
as the one and only yardstick to measure their worth.
Though Indian
Constitution has given the nation the status of a Socialist
Secular Democratic Republic to secure to all its citizens Justice, social, economic and
political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and
worship; Equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all
and Fraternity assuring the
dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation, this is
not in evidence as society is deeply divided where in the hierarchy of ranking,
the disadvantaged groups are still at the lowly bottom. Despite all the schemes
that remain on paper, there is no real effort to help the reserved category to
rise up and be on par with the rest. Rohith is one of the few exceptions who
had high academic credentials to be admitted as a researcher in the prestigious
Central University of Hyderabad. He understood the problems of ostracization
and humiliation of fellow students from the reserved category and it is no
wonder his empathy for his group earned him the ire and animosity of the well
heeled groups. His final letter in a well measured tone and civilized language
disproves the accusations leveled against him of indulging in violence and anti
national activities. The letter is not an indictment of the society but an
acknowledgement of his weariness and helplessness to transform it to an
egalitarian society. His suicide is a pointer that both dalits and non dalits
share the blame- the former for its caste prejudice and virulent antipathy towards
the marginalized poor, and the latter for its inability to overcome its caste
complex anchored in inferiority and frustration. Joseph Hatchett who hailed form a
working class to become the Florida Supreme Court jurist speaking about “The
Turn-around Generation” says that “the black yardstick
gives black people no obligation other than to demand justice and equity from
white people while the white yardstick requires
white people only to urge black people to be more self-reliant and take more
responsibility for their own problems”.
It is the duty and
responsibility of the university to engage psychological counselors to mentor
the students of the reserved category and instill in them self-confidence and
self assuredness. One of the top psychiatrists of UK says: “promise
yourself, no matter how difficult the
problem life throws
at you, that you
will try as hard
as you can to help
yourself. You acknowledge
that sometimes your
efforts to help yourself
may not result
in success, as often being properly rewarded
is not in your control”.
They have to be trained to develop positive self esteem and the institutions
should provide them a platform to showcase their talent and give them a sense
of belonging. The socio-psychological concept of self esteem is the key to
develop self assuredness.
Rohith’s suicide is not to be exploited for political gains and blame
game exercises. It is to be seen as a mind opener to make universities take
steps to remedy its indifference and callousness. Rohith’s farewell message
signals the end of the closing mind of India and is an attempt toherald the
opening of the Indian mind to bring
about Justice, Equality, Fraternity and Liberty as enshrined in our
Constitution.
The article is titled For whom the Bell Tolls- the book by Ernest Hemingway
who used the phrase of the 17thC English poet John Donne. In an expression from a sermon by John
Donne, the poet says that because we are
all part of mankind, any person's death is a loss to all of us: “Any man's
death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send
to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.”
If we do not understand Rohith’s
message, we can foresee for whom the bell tolls.
