For Whom the Bell Tolls

                                                                   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 17^thC 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.