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| {{notability|date=January 2016}} | |||
| {{Infobox person | |||
| | name = Rohith Vemula | |||
| | image = | |||
| | alt = | |||
| | caption = | |||
| | birth_name = Rohith Chakravarthi Vemula | |||
| | birth_date = {{Birth date|1989|1|30|df=yes}} | |||
| | birth_place = India | |||
| | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|1|18|1989|1|30|df=yes}} | |||
| | death_place = ], India | |||
| | death_cause = Suicide | |||
| | nationality = India | |||
| | other_names = | |||
| | education = | |||
| | known_for = | |||
| | family = | |||
| | occupation = | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Rohith Chakravarti Vemula''' (Telugu: రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల)(30 January 1989 – 18 January 2016)<ref>{{cite web|last1=Saubhadra|first1=Chatterji|title=Official certificate scotches doubts over Rohith’s Dalit identity|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/official-certificate-scotches-doubts-over-rohith-vemula-s-dalit-identity/story-6mppXAleTcXjSAyJfXK2VM.html|publisher=Hindustan Times|accessdate=20 January 2016|date=20 January 2016}}</ref> was a ] student at the ]. His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and backward classes in India in which elite educational institutions have been purportedly seen as an enduring vestige of caste-based discrimination against students belonging to "lower classes".<ref>{{Cite web|title = Outrage over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula suicide - The Times of India|url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Outrage-over-dalit-scholar-Rohith-Vemula-suicide/liveblog/50634069.cms|website = The Times of India|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref> According to his suicide note, he committed suicide in the room of one ''Umma Anna,'' in whose room he was staying after being expelled from the hostel by the authorities at the Hyderabad Central University on 18 January 2015<ref>{{Cite web|title = Full text: Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide note - Times of India|url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Full-text-Dalit-scholar-Rohith-Vemulas-suicide-note/articleshow/50634646.cms|website = The Times of India|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>. His suicide occurred after an extended controversy which spread over a few months, starting July 2015 when the University stopped paying him the fellowship of 25,000 Indian Rupees per month, which his friends alleged was due to his involvement with the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)<ref>{{Cite web|title = Behind Rohit Vemula’s suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door|url = http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/behind-dalit-student-suicide-how-his-university-campus-showed-him-the-door/|website = The Indian Express|publisher = https://plus.google.com/+indianexpress|date = 2016-01-19|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>. A university official denied the allegation, blaming the delay on “paperwork”<ref>{{Cite web|title = Behind Rohit Vemula’s suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door|url = http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/behind-dalit-student-suicide-how-his-university-campus-showed-him-the-door/|website = The Indian Express|publisher = https://plus.google.com/+indianexpress|date = 2016-01-19|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref> Rohith's suicide has been an "institutional murder" by many including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury<ref>{{Cite web|title = Sitaram Yechury dubs Rohit Vemula's suicide as 'institutional murder'|url = http://www.newswala.com/Hyderabad-News/Sitaram-Yechury-dubs-Rohit-Vemulas-suicide-as-institutional-murder-204572.html|website = newswala.com|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>, Kavita Krishan of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist),<ref>{{Cite web|title = Dalit Student's Suicide: What we know about Rohith Vemula's death {{!}} Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis|url = http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-dalit-student-s-suicide-all-we-know-about-rohith-vemula-s-death-2167428|website = dna|publisher = https://plus.google.com/104361763535834827695|access-date = 2016-01-20|language = en-US}}</ref> Dalit author and activist Meena Kandasamy<ref>{{Cite web|title = 'Vemula's Death an Institutional Murder'|url = http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/Vemulas-Death-an-Institutional-Murder/2016/01/19/article3233439.ece|website = The New Indian Express|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>. | |||
| '''Background and Death''' | |||
| ] notes the timeline of events which led to his suicide in the following fashion: | |||
| On August 5, the university set up an inquiry against Rohith and four other ASA members, two days after they allegedly assaulted ABVP leader N Susheel Kumar. On August 17, Dattatreya wrote to HRD Minister urging action and claiming that the “Hyderabad University… has in the recent past, become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”. After a series of flip-flops, the five were suspended in September. On December 17, the decision was upheld. On January 3, after the sanction was confirmed, the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a “relay hunger protest”<ref>{{Cite web|title = Behind Rohit Vemula’s suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door|url = http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/behind-dalit-student-suicide-how-his-university-campus-showed-him-the-door/|website = The Indian Express|publisher = https://plus.google.com/+indianexpress|date = 2016-01-19|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>. | |||
| In his suicide note, Vemula wrote: "''The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of stardust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.'' | |||
| ''I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this."''<ref>{{Cite web|title = Full text: Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide note - Times of India|url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Full-text-Dalit-scholar-Rohith-Vemulas-suicide-note/articleshow/50634646.cms|website = The Times of India|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref> | |||
| A police case was lodged in context to his suicide and included the name of ], ]'s MP from ] and Indian government's ]. <ref>{{cite news|title=Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral|url=http://deccanchronicle.com/current-affairs/200116/caste-of-rohith-kicks-off-storm-rohith-s-tiff-with-abvp-poster-goes-viral.html|accessdate=20 January 2016|publisher=Deccan Chronicle|date=Jan 20, 2016}}</ref><ref name="NDTV">{{cite news|last1=Ghosh|first1=Deepshikha|title=Huge Student Protests Against Rohith Vemula's Death: 10 Developments|url=http://www.ndtv.com/cheat-sheet/protests-outside-ministers-home-over-hyderabad-students-suicide-10-developments-1267405|accessdate=19 January 2016|publisher=]|date=19 January 2016|location=Hyderabad}}</ref> | |||
| Many writers and researchers have alleged that the death of Vemula is just a continuation of the long history of discrimination against Dalits which continues till today, even in institutions of higher learning.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/rohith-vemula-wasn%E2%80%99t-alone-it-not-easy-being-dalit-science-scholar-indian-universities-37838|title = Rohith Vemula wasn’t alone, it is not easy being a Dalit science scholar in Indian universities - See more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/rohith-vemula-wasn%E2%80%99t-alone-it-not-easy-being-dalit-science-scholar-indian-universities-37838#sthash.yOgR6tIR.dpuf|date = Monday, January 18, 2016|access-date = 21-01-2016|website = The News Minute|publisher = |last = Ramanathan|first = S.}}</ref> | |||
| Rohith Vemula belonged to Dalit (Scheduled Castes) community and was meritorious student. Confusion arose when one of Rohit's uncle gave a statement to the police that Rohit's father was from Vaddera caste.Self declared documents filed by Rohit's parents showing that they belonged to Vaddera community have also come to light.<ref>Merit, and not SC status, got Rohith Vemula into University of Hyderabad http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Merit-and-not-SC-status-got-Rohith-Vemula-into-University-of-Hyderabad/articleshow/50647174.cms</ref><ref name="DecChronical">{{cite news | url=http://deccanchronicle.com/current-affairs/200116/caste-of-rohith-kicks-off-storm-rohith-s-tiff-with-abvp-poster-goes-viral.html | title=Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral | date=20 January 2016 | agency=Deccan Chronicle | accessdate=21 January 2016}}</ref> | |||
| The poet ] returned his D.Litt degree awarded to him by the Hyderabad Central University in protest against the circumstances which led to the death of Vemula for which Vajpeyi holds the University culpable<ref>{{Cite web|title = Rohith Vemula suicide: Poet Ashok Vajpeyi returns his D Litt degree awarded by Hyderabad University : India, News - India Today|url = http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rohith-vemula-suicide-poet-ashok-vajpeyi-returns-his-d-litt-degree-awarded-by-hyderabad-university/1/574324.html|website = indiatoday.intoday.in|access-date = 2016-01-20}}</ref>. | |||
| ==References== | |||
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