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Rohith Chakravarti Vemula (Telugu: రోహిత్ చక్రవర్తి వేముల)(30 January 1989 – 18 January 2016) was a PhD student at the Hyderabad Central University. 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". 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. His suicide occurred after he along with his ASA(Ambedkar Student Association ) students protested against the hanging of terrorist Yakub Memon after the verdict given by Honarable Supreme Court of India .. Rohith's suicide has been an "institutional murder" by many including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, Kavita Krishan of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Dalit author and activist Meena Kandasamy.

Background and Death

The Indian Express 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”.

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."

A police case was lodged in context to his suicide and included the name of Bandaru Dattatreya, Baratiya Janata Party's MP from Secunderabad and Indian government's Minister of Labour and Employment.

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.

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.

The poet Ashok Vajpeyi 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.

References

1. Saubhadra, Chatterji (20 January 2016). "Official certificate scotches doubts over Rohith's Dalit identity". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
2. "Outrage over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula suicide - The Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
3. "Full text: Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide note - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
4. "Behind Rohit Vemula's suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door". The Indian Express. https://plus.google.com/+indianexpress. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2016-01-20. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
5. "Sitaram Yechury dubs Rohit Vemula's suicide as 'institutional murder'". newswala.com. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
6. "Dalit Student's Suicide: What we know about Rohith Vemula's death | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. https://plus.google.com/104361763535834827695. Retrieved 2016-01-20. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
7. "'Vemula's Death an Institutional Murder'". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
8. "Behind Rohit Vemula's suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door". The Indian Express. https://plus.google.com/+indianexpress. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2016-01-20. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
9. "Full text: Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide note - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
10. "Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral". Deccan Chronicle. Jan 20, 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
11. Ghosh, Deepshikha (19 January 2016). "Huge Student Protests Against Rohith Vemula's Death: 10 Developments". Hyderabad: NDTV. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
12. Ramanathan, S. (Monday, January 18, 2016). "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". The News Minute. Retrieved 21-01-2016. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= and |date= (help); External link in |title= (help)
13. 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
14. "Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral". Deccan Chronicle. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
15. "Rohith Vemula suicide: Poet Ashok Vajpeyi returns his D Litt degree awarded by Hyderabad University : India, News - India Today". indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 2016-01-20.

• Suicides by hanging in India
• Dalit politics
• 2016 deaths