Rohith Vemula’s memory lives on, but promise of casteism-free campuses forgotten
Subhajit Naskar | 30 January 2024 | The News Minute
Rohith Vemula would be celebrating his 35th birthday today had he been truly cared for, loved and treated well by the caste-privileged rulers of Indian academia. He was desperate to start a life without pain and emptiness but eight years ago in this month, Rohith was institutionally murdered. In the letter he left behind, which has come to be known as ‘from shadows to stars’ he lamented that the spectre of caste has reduced Dalits to their ‘immediate identity and nearest possibility’.
His death triggered one of independent India’s biggest Dalit uprisings but the big question remains whether his quest for an egalitarian campus has been achieved.…