Inclusive Campuses in an Exclusive Society: Reality or Utopia?

A hall meeting conducted to press for stopping caste discrimination on Indian universities and other campuses, under the demand “Stop Caste Discrimination On Campuses. Implement Thorat Committee Report”.

Muthukrishnan Jeevanantham, aka Rajini Krish, a M.Phil. student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, was barely 27 years old when he allegedly committed suicide on Mar 14, 2017. Krish was from the marginalized and oppressed sections of Indian society.

Suicides can happen for many personal reasons. All suicides are unfortunate and disturbing. But suicides of students like Krish [or of Rohit Vemula] are beyond the ordinary. Krish had voiced his concerns about discrimination on the JNU campus and had written ‘When Equality is denied, everything is denied.’ There is a long tradition of caste discrimination on Indian campuses, right from primary school level. Stories of violent discrimination abound.

Of late, discrimination in higher education institutions has gone almost viral. It is like a brutal, organized ragging (or hazing), perpetrated by the very management of these institutions. Last year, on January 17, 2016 Rohit Vemula was driven to suicide at the University of Hyderabad. He was the sixth such victim, since 2008, in that one institution alone. Such is the severity of discrimination on campuses that government of India was forced to set up a high level committee in 2007, to look into the matter.

Unfortunately, nothing has improved. In fact discrimination is on the rise with institutions and government remaining blatantly insensitive.

These ordinary looking suicides are nothing but institutional murders; murders to suppress the quest for Equality, quest for share in power and quest for status and dignity! We cannot remain mute spectators to such suppression of our brethren.

We must raise our voices to register our protests collectively. Against this back-drop we are organizing a hall meeting and public discussion of the people of California to express solidarity with the students and academicians who are fighting against such practices in their respective educational institutions.

Speakers

• Mr. Harishchandra Sukhdeve — Whither Thorat Committee Report?
• Dr. Rajunayak Vislavath, University of Berkeley, California — The Politics of Difference in the Higher Education of India
• Mr. Aditya Chatterjee, Berkeley Law School — The Legality and Justice Dichotomy
• Mr. Bhaskar Krishnamsetty, SAHA — Caste is Unscientific hence Annihilate It
• BAPSA Member from JNU — Student movement for accountability and Justice in Education from Rohith to Delta

An educated man without character and humility was more dangerous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the welfare of poor, he was a curse to society.

— Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Framing questions

These questions are a later editorial summary. They do not appear on the original flyer, which is why the meeting’s own argument is set out above them.

• Why and how are caste and gender violence continuously present in Indian society?
• How are atrocities against marginalized communities enabled, and why do they go unpunished?
• How are the same caste-based practices followed in the United States?
• What is the role of U.S. organizations and individuals in ending the practice of caste?
• How can we fight against caste-based discrimination and build a strong and inclusive community?