Dalit voices from Delhi University on how they battle caste everyday

Manoj Kumar is used to being subjected to taunts and jibes for getting through the Delhi University under the reserved quota and yet he has always treated the university as his second home. For the past few years, Manoj has steadily worked his way towards a doctorate degree in Hindi. For a Dalit scholar like him nothing is ever smooth.

Rohith Vemula's suicide galvanised students, both Dalit and non-Dalit to shed their inhibitions and reticence and raise their voice in protest at Delhi University's North Campus on the chilly afternoon of January 21. "My point is that Rohith Vemula was murdered with meticulous planning and I urge the intelligence agencies to probe this angle as well. Rohith was quite fearless and aggressive. His last letter is riddled with contradictions and comes across as quite contrary to his nature", said Manoj as he discussed the issue with other members of the Youth for Social Justice (a Delhi University students' body). Manoj feels that he was lucky to have worked for his doctorate degree under a well known Dalit writer and professor, and therefore got his degree last year in a relatively good time.

"Students who belong to the SC/ST category face a lot of institutional discrimination like delay in processing applications for research fellowships with applications forms often missing from files. When you make repeated enquiries, clerks in the administrative section of the university taunt or make silly excuses. If you have a research guide who is sensitive to issues that a Dalit student faces, he or she leans in to help you otherwise your thesis will not be cleared for years, your viva will be delayed and you might run out of scholarship money. What do you do when your career is at stake and you have no means of earning your livelihood?" Manoj asks worriedly.

His wife, a senior research fellow at the university, ran from pillar to post to get her application form processed as the administrative department misplaced the form several times and her scholarship money was help up for months together.

This is what most Dalit scholars face at the university from certain teachers who dismiss them, fellow students who don't include them in their group discussions or activities to administration staff who deliberately delay applications and disbursement of grants.

Manoj feels that Dalit students are weak and therefore are easy targets. They don't want to stand out like a sore thumb by dissenting and therefore incur the ire of teachers who might fail them repeatedly and have the power to destroy their careers. Therefore many Dalit students like to blend in with the rest of the crowd. In an age where technology should bridge the gap between people, Manoj wonders why a certain section of the people who are citizens of the country should feel unwanted, shut out, discriminated and made to feel inferior.

Sheoraj Singh Bechain is a professor of Hindi at Delhi University and is well aware of the biases and prejudices that Dalit students encounter at every step of their education-be it in school, college or university. "Tum log toh sarkar ke damaad ho" (You people are the sons-in-law of the government)- remarks like this would be regularly thrown at Sheoraj when he was in the college and in the university broadly hinting at the reservations for SC/ST candidates. "Nothing has changed for Dalit children wherever they study. It's a common misconception that a student who is availing higher education through reserved seats can afford not to do well in studies and therefore he or she deserves to be failed in exams, given poor scores and generally vilified.

Everyone in an educational institution is somehow blind to the repercussions of constant bullying and harassment meted out to Dalit children", said Sheoraj whose struggles to rise above grinding poverty and indignity as an "untouchable" has been put in graphic details in his autobiography titled Mere Bachpan Mere Kandho Pe.

A prolific writer on Dalit issues, his frank and fear less opinions have provided succour to a number of students who flock to him for help.

Sheoraj feels that if the widening hiatus between Dalit and non-Dalits are to be bridged then Dalit literature should be included at every level of education so that there is more understanding of issues of the marginalised people of this country. He also points to the fact that seats reserved in educational institution for SC/ST candidates rarely get filled which only makes those few who gain admissions through such reservations feel insecure as they are a minority and have no voice and no bargaining power.

"Dalit literature is based on Ambedkar's thoughts and principles and Dalit icons such as Ravidas and Kabir's philosophies that believe in the eradication of untouchability . Physical untouchability to a large extent has ceased to exist in urban areas as people are aware of the law against it but it has not been removed from the hearts and minds of people. There are efforts to make Dalits feel unwelcome and their right to free speech and work towards achieving equal status and social justice are being forcefully stalled.  Look at what happened to Tamil author Perumal Murugan?  Who is creating this environment of fear and insecurity amongst the Dalits? Why is Dalit literature not included in school, college and university textbooks? Why qualified Dalits are not appointed as vice-chancellors of universities, why do they not find place in Sahitya Academy or the censor board or as senior fellows in eminent research centres?" asks Sheoraj.

According to him, with Rohith Vemula's suicide and the murder of every Dalit citizen of this country, Ambedkar's dream of emancipation of Dalits suffers a major setback. Let "Achhe-din" not be mere words but can be the beginning of positive changes in the environment of India's universities. Caste domination should be transformed into caste-representation. To make education expensive, rare and unavailable is also a form of violence. He feels that in the year of Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary, the government should do more than pay lip service to his ideals and stop the violence against the Dalits.

"The present environment of hatred and distrust reminds me of a popular saying 'Daliton pe sitam aur baba pe karam (on one hand, torture the Dalits and on the other hand praise Baba Ambedkar's ideals)'. It's time to wake up and get real", said Sheoraj as he walked to the university's lecture hall.

Raj Kumar is a professor of English literature with the Delhi University and author of Dalit Literature: Dalit Personal Narratives-reading caste, nation and identities. The recent protests in the campus has filled him with unease. The Centre fo Dalit Studies in the department has seen animated discussions post Rohith Vemula's suicide and many of his students both Dalit and non- Dalits have expressed their anxieties over the developments. "Delhi University is traditional and very conservative. Caste based politics are nicely deployed to ensure that Dalit students and faculty members feel that they are not wanted and their presence is grudgingly tolerated. I often get to hear that my job is 'pucca' and therefore I need not bother about upgrading my skills. We have to put up with such behaviour all the time and carry on with the task at hand", said Raj.

With his joining the department, three different courses in Dalit literature have also been included in the course curriculum and there is a growing interest among students to take up studies in this area." UGC has made provisions for appointment of teachers from reserved quotas and also seats are reserved for SC/ST students but most of the time university administration shows a great reluctance in filling up the vacancies. "Are we not citizens of the same country? When are we going to put an end to this discrimination and move on"? asks Raj and wonders if educational institutions will ever be free of politics and discriminations and become true centres of research and learning for which they were built in the first place.