The death of a Dalit research scholar is making headlines on every news channel for over a week. On January 17, 2016, Rohith Vemula, a student of Hyderabad University committed suicide, leaving a suicide note that says a lot more in between the lines than what he has written in his letter. He was a student activist who felt the pulse of student politics, he faced problems and he had dreams like any other student. The 26 year old’s life was lost, but not before bringing to the fore issues related to student politics, casteism and the administrative loopholes in educational institutions. The horrible irony is that while Rohith’s letter read ‘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 star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.’, his death has divided people even more sharply along caste lines. We look at what bloggers have to say about Rohith’s death and the later developments.
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