Friends, my translation of Daljit Ami’s last week’s column in which he says: It won’t be wrong to assert that Kanhiaya Kumar has really been arrested for not agreeing to become ‘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.’
Tags: Education, JNU, Kanhaiya Kumar, Rohith Vemula, Sedition
Friends, here is my translation of Daljit Ami’s piece in which he asks some tough questions which could lead to introspection by those very groups which seek to fight the oppressive forces. Every life is precious: Rohith’s, Navkaran’s …
‘Paash said, ‘If those engaged in changing the times won’t die from fever.’ If Paash were alive today, he would have said, ‘they won’t die from analyses either.’’
Tags: Activist, Navkaran, Paash, Rohith Vemula, suicide
Friends, upon learning of Rohith Vemula’s death on the University of Hyderabad campus, I looked back at my own time in the same university twenty years back.
‘… I relate to his (Vemula’s) emptiness.
While mental illness in my family had scarred me, and separatist violence in my state had scared me, seeing a united movement for equality break down into such factionalism in an institute of higher learning broke me. After university, for a long time I lost my voice… I will always remember Rohith Vemula’s final letter. To me, he is a writer who has ignited the country. His words will live on.’
Tags: Dalit, HCU, Rohith Vemula, student, suicide, University of Hyderabad