ROHITH VEMULA was a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). In Life he inspired through his activism and in the wake of his institutional murder has now come to symbolize Dalit Bahujan and adivasi revolution in India.

Months of sparring with ABVP groups on campus led to rohith and 4 other dalit students being unfairly suspended in a casteist hearing by the UOH Administration. Significantly the basis of the students suspension was the involvement of the Minister of Human dievelopments condemnation that their anti-caste organizing was in fact anti-national. In protest, they camped outside the hostel in an area they termed “Velivada” (Dalit ghetto). the toll of being politically targetd by the administration for his activism and with the increasing burdens of his scholarly and financial loses led to him tragically taking his life.

In his poignant note he wrote “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 stardust.”

The loss of a brilliant young Dalit man , enraged the campus, the nation and the world. And has create a vibrant new movement asking for the end of caste apartheid and the passing of a Rohith Act to protect marginalized students on campus. This first day in Dalit History Month, we honor the spirit of Rohith Vemula, our revolutionary brother. We raise our fists in a show of solidarity for all marginalized students in their ongoing fight and salute the spirit of Radhika Vemula, the Dalit mother, who is continuing to fight for justice for her son.

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