Caste, Higher Education, and Senthil's "Suicide"

The Senthilkumar Solidarity Committee, a group of Hyderabad intellectuals and activists, cry out against caste-ism in higher education this blog. Their cause began with the death of Senthilkumar at the University of Hyderabad. Senthilkumar, or Senthil for short, was a dalit (untouchable) student at the University of Hyderabad and was studying to be a PhD in physics. He was the first person in his entire Panniandi community to enter higher education. His parents are pig-rearers in Tamil Nadu, an depended on him for their survival. He was awarded a non-NET fellowship at the University, which is specifically designed to not be performance-based aid. However, after failing his exam, the administration publicly ended his fellowship and posted his failure on the school notice-board. Without the fellowship, Senthilkumar would be unable to attend the University. His fellow dalit students organized massive protests against such treatment, and a committee reviewed his case and reaccepted his position in the fellowship. However, this re-admittance was not announced, and even Senthil was not aware of its findings.
On February 24th, 2008, Senthil’s body was found in his dorm room. The University claimed he died from cardiac arrest, but recently released the autopsy report, which sited poisoning as a possible cause of death, along with suicide. No investigation by the police or the University was made until Dr. Ravikumar, a well-known dalit activist and a member of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly, intervened. As of yet, there has been no progress in the case, and many members of the dalit community are understandably upset at this blatant caste bias.
The Senthilkumar Solidarity Committee claims that “Senthil was yet another victim of the entrenched realities of caste discrimination that pervade academic spaces and practices in the university”. The “brahminical ordering of institutions of higher education” is a huge problem for modern India. While officially the caste system was banned over half a century ago, the system still pervades today. Schools all over the country, from elementary level to graduate schools, have been blocking dalit access to education through various means. Interviews, special academic requirements, and public pressure all are against an untouchable’s way in to education. In the Hyderabad University Physics program, there were four dalits. Two were dropped from the non-NET fellowship due to supervisor recommendations, and Senthil allegedly committed suicide.
The Senthilkumar Solidarity Committee claims that there are still many elite institutions in the country that pride themselves on ‘purity’, meaning that they have only upper-caste members. Science, especially, is being blocked for dalits. Many upper-caste Indians believe that science is not for “the masses”, and that it “is an exclusive domain, and zealously guarded as such”. Caste prejudice in education comes in all forms: badgering of dalit students, hostel (dorm) accommodation, extracurricular activities, grades, classroom practices, and much more. And yet, nothing is being done. The SSC asks us—“How many more dropouts, humiliations, and deaths will we need before recognizing that institutions must be held accountable and the guilty punished?”

How the World Sees American Racism

In researching the post below, I came across a very interesting article from India’s Central Chronicle. This editorial argues for the protection of the rights of untouchables. The writer begins with an explanation of the special rights dalits receive in India’s Constitution under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes sections. The article continues to tell the tale of upper-caste Hindus in Chhatarpur pulling a dalit bridegroom from his wedding horse, an extremely insulting action in Indian culture.
The section that interests me, however, is a short two sentances made as a passing comment. “In America,” the author reports, “President Abraham Lincoln had abolished the slavery rule and later, President Kenedy gave the black people equal rights by passing Civil Rights Act. But, racism still prevails there.”
The author simply states this, not as an argument or thesis, but as an accepted fact. Is this one author simply ignorant? Does most of the world believe that racism prevails in America? I adamantly disagree with the author’s statement, but am infuriated with its factual connotation. America today may have some problems with discrimination, but they are isolated and certainly do not prevail.

Problems for ex-Untouchable Christians in India

In post-independence India, caste is a major controversy. Officially, the caste system and all it entails is illegal. However, the Indian government defines “Scheduled Castes” in specific terms and provides for the reservation of seats in government services, schools, and jobs. This is India’s version of Affirmative Action. The term “Scheduled Castes” is actually a grouping of the lowest castes in the hierarchy, and is more commonly referred to as dalits, a derogatory term for these people. The debate surrounding these affirmative-action-type laws are similar to the debate in the United States. People question whether the creation of diverse institutions is worth the lowering of standards. Others claim that standards are met, and people of disadvantaged birth are given opportunities equal to those born to higher caste members.
There is another side to this debate, however, and one not seen in the United States: religion. Caste is a specifically Hindu system. Many dalits convert to Christianity in an attempt to avoid the persecution which comes with the ‘untouchable’ lower caste. Now, Hindu nationalists are fighting to revoke affirmative action privileges of those dalits who converted. The major Hindu nationalist party in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), argues that removing the rights of ex-untouchables preserves the purity of the tribal culture from the negative influence of the church. The BJP is supported my millions of Indians nation-wide and has also teamed up with another influential movement, the Sangh Parivar, under the leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, another Hindu nationalist group.
In support of this movement, Karia Munda re-released Kartik Oraon’s book Bees Varsh Ki Kaali Raat (A Twenty-Year Black Night), which originally was published in the late 1960s, which condems Christian converts for benefiting from their new religion while their tribes suffered.