Hindu nationalism and caste exclusion in Indian universities

Rohith Vemula solidarity rally in Kerala, March 7, 2016. Wikicommons/ Zuhairali. Some rights reserved.Indian politics in 2016
has been marked by a rise of student protests and leading Indian universities
have become battlegrounds for national politics. The ruling nationalist party
has enabled Hindu nationalist activists to gain control over student politics.
The label ‘anti-national’ has been used to curb politically articulate students
who publicly question issues that are sensitive to the current government in
Delhi.

More alarmingly, recent
police violence and the imprisonment of students and teachers in Hyderabad
Central University, South India, has escalated the politics of exclusion that
oppresses Dalits and other minorities. Reports and videos appearing on social
media showed premises normally characterised by sober academic activities
overtaken by violence and turmoil. These violent developments, upon
investigation, seem to be the result of coordinated action between Hindu
nationalist students, the police and high-ranking university administrators.

This reflects a wider
critical challenge for institutions of higher education in the world’s largest
democracy. So, how is it that the power of Hindu nationalism can intensify the
politics of caste-based exclusion in this way, turning an academic campus into something
like a war zone?

The violence in
Hyderabad University on 22 March is an instance of local abuse of power. The
vice-chancellor, Appa Rao Podile, had been on leave after the suicide of a Dalit
doctoral student, Rohith Vemula, on 17 January. There have been allegations
that he was partly responsible for the trauma that led to the suicide,
including the discontinuing of Vemula's monthly stipend in July 2015 and
suspension in December 2015. Rohith Vemula was a leader of the Ambedkar Student
Association (ASA) on campus. He and four other ASA members had lodged a
criticism of the Hindu nationalist student group for disrupting their events.
Further problems emerged when the Vemula challenged the death penalty at the time (July 2015) when the Indian government was presiding over the
execution of the accused in the Bombay bombings, Yakub Memon.

But in the political
controversy that erupted after Rohith Vemula’s suicide it became publicly known
that members of the central government in New Delhi had sent up to five letters
to ensure that the Hyderabad Central University suspended the five Dalit
students.

A number of Dalit
students have committed suicide due to caste-based discrimination in
institutions of higher education across India, but that of Rohith Vemula
shocked the country like never before. Rohith Vemula's suicide told a tragic
story about how a student from a very poor economic background decided to end
his life after enduring financial and political problems in the university. But
it also exposed a direct link between the central government and his suspension
from university. This prompted a rare political debate.

Leading members of the
Indian opposition have publicly condemned this treatment of Rohith Vemula and
the political interference in Hyderabad University. Finally, the Education
Minister in the BJP government had to address the case in India’s Parliament on
25 February. It is worth noting  that a
student’s suicide can become a hot topic at this political level, and yet if
anything the politics of exclusion has intensified since then, in a situation
where ruling Hindu nationalists appear determined to cooperate with local
strongmen and right wing students.

The violent battle on
22 March in Hyderabad University seems part of an ongoing coordinated
action to affirm dominance and power. Some students protested when the
controversial vice-chancellor suddenly returned, only to face a brutal
clampdown by police and right wing activists. During the day, twenty-five
students were collected from the large campus and sent to prison along with two
teachers. While the campus was full of police personnel, basic infrastructure
and services such as electricity, food, internet, ATMs were shut down and news
media and external food deliveries were prevented access to campus. It was like
an enclosed fortress.

Dalit and Muslim students
were both targeted by the police. However, the case has been met with a certain
apathy from the news media and the political establishment, compared to the
numerous other controversies relating to student politics across India in the past
couple of months. On Tuesday, 29 March, the students and teachers were released
on condition that they report regularly at the police station, as if they
remain criminal suspects.

Returning to a
congenial work environment is a challenge in the light of these exceptional
tensions and external interference in university life and governance. More
broadly, this imprisonment has raised new questions about prejudice, freedom of
speech and caste-based exclusion in higher education in India today.

Hindu nationalism has a
long history, but the last couple of months have witnessed a relentless campaign
to gain control over higher educational institutions. The space for dissent in
the world’s largest democracy has shrunk considerably, with the label
“anti-national” regularly carted out to criminalise student protests. This
happened in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (despite the top academic
ranking and robust student activism of 'India's Berkeley') after its left wing student leaders
criticised India’s policies in Kashmir. However, the event of 22 March in
Hyderabad University has that extra element of caste-based discrimination,
which connects with the regional history in the new southern state of Telangana
that was previously part of Andhra Pradesh.

This part of India has
a history of brutal caste massacres committed by traditionally dominating
landowning castes, including the killings of six Dalits in the village of
Karamchedu in 1985 and another nine Dalits in Chunduru village by locally
dominant castes in 1991. Many of the massacres have been carried out “to teach
the Dalits a lesson” so that they do not oppose local landowners.

The history of caste
brutality in the then Andhra Pradesh provided the background for activists who
travelled from Andhra Pradesh to South Africa to attend the World Conference
against Racism in 2001. These activists wanted caste-based discrimination as
part of the problem of racism, intolerance and human rights law to be
internationally recognised. Instead, the Indian government rejected any
comparison of caste and race in international human rights law, in order to
avoid any global scrutiny of caste discrimination in India.

It is a long way from
villages and landowners to a leading university where students and teachers are
dedicated to teaching, reading, writing and ongoing debates. Yet, the violent restriction
of these student protests again viciously remind Dalits to remain silent or
face the consequences meted out by local power holders. The transformation of
an academic space into political turmoil does in any case mark a significant
deterioration in India’s democracy.

The political targeting
of institutions of higher education has become a trademark of current Hindu
nationalism, but with its dramatic enforcement of political control on an
Indian campus it has reached a new stage. How will India’s democracy and rule
of law fare in the light of such deepening antagonisms?