JNU student suicide: Subtle and overt discrimination haunting young Dalits in Indian colleges

File image of JNU. News18[/caption]As a Dalit student, it was a struggle for Vignesh to engage with professors in class. "I once prepared an assignment for class on Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s communalism and anti-Dalit stance. My professor flew into a rage and asked me how I could submit such an assignment. I was also pulled up for using the word 'Babasaheb' to refer to Ambedkar and told never to use that word again. I got stares when I said 'Jai Bhim'," he recalled. "We have a young scholars seminar, which is open to only a close-knit set of ideas. There was a student who presented a paper on 'Gandhi’s views on Dalits'. But he was told that he shouldn’t pick topics like that and they sent him back," said Neha*, a Masters student.While Neha, a day scholar in the Masters program, has interacted little with students, she’s observed much more. The elitism, she says, is evident from the tenets that uphold the department.Nationalism was viewed in a classical sense, she said, and there was no space for views that fell out of the purview of it. "Muthukrishnan was aspirational, very excited and very hard working. But it’s not a piece of cake. Some professors throw your papers in your face if they don’t like your work," she said."He (Muthukrishnan) had an issue with changing supervisors," his close friend Vikram* said, "He was not happy with his previous supervisor and when he asked for a change in supervisors, he was turned down and asked to go back to the previous supervisor, but he wasn’t accepted back because the supervisor already had students by then.""Supervisors can make or break you," Neha said, "That said, students of the SC or OBC category who receive criticism can sometimes attribute to their category and not to an actual problem with their work." The fluent English speakers are stereotypically projected as the achievers and the bright ones. But Neha said she found out about a Dalit student who was brighter than a majority of the English speakers after working with him.There is a strong sense of alienation, Vignesh believes. "When you’re a Dalit in the CHS environment, it gets very lonely, especially when you’ve worked so hard to get to the top," he said. Students from lower economic and social backgrounds contend with graduates from the elite St Stephen’s and Presidency colleges in Delhi, even those from the US. "There is significant anger I can sense towards the SC and OBC castes," he added. Forward caste students are often friends with or know professors in some way beforehand, and some were already Masters students before they joined the MPhil course. "It’s evident that the professors look at students from Central universities differently.""For a progressive and liberal department, I found it more Brahminical," said Vignesh, who is now pursuing his Masters in History at the Indira Gandhi National Open University.There is a tussle between students and supervisors. Students who have done their Masters and progress to the MPhil or PhD program are acquainted with the faculty, while those who have directly entered the PhD program are thrown into the deep end. They socialise little with professors because the ones who’ve stayed on longer hold an advantage and of course, the workload is huge to even build proper relationships with them. "Sometimes, you don’t get the supervisor you want and some professors are much better to work with than other professors. There could be discrimination there," said Neethi."We have professors we can talk to, but who has time? Who has the energy to listen to complaints? Who wants to listen to someone who says his student should be like other students, who have graduated from colleges in the US?" asked Gagan, an MPhil-PhD student."I cannot comment," said Jyothi Atwal, an assistant professor at CHS. "We have currently been having condolence meetings to mourn the passing of Muthukrishnan. It is under investigation and it would be uncalled for me to say anything," she clarified.Sukhadeo Thorat, professor at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development in JNU, who had recommended Krish to CHS, could not take questions citing legal advisory.The CHS department head was reached for comment, but did not respond.What emerges perhaps is a pattern of discrimination and its consequences on bright young and ambitious minds who are already wounded from prior discrimination on the basis of caste. JNU, one of the most progressive educational institutions in the country, would do well to take heed of this worrying trend. And educational institutions across the country need to be held to account for discriminatory practices, both subtle and overt. If not, young Dalits, especially, will continue to die. And that would be the biggest tragedy that India has ever witnessed.*Names changed to protect identityThe author tweets @divya_krthk