Thursday, March 28, 2024

Madari Venkatesh : Memory of institutional murder and Caste Discrimination

Note published by
Ambedkar Students’ Association , University of Hyderabad

University of Hyderabad caste discrimination and arrogance of ‘teaching faculties’ have a massive bearing on students’ confidence. Starting from Suneetha to Rohith Vemula, everyone who had committed suicide was a victim of caste discrimination and different forms of institutional violence. The direct involvement of institution was quiet visible in the cases of Senthil Kumar, Pulyala Raju, Rohith Vemula and Madari Venkatesh. Most of the Dalit students in the campus have been experiencing different forms of exclusion then and now.

It starts from the space of class room/labs to the administrative block. Everywhere, Dalits and other marginalized sections are taunted, ridiculed and abused for their attempts to learn skills, to raise certain questions and to make their presence in the public space. It is always a clear-cut, deep rooted systemic violence inflicted upon the marginalized sections, in order to exclude ‘them’ from the academia.

Madari Venkatesh was a third year Ph.D student from Advanced Centre of Research in High Energy Materials (ACRHEM). He was intentionally not allowed a faculty to supervise his work, after the retirement of his previous supervisor. It was obligatory upon the department to allot a new supervisor immediately after the vacation/ retirement of the concerned faculty. Venkatesh was trying to find a new supervisor for a long time, but he was not considered by any faculty since he was not ‘privileged’ to be their student.

A Scholar who had published three research papers in reputed journals, willing to work and having aspirations to up-bring his family and community, was forced to commit suicide on 24th-Nov-2013, due to the strategic systemic negligence from the part of ACRHEM and University of Hyderabad Administration. The death of Madari Venkatesh is not a ‘personal’ problem, rather is the consequence of structural and institutional discrimination, and systematic exercise of exclusionary practices.

Enough is Enough! We will not end our lifes nor will allow you to do heniours activities! We, ASA and the student community alarm the institution and faculty to END CASTE DISCRIMINATION and strategic killing on their own students. We also alarm to the UOH Administration that, we will never forgive and forget the the systematic injustice meted out against Madari Venkatesh.

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