Discrimination is Two-Way

Few weeks ago a section of India was seen reacting to the suicide of a PhD student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad and an African student racially attacked in Bangalore and this week Jats have taken to violence in Haryana to get them listed under OBC (Other Backward Caste) category. While watching and reading about these news items I was reminded about what happened during my final year of under-graduation 19 years ago.

It was end of April, middle of an unforgiving southern summer and it was officially our last day of college. Our exams were schedule from mid-May and our study holiday was supposed to begin from the next day. 

In excitement to make our last day memorable, we arranged ourselves in file, we held up branches from trees and we walked around the campus cheering our batch mates and teachers. This walk was a celebration to our completion of degree and probably the last time we will all gather together. Some of us bravely walked outside the Dean's office attracting his attention and wrath which abruptly ended our walk and turned our bright future gloomy.

I still don't know how he identified us as students from Chemical, Mechanical and Computer Science discipline. Within an hour the heads of the three departments were summoned to his office where our behavior was condemned and were asked not to issue our hall tickets. We never realized a walk around the campus cheering loudly and celebrating our last days would attract this big a penalty. 

Next day close to 300 of us were suspended, our names were published on the college notice board and our exams postponed indefinitely. Some of us had dreams to pursue higher education abroad, a handful had been placed in reputed organizations, and a few had paid money to get a lecturer post in the same college. We were all in shock and disappointment. 

We went and met our respective HoDs and even spoke to the Dean, but we couldn't convince them to forgive us. By then our suspension and indefinite postponement of our exams became headlines and we were asked to vacate our dorms and had to go home and share the news with our parents.

The gravity of the situation hadn't hit me yet and I was grinning when I broke the news to my father, who instantly admonished my behavior. Is it that big a crime to cheer, walk around the college and celebrate our last day? None of us had vandalized any property or engaged in violent behavior, but that didn't appease my father. When he found out rest of the departments were issuing hall tickets and their exams schedules were carried out as per schedule he was even more annoyed. He was concerned that my plans to go overseas for higher education will now have to be suspended. 

We let a few days pass by and asked our parents to approach our HoDs and the Dean in an attempt to mollify. My college is 250 kms from my hometown; some parents had taken a train, while my father along with a few other parents had sent a letter and a telegram to the Dean tending their apology for our behavior. 

The summer weather didn't help us either. The Dean and HoDs were far from cooling down and were steadfast on their decision: suspension and indefinite postponement of exams. They wanted to teach us a hard a lesson that would be a warning for our juniors and subsequent batches.

Finally, a month later they relented and our exams were held in the middle of June. During my practical exams, a Senior Professor from another caste singled me out and addressed me by my caste to let me know that I was pardoned because of my father and my grades in earlier semesters. I was shocked upon hearing this from my Professor, but sheepishly smiled and let it go as I had a dream to embark. And today when I hear some Dalit students speaking up and sharing stories of their assault, verbal taunt and discrimination, I am reminded of my experience. Sadly, discrimination is two-way.

The Indian society was deeply divided by casteism prior to independence and continues to be divided by reservations post-independence. It isn't that easy to get into good colleges in India, which are only a handful. It is as much as ordeal for a student from a forward caste to get into a college or a job as much as it is for those from other castes. This is probably explains why some parents continue to prefer their children to go overseas and settle down there, while some pay bribes to get them a job. Some parents even engage in paper chasing and recently some in Bihar and UP were caught scaling exams halls to supply answers to their wards. 

At work, when I heard they were looking only for a woman of a particular nationality to fill a role in the headquarters I was irate and jokingly told a colleague that I'm not ready for a sex change to get the role. If India is obsessed with caste, the west is obsessed with race and neither societies have progressed much. 

Sadly, reservations and quotas along the lines of gender and caste haven't done much good in any country. It spreads discrimination, turns people into targets of hate, creates a fountainhead of mediocrity, unleashes an epidemic of corruption and forces many more Rohith's to either end their lives or leave the nation.