ROHITH VEMULA

His ancestors

drew water

from the castaway well.

The village folk

flung chapatis at them

from a distance of three feet.

The mistreated

learn that food and water

matter more than shame.

Never was a man treated as a mind.

Shattering it must have been

to know differently

to feel dissent.

To break hardened perception

replace fallacy with logic

belief with science:

genes have no caste

DNA no performatives

Respect is everyone’s birthright.

To pledge that if push comes to shove

starvation is better than humiliation

death better than disgrace.

I’m happy dead than being alive.

From fighting over a lost childhood

to prejudice and discrimination

to the last straws of feeling sub-human.

One fan, a friend’s room

one student association banner, borrowed slippers

and a decision that subverted time forever.

If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars.

Note: Rohith Vemula a PhD student in Hyderabad, India, committed suicide on 17th January 2016. He was born a Dalit - meaning of lower caste. The stigma of his caste plagued his life in every way. The lines in italics are quoted directly from his suicide note.

Published in the Red River Anthology of Dissent Ed by Nabina Das. 2021