2004-2010
‘The environment here is fantastic……… nice people around’
It began with science and technology as instruments of social change, which rapidly segued to student politics. He started with the Students Federation of India (SFI), but shifted to the ASA over its neglect of caste, and became perhaps its youngest ideologue.
The first acquaintances Rohith made first in college and then the university recall him as soft-spoken, intelligent and built for scientific research.
B Kondiaiah, the principal of Andhra Pradesh Junior Residential College, Kodigenahalli, was a lecturer in 2004 at the time Rohith was a student there. “He was a very intelligent student who showed a lot of promise. Getting admission in this college is difficult since we admit only the brightest rural students after an entrance test. He was not political in any way. He had a lot of friends and was easy-going,” says Kondaiah.
He even remembers Rohith’s Class XII score — 521 on 600, an impressive 86 per cent.
Rohith’s chemistry teacher J V Krishnaiah says, “He was a good student, passed with first class. He studied biology, physics and chemistry. His English was also good, though he was better at Telugu.”
Ramji Chintagada is considered among Rohith’s closest friends at UoH. “Those days he was not interested in politics. He preferred science and how we could change the world through science. He was a kind of technocrat,” says Ramji.
In his suicide note, Rohith mentioned Ramji and asked that the Rs 40,000 that he borrowed from him be returned when the university released his fellowship money (it was stopped in July). “I don’t know from where he got that figure of Rs 40,000,” Ramji says. “I never kept count. He would occasionally borrow money, primarily to send it home to his parents. Sometimes Rs 5,000, sometimes Rs 8,000.”
Adding that Rohith “was the brightest guy I met”, he says, “I am still not able to process his death.”
2011-2014
‘In a nation like ours, death could be the only thing which can rescue us’
His Facebook posts of the time also document this shift. From posting jokes and memes, to putting up videos of Telugu movie clips, Rohith started writing about the December 16 gang rape in New Delhi.
“A nation where 545 elected members (with 33% women candidates) failed to take a stand on the side of a girl child…… A nation where politicians behave as elected brokers, where no one does any work without a commission…. A nation where students feel shy, timid and embraced (embarrassed) of raising their voice against an odd thing….. A nation where educated intellectuals run for money like machines…… In a nation like our’s, death could be the only thing which can rescue us ….” he posted on December 29, 2012, after the gang rape victim died.
2014-2016
‘The grave will supply plenty of time for silence…’
It was in Uma’s room that Rohith committed suicide. In his suicide note, Rohith apologised to him for the same.
“He found solace in the teachings of Ambedkar. Communists do not deal with caste issue at all, particularly on campus here. With Ambedkar, things started to make sense for Rohith, like why Dalits are treated the way they are, or why the eradication of caste is perhaps the most important thing in the country,” says Sunkanna.
In the past two years, Rohith also came to be known for his unflinching resolve, Vijay says. “He would never back down from a fight and everybody came to realise that. Perhaps this was also his weakness, that it took very little to antagonise him.”
On his Facebook page, Rohith appeared to acknowledge this. “A small time sociology student, with uncontrollable reactive reflexes :),” he wrote about himself.
“Whether it was about Ambedkar or (Jyotirao) Phule, class or caste, it did not matter. Rohith believed he was capable of winning any argument. Once you started it, it was hard to end, and Rohith was often aggressive,” says Vijay.
Both the belligerence and the articulation helped Rohith, only 26, become one of the ASA’s most influential leaders.
“We all speak English, but Rohith was at a different level. Look at his suicide note. It is lucid and expressive. He took the ASA to new heights through his writing,” says Seshaiah.
In a section on his favourite quotes, Rohith cited one by Christopher Hitchens: “Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence….”
This was his last letter. [*** TRIGGER WARNING ***]
"Good morning,
I would not be around when you read this letter. Don't get
angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me
and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It
was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap
between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster.
I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl
Sagan.
At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.
I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without
knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our
feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our
beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has
become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and
nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never
was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of
star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in
dying and living.
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of
a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.
Maybe I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In
understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency.
But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the
while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my
fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood
loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty.
Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I
am doing this.
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I
am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don't
believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is
anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars.
And know about the other worlds.
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have
to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five
thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I
have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked
them back. But please pay that to him from that.
Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just
appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am
happy dead than being alive.
"From shadows to the stars."
Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me
very much. I wish all the very best for the future.
For one last time,
Jai Bheem
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my
this act of killing myself.
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their
words to this act.
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am
gone."
I stand with him!
#Satyam_Bruyat
