Rohith Vemula recounted at literary fest

“Stories are a way of understanding what’s happening in our society,” said Harsh Mander talking about his ‘Looking Away’, a book that explores inequality, prejudice and indifference in India at the Hyderabad Literary Festival in here on Sunday.

Speaking about the 17 real life stories and the society at large, Mr. Mander said: “The suicide of Rohith Vemula is one of the biggest indictments of our society 70 years after independence. Here was a brilliant young man who could not escape the fatal accident of his birth. Even Carl Segan’s wife commented about how Rohith’s letter was a reminder of all the potential human civilisation has lost because of prejudice. Think about what we are collectively losing because of prejudice.”

Mr. Mander, who dedicated the session to the memory of Rohith Vemula, said that the continuing search for the caste of the scholar is a diversionary tactic and is incredibly insensitive on the part of the Government.

“The wounds created by hate take more time to heal. I have seen victims of natural disaster move on while those who are victims of hate crimes find it difficult to forget it,” said Mr. Mander referencing the story of a young victim of Muzzafarnagar riots which forms part of the book.

A few hours later, in the same hall at the HLF, Rita Kothari who has written extensively on Partition and its traumatic aftermath, dwelt on another aspect of victims and trauma. “The people who are victims have used a range of euphemisms for partition. When I asked my grandfather about it he told me about what he did on the day. He went to watch Mahal and then told me the story of the movie. This is one of the ways of glossing over the trauma,” said Ms. Kothari.

The range of human experiences became more personalised when activist Sunitha Krishnan spoke about her interactions with women and girls while dealing with sex trafficking. “There is a normalising of exploitation. How else does one explain when an 8-year-old trafficking victim refuses rescue? Many of them get used to drugs, alcohol and substance abuse. The body and soul are systematically destroyed. There are other forms of exploitation and the victim rationalises that this hell is better than safe home,” said Ms. Krishnan sharing her perspective of human experience.