Young rebellions

Journalist Nikhila Henry's debut book, The Ferment, opens with her speaking with Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD scholar whose life, and death, was to become the defining symbol of youth unrest in India under Narendra Modi's rule. Sitting on a desolate rock overlooking the palatial vice chancellor's lodge at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Vemula summons the unlikely topic of one's post-death wishes: whether to be buried or to be burnt. Vemula desires to be buried, so that he can be visited by his people, he tells Henry. But even this modest wish of his would remain unfulfilled, just like his ambition of becoming a science writer – "like Carl Sagan", as he wrote in a letter written before he committed suicide.

Vemula ended his life in January 2016 after persistent harassment and humiliation. A suspension of his fellowship for the seven months leading to his death had made him financially vulnerable. In a classic example of social ostracism, he, along with four of his comrades in the Ambedkar Students' Association, had been barred from using the university's hostel and other public spaces by the university administration–a move that was likely prompted by members of the Modi cabinet. In the end, the Hyderabad police would take his body after post-mortem and cremate it without his near and dear ones present to bid him farewell.