Go Study

"You're university students. Go and study instead of wasting time on protests."

Many of those involved in protests demanding justice for Rohith Vemula have been given this unsolicited advice. Their idea of education is very narrow.

There's a difference between studying and becoming educated. The students of a university should be educated, not be studying. By educated, I mean that one should become aware of the many different phenomenon that occur in a society - structures, discrimination, hierarchy, inequality and bias and not just limit themselves to academics. The idea of a university, where people from different social spheres interact, is to facilitate the understanding of such phenomenon. A person who 'studies', will just read what's in a book and reproduce it on a piece of paper. If your idea of education is the latter, then you probably should go to a private institute and not a university.

The students in University of Hyderabad have learnt much more during the past two months of protest than we would ever have in a classroom. We have understood discrimination, we have seen the ugly head of casteism (which many of us believed didn't exist anymore) and we have learnt that justice is not easily attainable. Our teachers might have mentioned these issues or books might have been written about them, but the past couple of months have helped us realise them. These realisations are just as crucial for our future, if not more, as any lecture. It has altered our understanding of the way things work, it has prepared us for the 'harsh world' out there that everyone keeps warning us of.

For those of us reading about social movements, here was a social movement that we could be a part of. For those of us who are media students, here was an opportunity to stand amidst an important issue and try to make sense of it, even report it. For those of us studying about the power of the state, here was an example on display.

I do believe that every student, irrespective of discipline and affiliation, had something that they could've learnt from the events that unfolded following Rohith's death, or even preceding it.

We weren't 'wasting' our time. We were becoming informed, aware citizens. We come away from the protest saddened and heartbroken, but also less naive and more empathetic.