(This article was first published on 17 January 2018. It is being re-posted from The Quint’s archives to mark Rohith Vemula’s death anniversary.)
These were the words of a young Dalit scholar in his last note before he committed suicide on 17 January 2016 inside the University of Hyderabad’s hostel. His heart-wrenching letter resonated with the masses, as it flashed out how the Indian education system has constantly dismissed Dalit students.
On Rohith Vemula’s death anniversary, The Quint pays a tribute to the ignited mind whose death sparked a storm in the country and also rendered voices to thousands of young souls like him.
‘One Day’ is a poem written by Rohith Vemula, which was translated by the Centre for Translations, St Stephen’s College in 13 different languages — Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese, Bengali, Telugu, Kashmiri, Urdu, Odiya, Tamil, Nepali and French, so that his voice could reach far and wide.
One day you will understand why I was…