Adding to his troubles, Hyderabad Central University’s administration stopped paying Rohith Vemula his monthly stipend of Rs 28,000 in July 2015. The young man had used this stipend to spend Rs 8,000 on his personal expenses, and send Rs 20,000 to his mother.

Rohith had become silent and withdrawn in the last 6 months of his life at Hyderabad Central University, slowly losing hope and ultimately taking his own life on 17 January 2016.

His brother Raja recalls how Rohith, who had always said that education was the way to free oneself from the evils of caste, had told him to stop studying because it was futile.