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| Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras – (1946 -7th April, 2010) |
Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras – (1946 -7th April, 2010)
A respected and learned man dedicates 22 years of his life to a university, parting valuable knowledge to the youth and moulding them into valued citizens of the world and how does the university reward him? By taking away his fundamental right to privacy, suspending him from his job, expelling him from his accommodation, defiling his dignity, traumatizing him mentally and ultimately leading him to his mysterious death; all in the name of upholding morality.
This was the fate of the 64 year old Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, respected Professor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India, whose only so called ‘Immoral’ act ever was being involved in a loving, consensual sexual relationship with an adult of the same sex, in the privacy of his own living quarters. Dr. Siras was Reader & Chairman, Department of Modern Indian Languages at AMU, who was due to retire in September, 2010.
On the evening of Wednesday, 7th of April, 2010, Dr. Siras was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his rented accommodation in Aligarh, where he stayed alone. It was later confirmed that his death was caused due to poison but whether or not he committed suicide remains a matter of speculation. The fact is that Dr. Siras is not living and breathing any more as a result of selfish and cruel discrimination and it is a tragedy that he had to meet such an ignoble end.
The events which lead up to this tragedy were volatile enough to cause a nationwide outrage. On 09.02.2010, newspapers widely reported the story of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras being filmed, without his knowledge, having consensual sex with another adult male in the privacy of his living quarters, and subsequently suspended because he allegedly “committed act of misconduct in as much as he indulged himself into immoral sexual activity and in contravention of basic moral ethics”, by AMU, a Central University. He was also forcefully ousted from his University provided residential accommodation, within a week. This irresponsible, coercive and voyeuristic act of the media under the guise of ‘sting operation’ was a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of privacy and dignity granted to all citizens of India. The discriminatory action taken against Dr. Siras by the university under the guise of upholding morality went against the grain of the landmark judgment of the Delhi High Court, which decriminalized Homosexuality.
Dr. Siras had lamented, “I spent two decades here. I love my University. I have always loved it and will continue to do so no matter what. But I wonder if they have stopped loving me because I am gay," after the incident first made headlines.
It is Ironical that Dr. Siras, who was a literary genius and very well known and respected in the literary circle for his poems, got the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad’s award for his 2002 collection, ‘Grass Under My Feet’. “The poem, after which the book is named, talks of the loneliness of a man looking at the full moon, yearning for his lover. It could be called male-dominated poetry,” said Siras in an interview. “The full moon represents a gay lover. All poems are about the love of one man for another.” So, the fact that Dr. Siras was gay could not have been a secret which the superiors at AMU recently stumbled upon.
Dr. Siras did not give up without a fight. With the help of human rights activists, he fought for his rights and the Allahabad High Court issued a stay order against Dr. Siras’s suspension from the University and also on his ouster from his campus accommodation.
"Now, I can go back to my beloved university," Dr. Siras had said, after the court ordered AMU to not just take him back, but provide him accommodation till he retires later this year. Dr. Siras never returned to his beloved University but died in his rented accommodation where he was living his life in exile. After neighbours complained about a foul smell emanating from Dr. Siras' accommodation which was bolted from inside the police broke down the door and found Dr. Siras lying on his bed with blood on his mouth.
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| That day of April 2010, some of his friends, colleagues and students had gathered in |
Where does such intense insensitivity and disregard for other people’s lives come from? What makes a handful of powerful people self appoint themselves as the messiahs of morality? What gives Media the right to invade and desecrate the sanctity of anyone’s privacy? Many of us are still looking for answers and hope that the silence of Dr. Siras, in death, will speak to us in myriad voices and grow into a crescendo and orchestrate the coming change.
Like Dr. Tariq Islam, Professor of Philosophy, AMU and a supportive colleague of Dr. Siras, reportedly said that a University should be a place of learning, free thought and dissent. The idea of tolerance that any place of learning must inculcate means that you tolerate what is not acceptable to you. He also stated that it was very problematic that the University had taken action on the basis of ‘morality’ and that they are using (and have been using) the phrase 'morality' to stifle free speech on campus.
The Professor Dr. Siras has taught us his last lesson, in parting, and those who are receptive and willing to learn, will benefit from its knowledge and become better citizens of this democracy.
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