Rohit Vemula is a Dalit Scholar who commited suicide at Hyderabad Central University in January, Mother and Borther of this guy embraced Buddism on occasion of Dr. B R Ambedkar` 125th birth anniversary.

Raja Vemula said, “My brother Rohith was a Buddhist at heart although he did not convert. He took his own life as he was discriminated because he was a Dalit. We performed his last rites according to Buddhist traditions, honouring his love for Buddhism.”

Near the venue of the Deeksha ceremony, Rohit`s mother and brother Raja who also known as Naga Chaitanya Vemula paidtributes to Dr. B R Ambedkar.

“Rohith used to talk of Buddhism a lot. He had also written a letter to the Vice Chancellor about how Dalits are discriminated against on the campus. My mother feels that we should honour Rohith by embracing Buddhism,” he said.

“We are against the caste system in Hinduism and have, therefore, decided to embrace Buddhism which does not have such an oppressive system of castes,” Rohith’s brother said.

“The function to covert the duo to Buddhism was organised after Radhika Vemula approached me and conveyed their wish to embrace Buddhism when I visited Hyderabad recently,” he said.

“My brother wanted to be a Buddhist. He tried to take up Buddhism but couldn’t make it,” Rohith’s brother Raja Vemula said.

“We want ‘azadi’ (freedom) from the caste system,” he said.

After the ‘deeksha’ ceremony, Raja said, “Had my brother been alive, he would have been proud of the steps we have taken today.”

“From today, my mother and I are going to start the kind of life that he always dreamt of,” the statement said.

“From today, my mother and I will be free from shame, free from the daily humiliation, free from the guilt of praying to the same god in whose name our people have been tortured for centuries,” Raja said.