Mumbai, Oct. 18 -- Sahil Wakode's parents say caste abuse drove their son to his death. The faculty body says the professor they accuse only followed exam rules. A month on, the campus is divided.

On the afternoon Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay's director wrote to students to say a senior professor had been relieved of his post as dean, a small group of research scholars sat on the footpath outside the institute's main gate in Powai. They held up photographs of Sahil Wakode, Darshan Solanki, Aniket Ambore, Payal Tadvi and Rohith Vemula.

Each was a Dalit or Adivasi student who died by suicide on an Indian campus.

They had expected more from the day. At 8 pm the previous night, the Student Council, which one of the scholars ...