I Went To USA For A PhD, But Came Back With PTSD

By Subho Chakraborty

Updated on Sept, 28, 2022

Imagine this – an Indian student is in a University in the nether reaches of USA to earn a PhD in Physics. Instead, he gets harassed, assaulted, racially discriminated by the college and ends up with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). 

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He tries to seek help from the Indian consulate in Houston and from the media but is turned down. Ultimately, he has to relinquish his PhD slot and return to India, emotionally scarred for good. That dismal scenario is, in fact, a true story – my story.

At the University of Texas, Brownsville, I was regularly hazed by a student from Sri Lanka who also carried out multiple sexually profane acts in my house and finally assaulted me.

Before readers get the impression that Americans carried out some kind of sustained racism on an Indian student, please let me clarify. Not one of the perpetrators was American – the events just happened to have taken place in the USA

The Indian mainstream media wasn’t much better either and all of them turned me down or didn’t even bother to reply to my emails when I tried to contact them upon my return to India. 

I am grateful to Youth Ki Awaaz for letting me come out with the story and I wish them well in their endeavour to empower voiceless victims.