Popular on YouTube, history professor raises Dalit issues

A local court granted bail to Lal on Saturday. Students and teachers protested on the DU campus on Saturday against his arrest, and sought his release.

Delhi University associate professor Ratan Lal, who is in the news for his arrest over an objectionable post on the social media on the alleged discovery of a Shivling inside the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi, runs a popular blog and YouTube channel ‘Ambedkarnama’ that carries socio-political commentary on various developments with a special focus on marginalised castes.

Delhi University Professor Ratan Lal, who was earlier arrested by Delhi Police for his social media post related to Gyanvapi Mosque case, being produced at Tis Hazari Court in New Delhi.(PTI)

Several university teachers describe Lal as an “Ambedkarite intellectual and historian”.

A local court granted bail to Lal on Saturday, saying that the feeling of hurt felt by an individual cannot represent an entire group or community. Students and teachers protested on the DU campus on Saturday against his arrest, and sought his release.

In an interview uploaded on his YouTube channel on Friday, Lal said that the complaint against him was intended to silence and scare other people by sending out a message. “They think that if Ratan Lal is threatened, people will become scared. They will stop writing and speaking out,” said Lal.

Defending his post on Wednesday, Lal said that he had simply posed a question in his capacity as a student of history. “People can be hurt by anything. Academic discourse cannot be sidelined on account of perceived hurt. I had asked a simple question to enquire if the so-called Shivling was broken or cut. Mullahs and Pandits don’t need to comment on it. An art historian should answer this question,” said Lal.

A native of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Lal’s youngest brother teaches at DU’s Kirori Mal College. Lal came to Delhi in 1991 and enrolled in Deshbandhu College for graduation. From 1991 to 1994, he studied history at the college. During his MA from DU, he met noted historian Dhirendra Jha. Jha advised Lal to continue with academia and buck the trend of students from Bihar studying to join Civil Services. He taught at Zakir Hussain College for some time. In 2000, he secured a job at Hindu College, and he has been working on Ambedkar’s philosophy ever since.

“Though he had the image of being a fighter and sort of a mischief-maker, professors at Hindu College had a special liking for him. His focus has always been on gauging situations from Ambedkar’s point of view. He believes that our aim should be to convey to the masses how Ambedkar viewed the social-political developments,” said Suraj Yadav Mandal, a history teacher at Delhi University’s Swami Shraddhanand College, who has known Lal for nearly three decades.

Lal has authored multiple papers, books, and edited a three-volume compilation of historian Kashi Prasad Jayaswal’s writings. He has also authored a book about Rohith Vemula titled “Aur Kitne Rohit?” In 2015, he contested the Bihar assembly elections from Patepur constituency in the Vaishali district. While he lost the election, his academic pursuits continued at Delhi University. In 2018, Lal approached Delhi high court complaining against the lack of transparency and unfair treatment meted out to applicants for the post of Hindu College principal. Lal alleged that arbitrary actions had been undertaken by the college governing body since he belonged to the Scheduled Caste. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court.

Jitendra Meena, assistant professor at DU’s Shyam Lal College, said that Lal is a scholar and historian who engages with society. “He is running Ambedkarnama as a responsible citizen which increases his stature as a scholar,” said Meena.

Abhay Kumar, a guest faculty at Delhi University who teaches political science and has been associated with Lal for several years, said Lal has been an active part of civil society. “Very few people from the Dalit community are heard and taken seriously on social media, and Professor Lal is one of them. His voice has an impact. And he has been arrested not because he said something about the Shivling but because he is a Dalit who is dissenting... whose dissent will have an impact,” Kumar said.

Professor Lal’s colleague Maya John, an assistant professor at Jesus and Mary College, said that professor Lal is an important voice in his college. “He is a proud Ambedkarite intellectual and that’s how I have known him. His arrest is strategic victimisation in the name of free speech. Politicians and other writers make so many communal statements but no action is taken against them. Why is it that only a certain kind of writers, teachers and scholars come under the scanner?” she said. “We may have our differences on what he has said, but he did not say anything that instigates violence”.

(With inputs from Hemani Bhandari)