At Professor Ratan Lal’s house on the Delhi University campus, visitors are greeted by a bust of Bhimrao Ambedkar which carries an inscription from the architect of India’s constitution, “Nothing is more disgraceful for a brave man than to live a life devoid of self-respect.”
It is perhaps this animating sentiment that has seen the professor speak up for the Bhaujan community, criticise government excesses, and at times lampoon Brahminism. On Friday, it landed him in jail. He was arrested by Delhi’s cyber police for writing what they deemed an “objectionable” Facebook post about a Shivling that was supposedly found at Varanasi’s Gyanvayapi mosque but is said to actually be a fountain. Noting cut marks on the purported Shivling, he wrote: “If this was a Shivling, it would perhaps seem that Lord Shiva was circumcised.”
