New Delhi- At a conference on communal harmony, recently organized by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Professor Ravikant presented a stark analysis of the shifting nature of communal violence in India over the last decade, arguing that while public "poison" has reduced, mob lynchings have become a "state-sponsored" and systematic tool of oppression.

The keynote address, which traced the historical roots of majoritarian politics to its current manifestations, highlighted several critical trends.

The purpose of the conference , themed, "Communal Harmony: Combating hate crimes and hate speech", was also to form an action committee with like-minded organisations for coordinated action to promote communal harmony and combat hate crimes & hate speech. 

Prof. Ravikant, an associate prof at the Hindi department of Lucknow University, began by asserting that the incidence of mob lynching, while grave, has seen a change in character. He claimed that the spontaneous, communal poison that once drove such violence has significantly reduced due to the collective efforts of activists, intellectuals, writers, and grassroots workers.

"The major achievement of this period is that the number of common people, especially those from Dalit and backward communities, who were used in communal riots has drastically reduced. Those who misuse them are now failing," he stated.

However, he sharply contended that the lynchings that still occur are not organic. "Whatever is happening now is solely sponsored by the state... The entire system is behind it. They are only successful where the full force of the state's culture is deployed; otherwise, they are not," Prof. Ravikant said. He challenged the audience to name a single incident in the past year that was a spontaneous, self-motivated mob lynching.

The Manuvadi Agenda vs. The Secular Vision

Delving into history, the professor argued that the forebears of today's ruling ideology, the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, were "more Manuvadi than communal." Their primary agenda, he claimed, was never Hindu unity but to "eliminate the Constitution and establish Manusmriti."

He cited historical alliances with the Muslim League in Sindh (1939) and Bengal (1941) and recalled that Syama Prasad Mukherjee had offered cooperation to the British during the Quit India Movement. "They have no qualms; they will align with anyone for power," he said.

Prof. Ravikant positioned Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as the "killing of a belief in communal harmony." He credited Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar as the two figures who most acutely perceived the threat of majoritarianism. He offered a unique perspective on Dr. Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism, suggesting it was a strategic choice to present a robust ideological challenge to Hindutva, foreseeing it would become a major world force.

The professor presented a grim evolution of communal violence, referencing scholar Paul Brass. He stated that while riots up to the 1990s often saw Hindus and Muslims clashing, what followed was different.

"Communal riots ended. Pogroms began," he declared, pointing specifically to the 2002 Gujarat riots. He described them not as riots but as a "brutal, horrific pogrom," citing the harrowing case of a tailor whose daughters were raped in front of him before his house was set ablaze with a gas cylinder provided by a neighboring woman.

This, he said, marked a horrifying new low where women, traditionally seen as non-violent, were not only complicit but actively encouraged sexual violence, as seen in the 2020 Delhi riots and the Bilkis Bano case.

The Ultimate Goal: Creating a "New Dalit"

Prof. Ravikant concluded with a powerful thesis on the current objective of communal violence. As Dalits and backward castes become more empowered and assertive, a new target is needed.

"The whole Manuvadi mentality specifically wants to make Muslims the new Dalits," he asserted. He described a first-hand account from Lucknow where police, after a minor clash, rounded up Muslim youth and demanded exorbitant bribes. When one auto-rickshaw driver pleaded inability to pay, a police officer allegedly retorted, "Sell your house... Who will sweep our floors? Who will do our labor? Who will pull rickshaws if they keep their houses?"

"This is the whole conspiracy," Prof. Ravikant stated. "To economically cripple them, to make them poor, to not just make them laborers but to make them servants, to make them the new Dalit through these communal pogroms."

The speech framed the current climate of communal violence not as random outbursts of hatred but as a deliberate, systematic project to disenfranchise and subjugate the Muslim community economically and socially, driven by a centuries-old agenda of establishing a Manuvadi state.