“From Classrooms to Coffins: The Human Cost of Ragging in Sri Lanka’s Universities”

The persistence of ragging in Sri Lankan universities is a multifaceted issue that intertwines socio-economic backgrounds & political affiliations resulting in an institutional culture. Understanding this complex cycle is crucial to formulating a plan to eradicate ragging from the university system.

Student unions

These ideologically tilted unions have played a pivotal role in shaping university student behavior & has impacted politics as well.

The Socialist Students Union was formed in 1965 by Rohana Wijeweera. The SSU became the student wing of the JVP who refer to themselves as Marxist-Leninist. They promoted an ideology of anti-imperial revolutionary socialism. These students became a significant force both within university & thereafter in society.

In 1969 the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF) was established to consolidate student activism. IUSF today has 2 splinter groups one associated with the JVP & the other Frontline Socialist Party (FSP).

It is important to analyze how, why & who is responsible for turning university student politics to shift from a value-oriented movement (focusing on student welfare, opposing privatization, national issues) to be transformed into a more violent & volatile movement. How much of their time has gone into demanding fulfilling student welfare as against their time spent alongside political affiliations?

Institutionalized inhuman ragging has become a tool of ideological & power control, breaking new students into bowing to the dictates of the Student Unions that unleash ragging.

Ragging is nothing but a body & mind control program, indoctrination through fear, submission to the political ideology of those that carry out the ragging.

Ragging is psychological & physical torture to break the spirit of new entrants & force them into submission. This is the so-called tradition they boast about. It is a ritual of dominance, control & exertion of their political will & power.

Ragging is a tool of control, a method of social stratification within the university system where seniors dominate juniors & juniors fear the seniors. Ragging is a form of transferred trauma – it is an inherent side of inequality.

Ragging is used to intimidate students to join their union activities (against their will) Anyone who resists faces social isolation or worse. These students are targeted until they “conform”.

Freshers ragging is all about coercion into silence, subordination & submission, weakening their individuality & capacity to resist union politics

Imagine how 4 plus years of such drilling can do to people’s natural individuality? They eventually come out a demon suffering psychologically & physically

An outlet of their suffering ends in more violence as that is what they have seen & gone through. Their university life has been a “culture of fear”.

The human cost of ragging is unbearable for any parent & mother who has carried her child for 9 months with great dreams for their future. These lives were lost to systematic abuse enabled by a toxic mix of student unions linked to political parties, as a result of silence from authorities & normalizing violence within the university system.

Universities have become a breeding ground for organized student thugs.

Who are these raggers?

Majority of Sri Lanka’s university entrants come from marginalized socioeconomic & educational backgrounds. They are from rural & economically disadvantaged homes. Their parents toil to send them an allowance to live. Their limitations are a breeding ground for feelings of inferiority & asserting dominance over others is the only way they feel they can become superior.

They come from schools that have provided fewer resources, though they have sufficient z score to enter university, they realize their shortcomings. This gap contributes to a frustration & anger with society at large. This manifests in aggression & aggressive behavior upon juniors to assert their authority & control. Belittling others is the only way they find an outlet to showcase their superiority when inherently they are aware of their shortcomings.

Many of the raggers come from broken or dysfunctional homes. They have suffered neglect or abuse & these adverse experiences they want to replicate feeling others should also suffer what they have gone through.

Ironically, both the ragger & the ragged suffer anxiety, depression some form of mental issue & these have long-lasting effects when they come out of university, enter the working world or lead personal lives.

Power & control & dominance are the behavioral patterns of raggers to make themselves feel superior after subjugating others into meekly accepting the will of their seniors within university & politically too.

Sadly, the cycle of abuse continues.

Thus, the perpetrators of ragging are themselves victims as they would have themselves undergone the same ragging when they entered. After being humiliated & broken, they internalize the abuse and justify repeating it on new entrants. It is a reclaiming of power that they lost when they entered – doing to others what was done to them. Their past helplessness & subjugation becomes their present control & domination.

These are all inferiority complexes combined with assertion of power/ authority/ control.

Those from marginalized communities who enter university gain confidence by forcing their will on others. Their insecurities are temporarily compensated by inflicting fear. A survivalist mindset prevails – the strong survive & weak perish.

After breaking the will & backbone of students they are inducted & molded into the ideology as obedient followers. The hierarchical nature of the JVP continues this “obedient” trend one in which they cannot & do not out of fear think for themselves. They become obedient sheep following the leaders.

The Govt nor the University system cannot ignore the moral & legal failure

What is the use of the “Prohibition of Ragging & Other Forms of violence in Educational Institutions Act No. 20 of 1998 if the Act is not enforced upon the culprits? Can we expect non-enforcement due to political influence as an excuse?

University administrations turn a blind eye fearing backlash or are they on the side of the raggers having gone through the drill themselves & determine new entrants should suffer same fate?

No parent raises a child to be humiliated, terrorized or placed on slow motion death.

The state has betrayed the trust & that is a national disgrace.

Most of those who are subject to ragging experience insecurity, are irritable & prone to anger outbursts outside of the university community. They all have upsetting memories most of which they keep suppressed. They are reclusive as their self-confidence has been dashed. They also suffer academically, unable to concentrate on studies to which the expectations from their parents & family add to their mental status.

The recent suicide of a young & promising student from the Sabaragamuwa University has raised the topic

What needs to be done?

Educational Reform – implement programs addressing root causes of ragging.

Psychological Support – Provide counseling to both victims & raggers from experts who are capable of providing a holistic & indigenous solution rather than the cut & paste unsuited alien options of the West.

Policy Enforcement – implement anti-ragging laws, punish the culprits, hold those ragging accountable & make them realize the consequences.

Criminalize organized ragging – this is no tradition

Expose & depoliticize student unions – all universities must be liberated of politicized radical groups

Ban raggers from future public employment or university positions – make raggers aware of repercussions to themselves

Support whistleblowers – create more open platforms to report abuse anonymously

Launch awareness programs that ragging is not a culture but a crime.

With the latest death by suicide due to ragging, this epidemic has to be addressed before more students end up in coffins instead of graduation robes.

We need to understand that traumatized individuals whether they are victims or perpetrators end up in society – amongst the workforce, in politics & society. They are carrying forward with them a vengeance, violent behavior, evil mentality & so forth. Their behaviors will be continued on society, leading to the collapse of society’s values & well-being. Therefore, we cannot ignore these incidents as isolated cases.

What can the Govt do?

For starters, the Govt needs to strengthen the law & policy. Laws in place must be enforced. Weak laws must be strengthened. Prosecute offenders with zero political interference.

Set up a National Anti-Ragging Authority under the Ministry of Education/UGC with investigative, disciplinary & monitoring powers aligned to the Police. Mandate regular updating & reporting into a national register with police action.

Have a National Helpline (anonymous hotline) to report ragging guarantee protection. The Govt cannot outsource these to foreign funded NGOs.

What can the Universities do?

Ban student unions or political fronts who have been complicit in ragging.

Included psychological screening as admission criteria & open file for each new entrant.

Create on-campus anti-ragging task forces comprising students, academia & legal representation

Deploy CCTV surveillance in all hostels & public areas

Conduct compulsory ethics training & non-violent leadership

Rehabilitate first time raggers by counselling – if they do not change, expel them as a policy (make it clear)

What can Sri Lanka’s Corporate sector do?

Black-list known raggers

Build a ragging offender database where all corporates can access information before recruiting (Chamber of Commerce & similar associations)

Create zero-ragging policies as a hiring pledge.

Hold a national pledge signing ceremony to get all companies on board.

Corporate HR must include background vetting on conduct of candidate’s university record.

Fund anti-ragging programs into corporate CSR programs & support trauma survivors through scholarships & internships.

What can social media & civil society do?

The suicide of Charith from the Sabaragamuwa University, gained public uproar & even pressured the President into claiming ragging was not a tradition inspite of his party’s student wing heavily involved in ragging inside universities, due to the power of social media.

The disdain for the raggers, the sympathy for the victim & the demand for justice is forcing all stakeholders into action from their lethargy. The pressure from social media must continue until the much-needed solutions are put in place to ensure another promising student doesn’t end up in a coffin.

The raggers may think they are the kings/queens inside universities because the campus is off limits to others, but social media is now telling them that their days of bullying is over & when they come out they cannot expect to bully their way through life as they have done in campus. With the registered names of documented offenders, they will soon realize they are only getting themselves isolated & should think twice about the offences they commit. Make raggers realize their bullying is likely to cost them a job & being isolated from society.

Raggers must be given a powerful message – ragging is not showing their power, ragging is only displaying their cowardice. If they think they can dominate freshers, break their spirits, shame them, humiliate them under banner of “tradition”, this is nothing but cowardice continuing the cycle of vengeance.

Raggers must be made to realize that every student they rag, every humiliation they inflict, every scar they leave, these wounds will one day echo back – in shame.

Raggers must be shown that the inhuman treatment they inflict in campus is not forgotten when they graduate it becomes a blueprint of what they are in work, in family, in society. No workplace, no family, no society should have a place for sadists & torturers.

Raggers must be given a choice – break the cycle, be remembered not as a tormenter but as one who said “enough”.

This should be the goal – to break the cycle of ragging.

Shenali D Waduge

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