Ragging: A menace

Last week a large number of undergraduates marched to Colombo from Sri Jayawardenepura to hand over a petition to the President.

In Sri Lankan history, some protests by undergraduates have borne long lasting results for school children and undergraduates. Most of those protests became a blessing while some protests misled school children and undergraduates where they were even killed as a result. Today we are not going to talk about it. We are going to talk about ragging in state universities because there is a direct link between ragging and politics.

Actual state

The society does not know what is actually happening inside universities, especially during the first year. It is very interesting to see what actually happens inside a university when a new batch of students come in and how certain things are being done there.

Today I write this column not as a journalist but as a graduate who passed out from one of the State universities which is very popular for brutality and as a person who faced numerous threats at personal level just because of my disapproval for brutal ragging.

Today ragging is disappearing from most Sri Lankan State universities. But it killed more than 10 undergraduates in the past.Ragging exists in many Arts Faculties. I was subjected to ragging because of a few reasons.

According to them, I was from a group of ‘Westernised’ people in Western province. They decided this after invading a concert held to mark the end of our English Training Course conducted prior to university admission. I do not maintain a traditional long hair, traditional style of dressing or behaviour. That is another reason. But the main reason was that I disapproved their `political philosophy’ which was based on brutal ragging. I believe ragging is a very successful method of taking revenge based on pure jealousy.

The first few months all what they (raggers in the second and upper years) did was `Thela Bedilla’(Distributing Oil) which means preaching their `political philosophy’. No wonder they call it oil. Oil does not do any good to anyone especially to graduates’ pocket. There were many objectives.

One is politically brain washing freshers. The second is getting some `girlfriends’ (servants to write notes and supply food, money, entertainment), set up a network to track down who are going against their `political philosophy’. There is one point where all undergraduates who come from poor families in rural areas feel that these raggers are their saviours. That is when they tell them that the free education exists because of their continued struggle.

Unfortunately this fact was proved in certain occasions such as the introduction of `White Paper’ . Many times their philosophy was justified due to certain unrealistic decisions taken by certain persons who held top positions in the education sector. But the problem is, undergraduates are not experienced enough to understand what is good and what is bad. So they rally round preachers all the time without thinking twice.

Personal harrassment

At one point they forced me to stand up in a basketball court without shoes from 12 p.m. to 1.00 p.m. under hot sun. Can anyone stand in a middle or a road at 12 noon? After that day I was in bed for one week with blisters and wounds on my feet. I did my own investigation.

I gathered all personal details of the raggers who harassed me and contacted their parents. Many of them did not know that their sons and daughters torture others in the university.

After this I got different threats. I was threatened not to travel in the university bus which was operated by SLTB. But I travelled in it for five years without any trouble. What is required here is boldly practising what you believe.

A majority of the undergraduates come from difficult rural areas with their own `philosophy’. Others just tolerate everything in fear or shame. The handful of undergraduates who do not agree, have no unity among them or they are too selfish to be united and fight against injustice.

Many of them are scared of their personal safety. No police complaints are made. Nothing happens. Any involvement from any party is being interpreted as `crushing down innocent students’. Sadly it seems all, especially the Governments are scared of this inaccurate accusation. It is raggers who abuse and try to kill innocent poor students!

Here comes the truth. Let’s take the issue of `Private Universities’. It is very good because no one can abuse another within an institution where you pay money and get service. It is private. You are free there and can study independently and with peace of mind. Raggers don’t like this idea because they cannot preach their `philosophy’ or intimidate the students.

They have no place in it at all. But then why does a majority of the undergraduates support raggers to protest against private universities? It is because they very clearly see how rich fools dominate poor graduates in many places in the private sector today.

These fools’ national anthem is `Local graduates are talentless’. Not having this trend in the State sector is a blessing for Sri Lanka. Raggers and their `philosophy’ can be eliminated only in one way. That is through eliminating injustice and establishing equality in society.