In a country starved for education the innocent dreams of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands have been shattered by the brutal, inhuman, and degrading practice of ragging that continues to plague Sri Lankan universities. 

The act of torture and indoctrination, championed in the higher education system by mainly leftist political student movements long affiliated with the incumbent Government, once again come under the spotlight and a possible watershed moment, when claims immerged last April that a freshman student who was abused by student union thugs, had later taken his life due to the trauma faced.

With those who perfected those tactics of abuse and indoctrination, in the driving seat of power holding senior leadership roles under the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led NPP Government, how this latest episode of university ragging (which is illegal), is addressed is a question that the public is closely following. How the Government lets the course of justice find those responsible for this heinous crime will be a litmus test for the ‘transparency and accountability’ mandate the National People’s Power (NPP) Government rode to power on.  

Yesterday, it was revealed that preliminary investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have found that the second-year student at the Faculty of Technology of the Sabaragamuwa University, recently took his life due to ragging. As a result of an ongoing investigation, a group of senior students suspected of being involved in the incident have been arrested and are currently being held in remand custody. Officers have also recorded statements from several factions, including the said university’s administration. According to the findings of the investigation thus far, it has been revealed that the student took his life due to ragging. It has also been reported that the student was not suffering from depression or any mental illness. Additionally, investigations have revealed that some senior officials of the university administration were taking steps to prevent details of the ragging incidents within the university from becoming public. The Police findings are not new information as there has been a long history of victim blaming, and suppression of information about ragging being released outside the higher education sector by some university academics and administrators.

Here lies one of the core issues which has made preventing ragging and enforcing the laws against it so difficult since 1998; the academia and administration of higher education institutions in Sri Lanka have long been part of the problem. The reality is that there is a strong, well-entrenched segment of the domestic academia, who rose up the ranks of those who carried out the despicable practice of ragging and ended up becoming educators within the system. This core group of academics and administrators are ideological believers in the ‘equalisation of all students as one community through ragging’ theories which leftist politics have long pouted to justify and validate the use of torture and abuse on the young minds into submission and indoctrinate them when they join universities. These enablers of abuse, also gang up on academics who raise their voice against ragging, often pressuring them into submission.

According to the CID, thus far for 2025, more than 30 complaints related to ragging have been reported to the CID, with the highest number coming from the University of Sabaragamuawa, exceeding 10 complaints. Complaints have also been received from the Eastern and Southeastern (Oluvil) Universities regarding ragging incidents. The efforts to suppress information and reporting of the ongoing ragging in universities by academics and administrators is one of the reasons why the legislation in place to prevent ragging has been sabotaged from within, with low reportage and coverups. The prevailing culture of leftist politics dominating the idea-space within the State universities and the lack of freedom to really argue out ideas and oppose established norms also continues to feed the machine of indoctrination which ragging has long been. State universities, their academics and administrators must be held accountable alongside those ‘student thugs’ who engage in ragging. It remains to be seen if the NPP has the backbone to enforce the law on their own creation and a subculture which has been instrumental in the formation and growth of their party. The victims of ragging deserve justice.