RAGGING

In the past the university has been criticized for its high level of ragging with several incidents grabbing national headlines.^[45] These include the death of S. Varapragash in 1997 due to kidney failure following severe ragging by a group of eight Tamil senior students^[46] and the permanent disability of Rupa Rathnaseeli in 1975 as a result of having jumped from the second floor of the hostel Ramanathan Hall to escape the physical ragging being carried out by the seniors. She later committed suicide in 1997^[47] A second incident occurred in 1997. Selvanayagam Varapragash, a first-year engineering student at University of Peradeniya, was murdered on the campus due to hazing. He was subjected to sadistic ragging and in the post-mortem a large quantity of tooth paste was found in his rectum. This kind of serious ragging does not prevail in the university anymore. It has reduced to a process of adapting the new students to the university's unique culture, mostly through harsh speech.