Abstract:
Ragging in basic sense consists of use of humiliation to
socialise new comers who enter in to educational institutions. It is
an international phenomena dates back to hundreds of years.
The article attempts to bring together literature relevant to
ragging, paying more attention to the Sri Lankan context.
Although it is an act of humiliation, in extreme conditions it can
cause physical, behavioural, emotional and social problems
among victims. In Sri Lanka state universities are known as a
common place of ragging and currently more attention is paid
due to the incidents reported regarding extreme conditions that
are highly traumatic. Literature highlights that ragging is
associated with student politics in Sri Lankan universities. There
are many negative outcomes of ragging and stress is of the
significant negative outcomes. However, according to existing
literature ragging has positive effects such as socialising students
coming from deprived backgrounds.
