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The Role of Youth in Building Social Harmony in University Community

A university is a microcosm of a much larger society. The undergraduates of a particular

university come from a numerous number of socio-economic backgrounds which creates
diversity among them. Hence even if the university should be a place of equilibrium, the division
outside the university is crystal clear from the different individuals inside it. Yet an institution
can only progress when those different categories maintain an effective and mutual connection
among each other. University is thus an ideal place to start developing social harmony that may
result in the peaceful co-existence that Sri Lanka expects as a multi-cultural country. In this
answer, importance of social harmony, the situation of university with regards to that and the
ways to promote social harmony within the university community will be discussed.

Humans are gregarious animals. Hence when a group of animals is living together, the
occurrence of conflicts in a society is inevitable because of the diversity. Yet as we live in a
society with a division of labor and the goal of human being happiness, the connections that we
maintain with others is very vital in our existence. Social harmony comes into play in this that, it
is defined as “a process of valuing, expressing, and promoting love, trust, admiration, peace,
harmony, respect, generosity and equity upon other people in any particular society regardless of
their national origin, weight, marital status, ethnicity, color, gender, race, age, occupation etc”
(Sharma, 2015) in order for a diverse society to survive. Chinese leader Hu Jintao aims for this
social harmony in his signature ideology of scientific development, to make the Chinese
economy and society balanced, social inequality and justice should be achieved. Considering the
situation in Sri Lanka, the island is perceived to be a ‘melting pot’ because of the variety of
ethnicities, religions, and cultures, and has experienced several conflicts like the Black July riot
in 1983 and the Sri Lankan civil war that resulted in havoc. Additionally, the gap between the
classes of the social strata is getting widened due to the prevailing economic situation, the lower
layers of the social hierarchy suffering extremely yet the upper classes including the politicians
that are responsible for the country’s situation, remaining unaffected.

Education is the determiner of a person’s socio-economic status, marriage, attitudes, and the
opportunities one receives in life. Yet education has become a privilege to those who can afford
it. In Sri Lanka though the Free Education policy implemented under the Donoughmore
constitution remains in action, still the students from unprivileged socio-economic backgrounds
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are not able to continue their education. Before the Free Education policy, education has been
accessed only by the privileged upper class and the middle-class people during the colonization
and the education provided was in English medium which prepared the students for Cambridge
exams (Ivan, 1990). Yet in 1940s the concepts of central colleges was introduced by Mr.
C.W.W. Kannangara that demarcated a change in the education system in Sri Lanka that, the
right to education became partially available to the citizens. The situation remains unchanged up
to date because of the huge variety of the schools in the education system which creates a
disparity among the educations students receive. Other than the schools of gender and religion, in
Sri Lanka the concept of popularity play a major role in school system. The huge competition
among students and parents to enter a popular school in the city is evident in Grade 5 scholarship
exam that even though the government has made it a non-compulsory exam, still a lot of students
sit for the exam because these popular schools provide the students with excellent infrastructure,
teachers, funding and the fact that these schools provide the students with the requirements to
rise in the social ladder which the other schools may not do. Most prominently, the acceptance
and respect one receives even when applying for a job is also obvious. On the other hand, most
of the time, though with the capability students enter these popular schools irrespective of their
unprivileged socio economic background it is difficult for them to exist in that context as many
of the students come from well-to-do backgrounds that the 90% of the students come from either
upper or middle class backgrounds (Rupasinghe, 1990).Additionally, students who are suffering
from poverty leave schools and seek employment that manifests even there is free education
available in Sri Lanka without the funding there are no means of continuing the education.
Considering the university context, universities in Sri Lanka have been started in 1942, the
teaching learning process was in English medium hence the students from Central colleges did
not enter the universities because of the lack of English knowledge. Amidst the attempts of
ministers like Mr. C.W.W. Kannangara the division of power has caused the inequality in
education system since the beginning of it. In 1956, with switching Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara
pirivenas into government universities, the arts faculty teaching was shifted to Sinhala medium.
Though by 1950, 81% of the university students were of the upper class, by 1967 it dwindles to
34% whereas, 67% of the students coming from middle and lower classes (Ivan, 1990).
Nevertheless, this percentage is only about the faculty of Arts and the faculties like Science,
Engineering and Medicine where the teachings were still conducted in English medium the
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representation of lower- and middle-class students were low. Thus, a lot of students of faculty of
Arts coming from poor economic backgrounds and matters like unemployment, large number of
students and lack of English knowledge have caused a sense of hierarchy within the university
faculties where faculty of Medicine and Engineering take the upper layers and the faculty of arts,
the lowest layer.

Within the university community, politics not only refers to the involvement of the students to
government politics, but also the procedure of student unions and clubs are there. The student
politics of University of Colombo is of rebellious and deviant appearance the history of student
politics is related to the assassination of Daya Pathirana, removal from Inter University Students’
Federation, Independent Students Union. By 1986, there have been three student unions in
University of Colombo and Daya Pathirana led Independent Students’ Union which was
considered to be rude and impudent in their actions and unlike the other student unions that are
bias to People’s Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) this organization has been
against it which caused the assassination of Daya Pathirana which was said to be executed by
Inter University Students’ Federation. Nevertheless, University of Colombo has positively
contributed to the Inter University Students’ Federation too as student leaders like Pathmasiri
Thrimavithana, Venura Edirisinghe, Sarath Kollure were from University of Colombo who
pioneered the campaign of making the private medical college in North Colombo a government
university. In 1994, University of Colombo was removed from Inter University Students’
Federation with the accusation of helping to get Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumaratunga in
office. The present situation at University of Colombo, faculty of Arts is that there are two
independent student unions; Common Students’ Alliance and United Students’ Organization and
the cause for the split is the difference of political ideologies. Other than the direct engagement
in politics and unions, the clubs inside the university are also parts of its politics. The clubs like
Leo, Rotaract, Aisec clubs showcase not only the relationships between the university students
but also the connections they maintain outside the university. Yet the most obvious fact about
these clubs is that many of the active and significant members of the club are from the popular
schools that are mentioned above and it is rarely that students from rural schools holding
prominent positions in those clubs. Another observation is that though in the student unions the
representation of girls is negative that almost all the positions are taken by the boys, but in these
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clubs, the gender neutrality is evident that the Presidency of Rotaract Club of faculty of Arts was
held by girls from 2012-2019 (Perusinghe, 2018).

As university is a place of high diversity, students incline to form different groups within the
community as Henry Tajfel’s social identity theory portrays. These groups are formed with the
gathering of people who share similar identities, traits, desires, attitudes, or even social status.
For example, students who went to popular schools in Colombo forming one group or students of
a particular ethnicity or religion being together. This is where the social diversity becomes
evident within the university community. Hence there creates a matter of in-groups and out-
group that the students try to accompany the students who suit the requirements of their groups,
and the others are not welcome which arouses a sense of rivalry and otherness. Consequently,
when these various groups are working on one matter, since there are difference in attitudes and
lack of understanding, the occurrence of conflicts becomes unavoidable. Another repercussion of
this forming of groups is, there happens to be lack of mutuality and trust between the groups as
in when the Tamil speaking students act only within their group, the chance is less that they learn
the Sinhala language or Sinhala speaking students learning Tamil. As a result, there is no way for
the two groups to communicate and share their views and problems thus because of this
otherness, a sense of suspicion and enmity towards each other is created. When studying this
situation closely, the formation of groups due to political partiality especially results in making
discords among the students. For examples, the two unions in the University of Colombo, taking
various stances about the political system and there is never ending rift between the two parties
within the same faculty. Moreover, the concept of ragging which is considered to be a part of the
university sub culture is another reason for the disputes among the university community. For
example, the recent incident reported from the University of Peradeniya in September 2022 was
due to anti-ragging students dining in a canteen where they were forbidden to dine in and a
squabble occurring between the students who are partial to ragging and anti-ragging.
Considering the situation, the reason for the change of these attitudes is the socio-economic
background of the students. Usually, students from popular schools with middle class
background believing in achieving the harmony and co-existence through respect and
communication whereas, the students who are of central schools, rural working-class
backgrounds perceiving it as maintaining equality in university premises through authority and
rules of the seniors. Nevertheless, academic stress and peer pressure too contribute to the
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disharmony among young people that even minor matters flare high due to them. Another
observation about the reasons for conflict is that, the nature of Sri Lankan school system. There
is a huge variety of Sri Lankan schools that there are schools-based gender, religion, popularity,
grades and when students enter a university it is likable that they form a group with their own
school mates or students with similar school and family backgrounds. And the fact that the strict
and unnecessary disciplines and the high competition within the school system only creates an
uncreative, unsympathetic, envious creature that when those products enter a university which is
considered to be a place of freedom and creativity tend to meddle in quarrels because they are
not practiced to use the freedom well and become tolerant to the ideas of the others that result in
disputes. On the other hand, the callous socio-economic situation prevalent in the country too
paves the way for youth unrest that especially the recent incident of protest in University of
Colombo and the act of the Police which led to issues contribute to more and more chaos.
Students are anxious about the prospects that easily create unrest as seen through the insurrection
in 1971.

Since a lot of the reasons for the disharmony among the university community are
institutionalized, it is inevitable to eradicate them completely, but education itself is a way to
promote harmony and co-existence. ‘Aragalaya’ against the politicians in Sri Lanka is a fine
example for that the free education and awareness of the citizens about the myths of splitting and
quarreling against each other prioritizing religions or ethnicities against humanity made them
come together in Aragalaya and fight against the real political enemy that infuse disputes. Hence
a total institutionalized change in the school system is needed for the promotion of total harmony
that, other than labelling schools according to gender, religion or popularity, letting everyone
learn together can obliterate most of the suspense, jealousy, and lack of understanding between
social groups. For example, schools like Royal College, Colombo and D.S. Senanayake College,
Colombo where the peaceful co-existence of all the ethnicities and religions are promoted
through allowing the children to enter the school irrespective of the religion they are following
and creating safe and favorable spaces for them not only to engage in religious activities but also
celebrate the multicultural programs with everyone regardless of the religion or ethnicity. Also,
as the high competition within the school system too causes jealousy and lack of empathy among
students which are prevailing even in the universities can be diminished through organizing the
compulsory community service activities and entertainment programs with jam sessions as there
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are lack of understanding and tension between the faculties of a university. Community service
activities are essential for building empathy as there are students from various socio-economic
backgrounds and especially students from privilege backgrounds would be able to understand the
stress and hardships their peers are undergoing. Besides, another observation about the
universities is that they aim only on producing people to the workforce. All the students who get
enrolled into a university is provided with English knowledge as a skill to enter the workforce
and to reach the international knowledge. Yet to promote peace and harmony among the
community, Tamil and Sinhala languages also should be taught to the students as they are the
languages spoken mainly by Sri Lankans. Hence, the openness and understanding between the
ethnicities with different first languages can be maintained.

Finally, education is almost a weapon to achieve the harmony and co-existence that Sri Lanka
expects. As university students represent the future generation of the country, it is the
responsibility of both the students and the teachers to develop the mentality of the students to
tolerate the others and understand the situation of people irrespective of the social category they
belong in that the country is presently at calamity because of the lack of mutuality among the
rulers and the ruling class. Hence the role of youth and education in bringing up the social
harmony for a more successful country is evident.

References
Ivan, V. (1990). ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නූතන කැරලිකරුවන්වේ සමාජ පසුබිම . දුර්ගා ප්‍රකාශකව ව .
Perusinghe, U. (2018). ලාාංවේය ශිෂ්‍ය වේශපාලනය තුල විශ්වවිද්‍යාල ශිෂ්‍යාවවේ කාර්‍යභාරය.
අධ්‍යාපන ප්‍රතිභා 10, 91.
Rupasinghe, S. (1990). ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වත්මන් අධ්‍යාපන ක්‍රම තුල පහළ සමාජ ආර් ක ස්ථර නට පවත්නා
අධ්‍යාපන අවස්ථාවන් වකබඳුද්‍? අධ්‍යාපන 21, 78.
Sharma, M. (2015). Social Harmony for Being Social. Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL
SCIENCE: C Sociology & Culture, 5.