IIT Bombay fines students Rs 1.2 lakh for 'insulting' Ramayana in play

IIT Bombay has imposed a fine of up to Rs1.2 lakh on 8 students. These 8 students include some graduates and some juniors, who performed a play named Rahovan based on Ramayana. These students performed this play during the institute's Annual Performing Arts Festival on 31 March 2024.

The complaint filed by the students states that the main characters in this play based on Ramayana have been depicted in a "derogatory manner". On the one hand, the graduating students have been fined Rs1.2 lakh and they will also not get recognition for the Gymkhana Awards. On the other hand, the juniors have been asked to pay a fine of Rs40,000 and have also been banned from hostel facilities. The institute has taken this action based on the recommendations of the Disciplinary Action Committee after complaints.

The Performing Arts Festival or PAF is IIT Bombay's annual cultural event. It was organised in March and the play was performed in the open air theatre on the campus on March 31. In the next few days, its videos also started going viral, due to which religious sentiments of the people were hurt.

Written complaints were sent to the institute, but one of the complainants said that the play was derogatory in many ways and the students made fun of the culture in the name of showing feminism. A social media handle has claimed that the students have misused their academic freedom and the institute should set guidelines to ensure that in future no religion is made fun of in the guise of freedom of expression at the institute.

However, many students of the institute have claimed that there was no need to take such strict action. A student said that the play was a feminist perspective on tribal society and the audience and judges liked it very much. But the institute officials have not commented on the issue. Another student said that the institute should explain how confidential documents about the action got leaked on social media.