Jagrut Gadit, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Faculty of Technology and Engineering, made the demand in an open letter to Vice-Chancellor Prof Bhalchandra M Bhanage, arguing that official university platforms should not be used for religious performances.
Gadit’s intervention followed his refusal to take part in a lamp-lighting ceremony during the university’s undergraduate orientation programme on August 5. He said he had been invited by Faculty Dean Prof H M Patel to light a lamp before a garlanded image of Maa Saraswati, but declined because he regarded the ceremony as a religious ritual rather than a purely symbolic academic tradition.
The orientation programme had begun on August 4 at the M Visvesvaraya Auditorium. Gadit said the ceremony involved lamps being lit before the deity’s image, Sanskrit shlokas, removal of footwear and the use of camphor, which, taken together, gave the event an explicitly religious character.
In his letter, Gadit maintained that a public university funded by taxpayers should observe constitutional principles of secularism and should not associate official academic events with the practices of any faith. He argued that universities must remain spaces where students can question beliefs and traditions freely without institutional endorsement of religious observance.
The dispute centres on the distinction Gadit draws between individual religious freedom and institutional endorsement. He did not call for students or employees to be prevented from practising their faith privately. Instead, he argued that ceremonies conducted from official stages, or organised by university departments, carry the authority of an institution and therefore require standards. His letter said spaces should encourage inquiry belief systems while ensuring that participation in religious observances is neither expected nor presented as part of university protocol.
Gadit called for a policy covering pujas, aartis, kathas and other religious ceremonies on university premises. He also sought restrictions on the open display of religious images and symbols in offices, laboratories and classrooms, and questioned the presence of temples established on campus after the university came into existence.
He proposed that places of worship dating from the period before the university’s establishment in 1949 could be retained because of their historical association with the former princely administration, while later additions should be reviewed under any policy adopted by the university.
The professor said his objection was not directed at individual faith or private belief. His concern, he wrote, was with the use of institutional space and official functions for activities that could be understood as religious observance.
He also referred to a Satyanarayan katha organised by a university department, saying he had declined prasad because the religious ceremony had been held on campus. Gadit said such practices had become more visible over time, with events that were once marked by simple lamp-lighting or ribbon-cutting increasingly incorporating prayers and rituals.
The issue surfaced again when students from his department invited him to a Ganesh Utsav at a university hostel and sought a contribution. Gadit said he declined on the same principle, although the students withdrew after expressing disappointment.
Gadit linked his concerns to Bhanage’s Independence Day appeal urging students to uphold democratic values. He questioned whether overt religious practices at official university functions could send a conflicting message about constitutional principles to students.
The open letter was also shared on a WhatsApp group associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh, a teachers’ organisation with a presence at the university, widening discussion among faculty members.
Bhanage, who was travelling when the letter became public, said he was unaware of it at that stage. No formal university policy response to Gadit’s proposals had been announced by Sunday.
