A Hanuman temple has been set up on the IIM Calcutta campus, and Hanuman Jayanti was observed with fervour on Thursday.
The temple was constructed and consecrated before a puja was performed, some of the teachers said.
The temple has been set up near the staff quarters, and this is the first time Hanuman Jayanti has been observed, a section of the teachers said.
When Metro sought to know whether the institute was associating itself with any particular community by observing Hanuman Jayanti, IIM Calcutta director Alok Kumar Rai said: “Neither we have associated ourselves nor we have dissociated ourselves.”
This is the first time that Hanuman Jayanti has been observed on the campus by setting up a temple.
“The temple was set up by students who pooled money. It is not the institute’s money..... The institute cannot...,” said Rai. The director did not complete the sentence after “cannot”.
Earlier, director Rai extended warm wishes for Ram Navami on March 26 on the Facebook page of IIM Calcutta.
Some of the IIM professors said they were “upset” because observing Hanuman Jayanti by setting up a temple on the campus “does not go with the pluralistic spirit of the campus, where students from all communities come to study”.
The campus had a Shiv temple maintained by the staff for many years. “The Hanuman temple has been recently set up and was formally consecrated on Thursday,” a teacher said, requesting anonymity.
Apart from students and staff, many younger faculty members also took part in Thursday’s puja.
Former IIM professor Anup Sinha said the construction of a Hanuman temple to observe Hanuman Jayanti is “unwanted and quite alarming”.
“IIM-Calcutta is a public institution of a secular state. I will still use the word secular. Besides, students do not have the right to do whatever they want,” said Sinha, who taught at the IIM till 2024.
“They do not have the right to build a temple. In that case, some Muslim students will want to build a mosque, followed by some Christian students who will want to build a church on the campus,” said Sinha.
Observing religious events like Ram Navami on an academic campus has been normalised in several states.
IIT director Suman Chakraborty participated in the Ram Navami celebrations on the Kharagpur campus recently.
Many students of IIT Kharagpur ate vegetarian food in the hostels on the day of the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, in January 2024.