RAGGING
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
Ragging is an old practice of welcoming the fresher in a BARBARIC
manner. This phenomenon can be traced back to as early as 7th century A.D. In
Greek culture, new students of sport community were subjected to all kinds of humiliations
and teasing to inculcate a team spirit in them. Gradually with the passage of
time this technique was subjected to many modifications and was later adopted
by the military forces, from there it finally entered in the education system,
with Residential obligations.
Since its inception in the educational arena,
ragging underwent several modifications before coming into an organized
form of CAMPUS VIOLENCE.
These were named after Greek letters like Alpha, Phi, Beta,
Kappa, Epsilon, Delta etc and were called as Greek Letter Organizations (GLO's)
or Fraternities. The new entrants to these fraternities were known as PLEDGES.
During this time ragging (called as Hazing in west) existed in its rudimentary
form and was merely a ritual to test the courage of the pledge. The first
reported ragging related death occurred in 1873 when a fresher from
Cornell University fell into a gorge as a consequence of ragging.
Ragging underwent a massive transformation after
World-War 1. It was during this time that it started to acquire its real brutal
form. Soldiers returning from war re-entered the college and brought with them
the technique of Hazing (ragging) learned in military camp. These techniques
were used to make individual fail as an individual and succeed as a team. This
philosophy of team building continued to be used in different fraternities.
Eventually when fewer military students entered college these techniques were
passed onto others who did not understand their purpose or usage and ragging
became a brutal and hazardous entertainment. Gradually in the early 20th
century ragging related violence started to escalate in the western countries.
In India the tradition of ragging was imported along
with the English education. Though it existed in the Army, Residential colleges,
and English medium public schools with Campus system much before the country's
independence, it became conspicuous only after independence. Ragging then meant
seniors mocking and jesting at juniors. Till the late 60's ragging was never a
serious problem in India as it was relatively in a much milder form, primarily
because higher education was confined to a particular sect of the society and
hence ragging was confined only to a part of the civilized community of this
country. Gradually as the higher education became more and more accessible to
different communities, ragging became a soft weapon to settle the animosity
between students of different castes, communities and religion etc.
Deep influence of the media during the 80's not only advertised
ragging, but made ragging much more brutal and violent in India. Soon ragging
became a measuring rod to test the grit of the seniors also. Many seniors, who
were reluctant to rag their juniors, finally succumbed to peer pressure. It is
still an important factor in Indian ragging.
During the early 90's rapid mushrooming of new private
Engineering and Medical colleges led to several disastrous experiments with
this old practice of ragging. It made Southern India a hub of this brutal
activity. During the 90's ragging related suicides began to increase at a rapid
rate.
In 1997 Tamil Nadu, which was one of the worst affected
states, became the first province in India to bring legislation against
ragging. In 2001, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India banned ragging throughout
the country. It is now left to the college authorities to enforce this law.
This led to complete disappearance of daytime ragging in campus which is much
healthier and a safer mode of interaction while more threatening and virulent
ragging in the hostels continues to thrive in most of the colleges. History
teaches us that borrowing the foreign culture has always proven to be
disastrous to the importing nation. Ragging is just another example to it. We
tend to forget that ragging is a western culture and is deleterious in a
multi-ethnic and diverse society such as India. Even in the west ragging was
always used as tool to take out vengeance between the Blacks and Whites.
In India, a myth that ragging makes the fresher bold has
always existed. This has given a passive social approbation to this cruel
practice. As long as this exists ragging will never see its demise.
In its several years of existence ragging has done much more
harm than good. It has claimed lives of several thousand innocent students
all across the world. Today, ragging no longer exists in its brutal form at
places where it actually originated but is rapidly proliferating in the
under-developed and developing nations of the world. Presently Sri Lanka is the
worst affected country in the world in this respect.
My Experience: -
I joined B.E. College, in 1966, and had the experience of
getting RAGGED by SENIORS. But, at that time, it was restricted to only first
week, and on the last day of the week, there was “FRESHERS’ WELCOME” by each
department, with closure of RAGGING. And it was not, generally PHYSICAL, and
VIOLENT.
But I have heard many horrors in the name of RAGGING, and
LOSS OF LIFE.
Incidentally, in ancient India, students stayed in the house
of the TEACHERS for education, but there was no ragging.
In ancient residential colleges like TAKHSHILA, NALANDA etc,
in BHARATBARSHA we never have any information that ragging existed.
Acknowledgement:-- The photo is borrowed from Education World.
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