Just the other day I was involved in an animated discussion
about the practice of ragging in educational institutes in India. Though I
had written on this topic a long time back, the contents of the discussion
forced me to write about it again.
What amazes me is the support to the menace called ragging
by those who themselves underwent the trauma while in college. During the above
mentioned discussion, there were several points put forward in the favor of
ragging. I will thus dissect each of them one by one.
Ragging is a means to ‘break the ice’ between the new-comers
and their seniors.
Now, why does meeting someone new and getting friendly with
them requires one to perform certain acts (even like singing and dancing) ?
When you meet a stranger at a party, you don’t ask him or her to sing or dance
for you to get friendly. What it simply requires is a shake of hands and some
decent and nice talking to know one another.
And even if one accepts this theory of ‘introduction’ to be
true, why is it only the new-comer who has to perform for the senior ? Why not
the other way round ? The basic logic is that, to be friendly, all that is
needed is a decent conversation of introduction. And it is required both ways,
not just by any juniors.
Ragging teaches the juniors to respect their seniors.
Respect ?!?! A human being should respect every other human
being and even animals and plants. And special respect towards someone comes
through admiration, not through fear.
A person is respected not because of merely his or her
knowledge, intelligence or even experience but because of his or her wiseness.
And how can a so-called ‘senior’ by virtue of entering an institute before a
junior be entitled to respect ? Isn’t it absolutely absurd to expect respect
from someone just because you got admitted to an institute before them ?
Ragging teaches the new-comers to be disciplined and get
accustomed to the rules of the institute.
Another absurdity ! How can something disgraceful and
illegal be a tool to inculcate discipline ? Moreover, if a person could not be
disciplined through twelve years of schooling, how can he or she be disciplined
by ragging ?
Also, if that were true, all those ‘seniors’ who harass
their ‘juniors’ should have themselves been disciplined after they themselves
were ragged as new-comers.
I fail to understand how someone can bond with a person who
abuses and harasses him. As for the several benefits the ‘juniors’ keep in mind
while tolerating the harassment, isn’t it something ridiculous to think that a
person would harass someone in order to help them later ? A helpful person
would help others irrespective of their being ‘junior’ or ‘senior’ to them.
Doesn’t this signify that the ‘seniors’ need to be pleased in their pervert
acts in order to expect help from them ?
And how can any benefit be greater than one’s self respect.
Are people so vary of doing their own work or studies that they depend on some
pre-cooked benefits from their ‘seniors’ ? My batch at college didn’t have any
‘seniors’ (as we were the first batch) but still we got through with our
studies and life at college without any problems.
Ragging helps to build confidence in new-comers to face a
tough professional life in the future.
How abuse, degradation, humiliation, harassment and torture
can build someone’s confidence is something that is beyond my imagination. This
is one of the lousiest excuses put forth in favor of ragging. In fact, the
menace of ragging is an evidence of the perverseness and sick mindset prevalent
in our society.
As far as logic and psychology goes, ragging cannot be
anything as per the above arguments. My take on it can be summarized as
follows.
- Ragging presents itself as an opportunity to those individuals who never find anything about them to be appreciated by others (and hence, live in severe inferiority complex) to portray a false sense of superiority and an ego boost.
- Why should a whole batch of new-comers be collectively afraid of a bunch of so-called ‘seniors’ ? Yes, it is usually a handful of people from every batch who indulge in ragging.
- If one is confident of his or her own abilities, they don’t need to depend on any sort of help from any ‘senior’ that too in exchange of their self respect.
- No ‘senior’ has any moral or legal right to exert their superiority on a ‘junior’ in order to treat them as their personal slaves.
- Why can’t people be helpful and friendly irrespective of the other person being a ‘junior’ or a ‘senior’ ?
- Ragging is, in fact, an outlet of the hidden perverseness in certain people which they take out on diffident and scared new-comers.
- Instead of any benefits, ragging corrupts fresh minds by forcing them to indulge in activities which are not fit for any civilized society.
I hope this menace is weeded out from the society as soon as
possible.
Image courtesy : Google Images
