by sabyasachi amitav
Now ragging a major problem in educational institutions. Wheather it may any professional institutions like engg, medical etc rather in other common institutions the spreading just like cancer.
These days The students' see an educational institution as not so much a place to learn, but as an extension of 'home'. Just as ill-repute should not befall one's family and clan, so must the honour of one's alma mater be preserved. Even at the cost of the individual's rights.
The college is a "community" rather than an association of individuals. The internal functioning and power dynamics of this community depend upon unwritten social codes. Such a community is anarchic in nature and has no place for individualism.
That is one context in which we can understand hostel ragging: as not merely diametrically opposed to individualism, but also a collective, communitarian, ritual exercise with the aim of establishing the fluid, unwritten codes which rule the community. These codes obviously are about power relations, but also about other factors that define what is permissible and what is not within the community. Sexual conditioning is one such code. The junior who is being ragged has to not only suffer abuse but also accept the discourse of ragging.
Fot example Some weeks before One of the TOP college of ORISSA Ravenshaw College is also in the limelight in the ragging incidents. Two successive incidents of ragging in Ravenshaw College, which have reportedly left a student in a state of shock, pose to severely dent its image as a premier educational institution of the State.
A Plus Three first year Commerce student Aniruddha Pradhan has gone into stupor for the last 10 days, suffering serious memory lapses, after reportedly being violently ragged by seniors in the West Hostel. Another Plus Three first year Arts student Soumendra Mitra has fled the hostel to his home in Puri.
The city police have registered two cases, based on the complaints of the guardians of the two students, and investigation is on. Meanwhile, the college authorities have terminated the hostel membership of six seniors from the West Hostel after a preliminary investigation.
According to Nirupama Pradhan, sister of Aniruddha, some seniors allegedly physically assaulted him inside his room no-18 of the hostel on August 19. He has suffered serious mental trauma since then and is presently under treatment at the SCB Medical, she complained. Nirupama said that she had brought the incident to the notice of the college authorities subsequently but no action was taken forcing her to lodge a complaint with police. The other victim, Soumendra, however, had lodged a complaint with the principal before leaving hostel on August 24, alleging that a group of seniors had beaten him up severely as part of ragging on August 21. Principal of the college R K Kar said the preliminary investigations by the authorities had pointed to the involvement of some senior students in "unwarranted activities".
Now the point is as part of the opposition to anti-ragging disciplinarian measures enforced in hostels by the law, many students question: "We are adults, we know where to draw the line. We know how to differentiate between right and wrong." This is a strong case for anarchism; the student is arguing that 'the law' does not need to intervene because the codes of the community ("rites of passage") will take care of everything.
And so the fresher will be ragged in the manner that is acceptable and prevalent within the community. What is perpetrated as part of ragging should be acceptable within the community; whether or not it is acceptable to the fresher is a non-issue. Furthermore, the fresher has to be indoctrinated to accept ragging as part of 'college life', that is, the discourse of the community. The fresher is told: "You have to live here for three years, dude. So be nice to your seniors. They'll help you a lot. Then you will also rag your freshers."
This means that rebellion from the individual fresher and 'disciplinary action' by the college 'authorities' are threats to the codes of the community, to its way of life. It is an ideological assault that undermines how the community defines itself.
The community's ideology depends a lot on ritual: the fresher has to stand in a certain manner, speak in a certain manner, never smile even when provoked by humour. There are little limericks which freshers are made to learn by heart, and one of the themes of these works of literature is that "I will make my a**e available to my seniors whenever they want it."
The problem with all of this is that the individual and his/her rights are not recognised. Some students oppose the idea of any kind of surveillance against ragging in the hostel on the grounds of privacy. Such is the acceptance of the discourse of ragging, however, that the fresher's privacy is not an issue at all. It is important for the ritual of ragging that the fresher's room be entered into in the late hours of the night, that the fresher be prevented from doing what he wants because getting ragged is more important; because fetching water for the senior or dancing naked before him is to be given preference over finishing the book that he was reading.
Ragging is not a passage to 'manhood' but to a society of hierarchy and patriarchy where individual freedom is not respected. This too is referred to by the senior, who insists that he is training the fresher for the world ahead ('personality development'): "You will face ragging everywhere. When you get a job you will see how your bosses will treat you to begin with." (Incidentally, one doesn't have to pledge one's a**e in a ritual before being given a job.)
sabyasachi amitav is ahyderabad based journalist contacted
sabyasachiamitav@yahoo.co.in 
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