The nature of ragging in hostels

research@stopragging.org

In its landmark judgement in 2001 that has played a tremendous role in reducing ragging, the Supreme Court of India has defined ragging as: "Any disorderly conduct whether by words spoken or written or by an act which the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any other student, indulging in rowdy or indisciplined activities which causes or is likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student or asking the students to do any act or perform something which such student will not do in the ordinary course and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the physique or psyche of a fresher or a junior student."

While this may be legally adequate, it is not enough to explain what ragging really is, and how it has driven young men and women to the extent of committing suicide. The proposed research will attempt to explore the nature of the now-banned but continuing practice specifically in the following areas:

Ragging and Society
Despite the violence, the suicide cases and the grotesque stories that occasionally make it to the media, what is it that makes ragging politically correct in society? Why do we have so many people defending it? Does ragging fulfil any social functions? Does society abdicate any responsibilities by allowing ragging? What is the relation between an individual (fresher) and a society composed of seniors who wish to 'rag' him/her? Why does an attempt to understand ragging end up justifying it?

Ragging and Memory
A fresher goes through torture, harassment and abuse, and mostly resents it. Yet, why does he turn into a ragger himself the following year? What drives him to inflict the same injury on a fresh batch of students? It is often found that by now resentment has changed to an avowed insistence that 'I enjoyed being ragged'. What exactly is the role of memory in ragging? Why do some remember ragging as a bad experience while others remember the same ragging with romantic nostalgia? How do memories, real and imagined, public and private, affect the nature of ragging?

Ragging and Sexuality
Why is so much of ragging sexual in nature? Why does a male senior wish to see the body of a male junior? Is sexuality being merely used as a tool of humiliation? Or could the senior be experimenting with his own sexuality?

Ragging and Women

The atrocities committed in the name of ragging are unimaginable, but it is even more unimaginable that teenaged women can do such things to other teenaged women. How do we see this in the light of feminist discourses? Could gender-based repression and discrimination have a role in this? Does the structure of ragging, in both boys' and girls' hostel, have any relation with the structure of patriarchy?

Ragging and the Media

Why does a fresher so easily submit before his or her seniors? The answer could partly lie in the news reports that the fresher may have grown up reading: reports of suicides and violence as a consequence of ragging. It is thus very important to note how the media covers ragging. Newspaper coverage of the subject will be analysed and commented upon, with specific attention to the ways, if any, in which the media promotes ragging. Also, attempts will be made to find out what problems journalists face in exposing hostel ragging. We will provide information and resources useful to journalists in covering the subject.

Ragging and the Law

This brief section will document and examine anti-ragging laws, how they came into being, how effective have they been, and what changes are required in them.

Ragging Deaths

This section will document some stories of ragging suicides, what drove the victim to commit suicide, and what happened to the case after that. These are stories of people who are no longer alive to tell the apologists of ragging just how much 'fun' ragging can be.

Methodology:

The research has two aspects: narratives of ragging, and analysis. For narratives we will depend upon (a) first hand stories submitted over the internet and (b) some interviews of hostel residents in general and ragging victims in particular that we will be conducting.

For analysis, we will approach psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists who have have experience in the field, and have written about it. We will interview them and try to make their existing body of work available in the public domain.

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