Ragging and Society

Denial Mode?

"Ragging can be fun if it is not physical, you know." Yes sir, but a lot of ragging is indeed "physical", and what are we doing about it? Why are we instead busy defending ragging? 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? Are we simply in a denial mode? Or does ragging fulfil any social functions? Or does society abdicate its responsibilities by allowing ragging to fulfil those functions? 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? Is ragging a rite of passage to manhood/adulthood? Does that mean those who are not ragged don't become men/adults?

Such are the questions we hope the essays on this page will address. We invite you to write on them and mail your essay to us. We especially invite contributions from sociologists, psychiatrists and psychologists.

What should be the relationship between an
individual (fresher) and society (seniors) in a hostel space?

The Hostel as Home: Ragging and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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. By Our RESEARCH DESK

Traumas as Social Interactions
It would seem that while the victim progresses from denial to helplessness, rage, depression and thence to acceptance of the traumatizing events - society demonstrates a diametrically opposed progression. This incompatibility, this mismatch of psychological phases is what leads to the formation and crystallization of trauma, writes Dr. SAM VAKNIN.

A dangerous twist to a harmless practice
Ragging is one of those imports from the West which is not harmless like celebrating St. Valentine's Day; ironically, there is no ragging now in England, the country from where we got it, writes KHUSHWANT SINGH.

Rooting out ragging
The term "ragging" has made the routine harassment and violence that new students face into something normal. Such that while we may have laws that ban ragging, somewhere the idea that ragging is merely fun and mischief still dominates the way the issue is treated, writes Dr. PRATIKSHA BAXI.

Ragging needs to be studied by behavioural scientists
The proof of dominance for the senior is when the fresher breaks down. Therefore ragging has to hurt. “The fresher has to be stretched like a rubber band until he snaps,” and that is the point of the exercise according to one student, writes Dr. SHOBNA SONPAR.

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