A very modern rage

Ragging needs to be seen, primarily, as an academic issue; although, prima facie, it may seem a 8216;law and order8217; problem.

Ragging needs to be seen, primarily, as an academic issue; although, prima facie, it may seem a 8216;law and order8217; problem. It involves, besides, the question of one8217;s upbringing and cultural ambience. The emotional deficit in which children grow up has a direct bearing on this social illness. It was as part of my effort to ensure that St Stephen8217;s remained free of ragging that I sought to implement the time-tested residence rule that every resident student should be in his room by 10 pm. The events of September 27, the focal point of the media storm, prove the relevance of this rule. To my utter surprise, however, this provoked a media outcry. I was accused of 8216;dictatorial inclinations8217; and condemned for bringing St Stephen8217;s under 8216;curfew8217;!

The foremost question on my mind, on returning to St Stephen8217;s after a lapse of four years, was, 8216;How can a sober academic culture be nurtured without dampening the exuberance of Stephanians?8217; The main stumbling block in achieving this was, I believe, the re-invention of St Stephen8217;s as a 8216;brand name8217;. The college was not a brand name when I was a student there in the early seventies or for the greater part of my 30-year-tenure as a member of the faculty. Its evolution as a coveted academic object of desire not an object of 8216;academic desire8217; is somewhat a recent invention.

The more affluence spreads and the less students8217; physical and intellectual energies are engaged in academic pursuits, the margin for mischief will increase. More stringent legislation and sledgehammer punishments may not be the most appropriate response. Even those who victimise others are victims: victims of a spurious culture.

Ragging is also a mirror to the level of violence in our society. The 8216;most ragged person8217; in India today is, possibly, the hon8217;ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha! The culture of robust parliamentary debate is being displaced, increasingly, by violent forms of protest which help to reassure oneself and one8217;s party. A similar psychology seems to be at work when ragging takes place. This is not to justify brutal violence. But to assume that educational institutions, and teenagers studying in them, will remain insulated from the cultural climate is naiuml;ve. Stringent punitive measures are required, but they are inadequate in themselves to eradicate the malady.

A strategy to contain ragging cannot sidestep the issue of parenting. Increasingly, parental affection gets expressed not through quality time spent with children. Money and what it buys are its preferred expressions. As parents we mistake indulgence for caring and bribing children into compliance for obedience. We care for them, but do not train them to feel and care for others 8212; not even ourselves.

It is not my call to defend 8216;raggers8217;. Nor is it an option for me to abandon my students to stigma and life-long trauma merely because it pleases some to insist that what is nothing more than a reprehensible act of indiscipline is an instance of ragging. I have studied the various aspects of the event that occurred in St Stephen8217;s College on the night of September 27. I have no doubt at all that it is not ragging.

I am as keen as anyone else to eradicate the menace of ragging. But I do not believe that stern policing and destructive, rather than reformative, punishment are the only solutions.

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The writer is officiating as principal, St Stephen8217;s College, Delhi