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Rage, rage against the ragging in the campus
English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words. The word “rag”, for instance, is a fine example, which, in our local context, has “seen a different pulse” (“dekhosh nari”) in Satyajit Ray’s “dictionary”.
Oxford English Dictionary offers a long list of meanings under the entry “rag”. The ones that I am interested in involve, as verbs: a) Make fun of (someone) in a boisterous manner; b) Rebuke severely; and, as nouns, a) A programme of stunts, parades, and other entertainments organised by students to raise money for charity, e.g. “rag week”; b) A boisterous prank or practical joke. None of them are appropriate in the sense we use it on a daily basis.
I guess my colleagues at the University of Dhaka could not decide on the meaning of the word either. On Wednesday, a meeting of the university’s Academic Council decided to ban celebrating “inhuman, brutal, and unethical” festivals in the name of “rag day”. The following day, “the authorities issued another press release claiming that the information regarding banning rag day was misrepresented inadvertently in the press release that was issued yesterday” ( DS , September 3, 2020).
Surely the authorities did not think it through before imposing such a ban. Even the sudden withdrawal is tagged with the formation of an “ethical committee review” clause, suggesting they are still mulling over it. Judging from their quick response, it is obvious that they backtracked sensing that the student search engine went into overdrive, and social media was becoming heated.
Students, both present and former, did not like the “reactionary” move. Why would one deem the graduation party, or the celebration of the end of academic life, as “inhuman, brutal and unethical”? It’s true that students bring out rowdy rallies, raise funds to hold parties and concerts, and want to leave the campus with a bang. They do not want to “go gentle into the night” (Dylan Thomas). Only a hollow man would like to leave the world “not with a bang but a whimper” (TS Eliot). But these are young men in their prime youth—why restrain them from enjoying their last few hours in their protected world before they enter the jungle out there. You never know, maybe some of them will rule the jungle and get featured on newspapers, claiming, from rags to riches.
Jokes apart, these men and women had their first brush with the campus with an unsavoury phenomenon that involves another denotation of “rag”. Ragging is a term used probably in the subcontinent (and Sri Lanka). Its US equivalence is hazing or the initiation ceremonies that you see among fraternities and sororities. It is argued, that hazing in the US institutions were introduced by the army men who returned to campus after WWI. It was prevalent in the British army and public schools during the colonial era. In India it took a serious form, involving verbal, physical and sexual abuses, in the 1980s. Holi (1984) and Three Idiots (2009), both featuring Aamir Khan, gives us rare insights into the problem.
Ragging is an institutionalised emasculation mechanism to enfeeble and debilitate the incoming students, usually by their immediate senior batches. What started as a rag, “a boisterous prank or practical joke” has devolved and spiralled into something preposterous. These rituals usually include: verbal torture (e.g. a newbie is asked to sing an obscene song); dress code ragging (e.g. cross-dressing or stripping); funny introductions; sexual abuse; drug abuse; or playing the fool. There is another kind involving political emasculation: the death of a Buet student Abrar is still being tried at court. To some extent, Abrar was a victim of hazing as his seniors wanted to teach him a lesson for writing something on Facebook that went against the party line or narrative.
The moment a student enters a campus, she or he has to seek the blessings of whoever is in power either to get a seat in the dorm or to live a peaceful campus life. Sometimes, these students even have to pledge that they will join all political rallies, no matter at what ungodly time they are being organised. When our students attend classes, little do we realise that there is an alternative world in the dorms, where these students often maintain (or are forced to maintain) a secret life! We hear about it only when something goes terribly wrong. Abrar is a case in point. Many known instances of suicide, derangement as atrophy of ragging has made the idea a menace.
The public universities are yet to take a strong stance against ragging. In January, the High Court even summoned UGC to take steps against campus bullying. There have not been any visible measures. Some campuses have broad brush sexual harassment policies, but ragging is a unique culture that requires proper legal attention. In India, the Supreme Court has given some strong directives that allowed many of the states to curb ragging. The definition of ragging used in University of Kerala v Council of Principals College in Kerala is quite useful in our context. I quote it in its entirety: “the form ofsystematic and sustained physical, mental and sexual abuse offresh students at the college/ University any other educationalinstitution at the hands of senior students of the sameinstitutions and sometimes even by outsiders. It also meanscausing, including, compelling or forcing a student, whetherby way of a practical joke or otherwise, to do any act which detracts from human dignity or violates his person or exposes him to ridicule or to forbear from doing any lawful activity, intimidating wrongfully restraining, wrongfully confining or by injury or by using criminal force to him or by holding him any threat of such intimidation, wrongful restraint or confinement or injury or the use of criminal force” (Sinde 2017).
There is a fine line between practical jokes and intrusion of privacy. Students, pumped up by their adrenaline rush, often fail to separate the two. Earlier this year, when a student of Jagannath University became ill after ragging, even the education minister said that the time had come to change our mindsets. There were even demands that the parliament should pass laws to stop the menace of ragging.
Ragging should be stamped out because it is “inhuman, brutal, and unethical;” rag day is a different kettle of fish. There can be guidelines to control the celebration so that the mirth making does not cause nuisance like the use of band parties or vuvuzela while classes or exams are being held. The brouhaha should be aimed at ragging, not rag day. Now that the DU academic council has moved away from its rigid stance, maybe it will finally analyse the many shades of ragging, and translate the rage against it in a productive fashion.
Shamsad Mortuza is a professor of English at the University of Dhaka (now on leave). Currently, he is Pro-Vice-Chancellor of ULAB.
Email: shamsad71@hotmail.com