Dear Dr K,
My college senior is making me ask: What is ragging? How did it originate? Why is it so popular among college students?
— June Ear
Dear June,
Ragging is an age-old practice that is carried out in institutions of higher learning. It is carried out in various different ways and to different degrees depending on the specific college or university. Ragging can last for as little as five minutes or go on for an entire year. Reasons why its done and how it originated are shrouded in anthropological and historical mystery.
Many believe that ragging is a practice that has been carried out since ancient times, from the days when
gurukulam was in vogue. For this reason there are people who believe that banning ragging in colleges would be going against Indian culture.
There are many opposing views on the reasons behind the origin and continuing practice of ragging. A very common view is that ragging is an initiation rite of sorts, to properly induct new students of the college into the student community. The typical song and dance that juniors are made to perform are indicative of the fanfare and ceremonial nature of ragging.
However, opponents of these views state that not all ragging is song and dance. A lot of ragging includes activities that are much less fun to do than sing and dance. Some see ragging as a form of torture. As my associate L put it, “Ragging is a form of torture that was not very long ago employed in Guantanamo Bay. The details of its origins are unclear, except we know it started in the kitchen in a private engineering college and involved two men, an omelette, and a dishrag.”
There is also the question of why ragging is such a frequent phenomenon, and as you put it, so popular among college students. Is it because all these college seniors develop sadistic tendencies, is it some strange sort of vengeance they suffered at the hands of their seniors, or is it part of an elaborate scheme to overthrow our democracy and install a malevolent banana as the dictator of our nation?
These explanations all useful to a certain degree, but to me, are still not fully satisfactory. I mean, why is it that the so-called sadistic tendencies developed by college seniors are mostly limited to college life? Why is it that the vengeance for being ragged is taken out on juniors when it would be so easy to break the cycle? Can there really be such a thing as a malevolent banana? The explanations offered above all fail in light of these questions.
A more plausible explanation, in my mind, is that college seniors rag their juniors in an effort to distract them with fear. You see, when students enter college for the first time, they believe that they will learn amazing things and grow much smarter in the span of a few years. They, therefore, expect their seniors to be extremely wise and learned beings. The seniors are not — they know that they are as dumb, if not dumber, than they were when they joined college.
In order to prevent their juniors from discovering this and losing their respect for their seniors, they distract them with ragging. Which is why, if you’ve just joined college, you should never ask your seniors questions.
Yours questionably,
Dr K
Kaushik is a student of humanities at an engineering college. He blogs at
www.nonsenseofkaushik.blogspot.com.
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