Understanding Ragging As A Social Phenomenon

By Kumudu Kusum Kumara –June 29, 2016

Dr. Kumudu Kusum Kumara

Understanding Ragging As A Social Phenomenon, An Interpretation: In Search Of Sociality & Leadership

Ragging of freshers in the University becomes a problem in the eyes of the collective, due to its “inhuman nature” involving a “disturbingly high degree of physical and mental harassment” as it has been highlighted. Various measures recommended by authorities seasonally to deal with the problems of ragging highlight the enormity and the gravity of the problem as perceived by the collective. All the same, the measures we adopt in “combating” it should be conceived and applied with great care, so as not to repress merely the superficial aspects of the problem while preserving its roots intact. That would cause a re-emergence of ragging in even worse forms than are now prevalent.

Ragging: Problem or Solution?

While the collective perceives ragging as a problem for which solutions have to be sought, ironically, in my view, ragging itself may be understood as a collective solution by those who engage in it to problems of a different kind.

Sociality

I suggest that the issue which lies at the heart of ragging is sociality. The critics view the behaviour of those who engage in ragging as anti-social; they violate by force the self of the individuals who are ragged and therefore social norms and even the law. This is to say, basically, they lack sociality.

From the perspective of those who engage in ragging and those who approve of it, the specific purpose of ragging is achieving sociality; seniors getting to know the freshers, and introducing them to the traditions of the University which they have entered. A senior’s role then, is to lead the freshers, however unfortunately for the latter, by ragging them.

The question whether the freshers should not be encouraged to rag the seniors to get to know them is not even considered, making taking the lead in ‘getting to know’ the prerogative of the seniors. Or is it considered the entitlement of the host initiating getting to know the visitor? Also, in this case, the burden of deciding the “traditions” of society is squarely taken on the shoulders of the seniors alone.

Leadership

I wish to suggest that the problem for which ragging is considered a solution by the university student population is their innermost felt need to become leaders and their inability to achieve it.

The University students are taken to constitute the intellectual cream of the country. From a young age they have been made to believe by the society that higher education is the gateway to leadership.

There is an argument that given the bankruptcy of the economy, and the control of the private sector over the job market that make the university educated youth an unwanted element, it is the privations and intense frustrations staring them in the face, that make university students take to ragging. However, to treat them as acting out in this manner is to take them as blind to their reality and thus deny them human agency whereas the interpretation attempted in this article considers ragging is perceived by the students as a course of action taken to address their plight.

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