It is admission time and again newspapers are full of ragging . This year even the supreme court has stepped in and asked the government to ensure there is no ragging. The first time the Indian parliament took note of the phenomenon of ragging was in 1975 and , since I was closely associated to the events leading to the beginning of ban on ragging, I decided to share with my experience .
*HISTORY
* Ragging was never acknowledged before 1975. No newspapers carried the stories. No radio shows discussed it. There was no television. No parental counselling was done. . Basically it was a generation on the move up, struggling with issues like forced contraception, jobs, employment exchanges, emergency, naxalism. Youth wanted to succeed in life at all costs and considered ragging to be inconsequential, a hiccough to be gone through.
TYPES OF RAGGING
There were 3 types of ragging
- Local colleges--
Mildest. Seniors used to call a fresher, say run , sing a song for that lady . Some shoe licking, some did nudity. However it never was a prolonged form. Except for an aberration here or there, a very brief phase and freshers were part of the team after a week or so. I attended Delhi univ for pre-medical(we had boards in 11th class)for 1 year and was never ragged even once.
- Professional colleges--intellectual/verbal type this model was an institutionalised model, followed for 1 full term(3 months). It was in colleges where selection was at the national level and hostel was compulsory. the worst was in engineering colleges where IITs took the lead.Next was in medical colleges where AIIMS and AFMC, pune led. Here the concept was to humiliate the toppers, dress down the hippies, make the simple village guys use swear words. The idea was to bring all to the same level. So they’d ask a guy ’what does the DC after Washington stand for’. when the guy drew a blank, they’d laugh and say’duh! what rank in Punjab state did you get--2nd --God what are we coming to?’ However, caste ism was avoided and the reservationists were never dealt with separately.
This was coupled with sleep deprivation along with tough professional studies. Basically bring out macho men from sissy mama boys. At least that was the concept. It did go all wrong with some guys and gals at times.
- Physical Types
never openly discussed , followed in military type of institutions. Typical was NDA at Pune. Entire top brass knew it existed , . Here a guy was made into an ugly specimen--bald, no moustaches, looking down at 3rd button when talking to seniors. Giving physical punishment was the pre-rogative of seniors, comprising of running 3 kms with cycle in hands, crawling on elbows. Abusing was rampant, however no form of physical contact like slapping, kicking, sexual abuse were allowed by the system.
THE AFMC MODEL
My Alma mater, armed forces medical college was unique in that we were civilians, not subject to army act. We had to pay for our meals and books/clothes etc. Still the college was run under defence ministry. So what we followed was a combination However, the physical model was limited to crew cut hair style, no moustaches, looking down to 3rd button when talking to a senior, being made to wake up seniors at all times of the night , singing, becoming murga. Unlike NDA, we did not have running/punishments/open abusing/crawling. The girls had to oil their hair and make a choti, wear only salwar kameez.All this went on for 3 months after which we were back to long hair and the normal medical college routine.
Our days were long with classes and practicals from 8 a.m. to 5p.m.Nights were longer with a list of seniors to be woken up at different times. Each had different instructions like when you wake me up shout--c-ck-doodle-do, , while some wanted to be woken up to a rajesh khanna song.In between we had to study for our own weekly tests.
Yes we were given ’medical names’ --which were abs filth . We also had a medical anthem which we had to sing daily. By the end of the 1st term, we were all pros at using the choicest swear words with no hint of embarassment and all regional accents had been removed from the spoken english of various state students.
(now afmc has changed and they are cadets, subject to army act and paid for by defence ministry).
HOW THINGS WENT WRONG
48th course of NDA was to pass out. The positions for the sword of honour had been decided and the best 3 cadets declared. Two nights before the passing out parade, there was a big social, hosted by all the juniors Traditionally it was a kiss and make up do. . The senior batch were given punishments , menial chores and , finally, at the end of the social, bashed up with fists, hands and wet towels by the juniors. However, no guy could be mild and emerge at the top of the class. So the worst punishment was for the 3 toppers. This year they had ruthlessly bright guys at the top, including Suresh Raina, nephew of the then chief of army staff, General Raina. So youngsters got carried away and put in shoes and locks inside the wet towels. Hitting with full force in the back, they ruptured kidneys of 2 of the top 3 cadets , including Suresh. The two realised it early morning when they pissed frank blood.
By the time the two were brought to our college, they had gone into renal shutdown. Dialysis was started and experts flown in from Mumbai. All was in vain and the two cadets died after 3 days.
PARLIAMENT BANS RAGGING
That led to the ban of ragging by the Indian parliament . In NDA it was swift as they were under the army act. In AFMC, it took two decades and many rustication and, finally , the cadet status which put an end to it. In medical and engineering colleges it was a spate of suicides and the coverage by the media which made ragging a punishable offense. In local colleges the introduction of caste flavour, hastened it.
Today it is a punishable offense with education being stopped for the offenders.
Wwhat is the experience of today’s youth in practice, I am not competent to say about ground realities.