Posted by huh --Previous Message--
on May 7, 2007, 4:19:49, in reply to "Re: The Psychology of Ragging"
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:
: The Psychology of Ragging
: Is it more than schadenfreude?
: Dhruv Raj Sharma
: Department of Applied Psychology,
: University of Delhi, South Campus.
:
: As the result the earnest endeavours of the
: Vishwa Jagriti Mission and their supporters,
: ragging today faces a nation-wide ban by the
: orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. And why
: not! The things that Harsh Agarwal (medical
: college drop out) had to endure, the events
: that led to the loss of six lives in the
: last three years, and all the horrible
: incidents of raggers resorting to physical
: abuse, are terrible enough to deserve such
: action.
:
: But who are these “raggers”? Are they
: men who used to assist Hitler in his
: “concentration camps”; are they merciless
: Pharaohs, back from the dead; or are these
: the extraordinary Martians that we have been
: looking for, who move around in UFOs and
: have antennae on their heads? Think about
: it. Of all those of you reading this
: article, there would hardly be anyone for
: whom ragging is something new. Most of you
: have gone through it. Even in all-girls’
: colleges like Lady Shri Ram and Miranda
: House there have been age-old “traditions”
: of ragging. And, therefore, if one is faced
: with a phenomenon as common as ragging, is
: it not necessary to ask the basic question,
: “Why”? Why does one group of students wish
: to harass another group of students?
: A sociologist, I heard on television,
: attributed ragging to our innate tendency
: for one-upmanship – to establish our
: supremacy over others by crushing them. This
: may be true, in its own right, but it is a
: less responsible explanation because it does
: not offer any solution to the problem of
: ragging.
:
: Had the institution in question been an
: insignificant one, where teachers are
: indifferent, and students left to roam the
: campus like cattle, the above explanation
: could have been accepted. But since ragging
: is prevalent in institutions as prestigious
: as St. Stephens and IIT-D, we have to seek a
: deeper answer.
:
: The psychology of a college sophomore
: approximates closest to that of the elder
: child. After having enjoyed being the sole
: focus of his parents’ attention, it is quite
: natural for the first child to feel
: threatened by the arrival of the new baby.
: And these first children have even been
: known to inflict mortal injuries upon their
: new siblings. This, in psychological terms,
: is commonly known as “sibling rivalry”, and
: can successfully be prevented by responsible
: parental intervention. In fact, such rivalry
: can indeed be channelised towards developing
: a sense of responsibility in the elder
: child.
:
: In the case of the sophomore, the
: “rivalry” may have been reduced to mere
: curiosity. But even this meagre emotion, if
: neglected by the guardians, is potent enough
: to keep ragging alive. And, therefore, let
: me turn your attention to the guidelines
: issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,
: 3.3.2001 [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 656 of
: 1998]: “1. Ragging cannot be cured merely by
: making it a cognizable criminal offence.
: 2. Students’ acts of indiscipline must
: primarily be dealt with within the
: institution.
: 3. Students going to educational
: institutions for learning should not remain
: under the constant fear of being dealt with
: by the police.
: 4. Moreover, the management should devise
: such positive and constructive activities to
: be arranged, so that the seniors and the
: juniors can interact with each other in a
: healthy atmosphere… …and behave like members
: of a family in an institution.”
:
: And it is this last point that needs to
: be carefully adhered to. We must not fail to
: notice the emphasis that these guidelines
: place on the role of the educational
: institution in the prevention of ragging. We
: must be sensitive to the fact that children,
: even till class XII, are accustomed to a lot
: more personal attention from their faculty
: than what college faculties deny them in the
: name of “no spoon-feeding”. We must also
: observe that in places (like St. Stephen’s)
: where the faculty is actively involved with
: the students, hardly any untoward incidents
: ever take place: on the contrary, students
: are able to experience some of the most
: cherished moments of their lives, on these
: campuses. Therefore, it naturally follows
: that at the root of this social-evil lies
: not a need for one-upmanship, or
: schadenfreude, but a gross neglect of
: students’ emotional needs by the teachers.
: Those who disagree must ask themselves as to
: why there is no ragging at the intermediate
: level, in school. How do those angelic
: school-goers become monstrous tyrants in
: just one year? Institutions must realize
: that it is as much their responsibility to
: provide the “healthy atmosphere” that the
: Supreme Court guidelines recommend as it is
: to hold regular classes.
: Blanket bans are nothing new for India:
: it is all so convenient, to prevent
: something just make it a punishable offence.
: Psychology attributes this to a process
: called perceptual defence, where by we turn
: blind to unpleasant sights. So, from
: preventing the use of unfair means in
: examinations (“cheating”) to curbing
: prostitution, the best solution the
: government can imagine is a ban. How
: successful these two bans have been in
: stopping cheating or prostitution needs to
: be questioned, to say the least.
:
: Sirs, we must understand that this is
: not what Gandhiji meant when he said “Bura
: mat dekho”. Ragging is an emotional problem,
: not a criminal one. And, because the victims
: of it are the future of our country, we need
: to be a little more responsible.
:
: The author may be contacted at:
: dhruvrajsharma@yahoo.co.uk.
:
:
r u serious?
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