Seniors, a necessary evil!

Seniors, a necessary evil!

Dr. Shantanu Abhyankar

I have been asked to share ideas on the topic, ‘Seniors, A Necessary Evil!’

Fortunately the request came through a telephonic conversation and I can take the liberty to add punctuation marks between the words, Seniors, Necessary and Evil. I toyed with Idea of adding a full stop, but then that is not what I want to convey. I don’t believe that seniors indeed are evil.  I also toyed with Idea of a question mark.  But that wouldn't do either, I firmly believe that the role of seniors should be beyond a question mark, beyond   doubt and certainly not evil; rather angelical. However since some might find my views rather surprising I have chosen an exclamation mark and titled my write up, Seniors, a necessary evil!

Seniors undertake what is called as ‘ragging’ and cause apprehension, shame, embarrassment and at times mild to severe physical and/or psychological harm. In   extreme cases the young student is driven to suicide. Everybody may not be driven to suicide but some are forced to leave the system, some suffer serious psychological trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder and all these are ultimately losses for the person, the family, the society and the nation.  The reported incidents are just the tip of the iceberg and a lot lies unseen and unreported.

Students often try to justify and even glorify this practice. It’s commonly argued that ragging prepares the newbie for more difficult situations in life. The fact remains that ragging makes the junior accept the situation weakly and meekly. This is achieved through the power of numbers and position. It encourages exploitation and nonresistant acceptance. Another popular myth is that ragging is supposed to help break ice between seniors and juniors.  I am sure there are more pleasant ways of interaction and camaraderie.

Juniors face many anxieties and seniors are expected to be understanding, sympathetic, helpful and tolerant. They are   expected to guide the junior in his initial unsteady, slippery, tentative, fledgling steps.  Instead what the juniors are presented with is arrogance and supremacy hooliganism.

Many see ragging as a chance to revenge what they have suffered as juniors and the vicious circle goes on. Many perpetrators associate manliness with inflicting such pain and many a victims associate macho ideas in bearing the pain with an unflinching grin.  Complaining is often seen as a sign of give way, defeat, shame, surrender and loss of face.

Fortunately, in India, ragging is now seen not just as a personal offence but as shameful for the institution as well. The Supreme Court and other authorities have proactively tried to tackle the menace and with good results. I firmly believe that evil behavior of a senior must come as a surprise rather than a matter of fact. Zero ragging incidents is a matter of pride for the institute and its students.