Indians ragging foreigners?

In the light of the recent ragging events where a young life has been tragically lost have you wondered how foreign students who join our universities and colleges are treated?

Many of them particularly from Africa are ignored by the Indian ragging seniors. When I joined MCC in 1985 there was my classmate Abdul Khader from Somalia. Abdul was a good student but left after a year or two of study. He was hardly confronted by a senior but that was not the case in the following story.

This incident could have been an urban legend but I have heard it from many people. The first person who told me was my friend Subra(Subramaniyam) in school who used to stay inside the Anna University campus as his father used to a Professor there.

The story is about an African fresher in Anna University who had a past not many seniors knew. He was alone and had hardly any Indian friends. That reminds me of the "Ottayaan" (in Malayalam) elephant who is feared more than the herd. He was well built and of good height. People who have seen him bare chested recall a gruesome scar running diagonally across his chest. What seniors didn't know was that our African fresher was a small time tribal warrior back in his homeland in Africa who had also fought battles. Sounds nice already doesn't it. Oh you must read the rest.

Although initially none of the seniors even wanted to talk to him some of them were keen to bully the guy just for amusement. Initial encounters were politely rebuffed by our African friend though he was gradually begining to sense the intent behind the meetings. Gradually seniors were losing patience and they decided to go all out to rag the guy. Apprehensive of the outcome they gathered a crowd and decided to corner him in the hostel mess when he would come down for his dinner. So when our friend was having his dinner the big group of seniors accosted him. I am sure out of his warfare-instinct this gathering would have already put him on high alert. Once again he played low to the questions that were slowly increasing in impoliteness. Then the decider came. Someone calls him a "Bastard" and another seizes the collar of his shirt.

What happened in the next 30 minutes was "War" and "Mayhem". Bang! Boom! Crash!Chairs, dinner plates and bodies flew across the dining area of the mess. Bones were broken and blood was spilt. Seniors fled for their lives. A few of them who mustered courage to attack the African were knocked unconscious. It was as though a terrorist had entered the hostel mess and had decided to do away with the seniors there. Other non-ragging seniors and freshers, mess workers and staff fled the area not wanting to get hurt in the melee. All the time just one guy bare handed was doing all this damage. Fleeing seniors bleeding and with torn clothes went knocking at the doors of the resident Warden and Professors in charge to complain of what had just been done to them. For once I am sure the Wardens and officials in charge were smiling inside.

Not much is known of what happened later but it is believed that no one after that incident dared to go near the African warrior any more.

How much we enjoyed listening to and sharing this story only we know. In these times when seniors are still brutally ragging juniors to the death I will not be surprised if such stories are told by someone somewhere in a college in India.

Shame on our educational system and our government - A first year student is brutally ragged to his death

The fact that Aman was brutally killed indicates the total failure of our educational system. Another girl, this time in Andhra Pradesh, a couple of days after the Aman murder incident made a suicide attempt on her life after being humiliated by her seniors.

These incidents are not going to stop. It happens every year and it will go on. Shameful reports of second year and senior students physically and brutally abusing freshers fill our media every year. Sometimes it goes to the extreme as in this case of Aman, a first year student in a medical college in Himachal Pradesh who has been beaten to his death by his seniors. When the media were naming the culprits they were being called Dr.X, Dr.Y and so on. In the first place these guys haven't completed their courses or haven't become doctors yet. Secondly these guys don't deserve to be called doctors because they don't understand the meaning and value of life.

What many of the perpetrators never know is the sensitiveness of the people being ragged. Some are hypersensitive. In Singapore I was told that the Government had to intervene and ban ragging from colleges after a number of students took their own lives not being able to tolerate the humiliation of ragging.

In my opinion here are some important reasons why ragging is being done.

1. Brutal physical or emotional ragging is done by seniors to vent their frustration rather than for pleasure or making juniors subservient to them. The excuse of getting respect from juniors or the fact that they were ragged is no reason to rag freshers.

2. This frustration is due to several reasons -
a) Lack of emotional needs - This could be love, caring, friendships in that order.
b) Lack of sexual pleasure fullfillment.
c) Not being able to study, or concentrate on studies or pass exams - During many of the ragging sessions juniors are asked to make projects, take down notes and what not for their seniors.
d) Problems from their families - economic, emotional.

3. The curriculum and syllabi which all need a major upgrades and constant updates. The entire course material needs to be of better quality. This may sound like a trivial point but I have seen school books in Singapore where the quality of the material and courseware is so good that even adults will be enticed to read and study them. Our production of good students need not necessarily be the outcome of our courseware.

4. Jealousy towards newcomers in whom the seniors see things that they (the seniors) are deprived of.

5. Racism too - People from one state venting their frustration on freshers who come from another state. However in the college wher my brother went to in Bangalore you could only be ragged by the seniors who come from the same state as you.

One wonders if the situation will change even if the culprits were punished.
In 1996, the Annamalai University's Raja Muthiah Medical College, Chidamabaram a similar dastardly act took the life of the only son of a Vice Chancellor. The crime was horrific where the body was mutilated severing head, torso, limbs and organs using surgical knives. The culprit who was initially arrested was later freed by the court. The same could also happen to the culprits of the most recent murder. So much for justice in our country.

In the light of ragging I have an interesting story for my next post. I am not sure if this is a myth but it was told by my friend in school while he was a resident of the Anna University campus, Chennai and while his father was serving as a Professor there. I have heard it from other people as well.

Watch out for the post.