It’s big difficult to recapitulate all the incidents which I experienced personally almost five years ago during ragging but I shall confine myself only to the indelible incidents. Though I had heard and read a lot about ragging in various periodicals during my senior secondary studies but I had a personal experience of it when I made an entry in one of the hostels of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
Ragging in AMU has been given the synonym of “Intro” or “Introduction” by the students because of its being banned expressly by the Supreme Court through its judgment of 2001. Ragging, through another name of Intro commences from July every year after the admissions are over. It takes place every Saturday night from about 10 pm and lasts till 5 or 6 am in the next morning. This traumatic period of more than 6 hours is really hard to bear with. So called Intro never has had any characteristics of Introduction. While a fresher student is asked about his background details at the very beginning but other seniors, who take ragging are never introduced to him. This frustrates the very objective of the so called introduction, which as the senior students claim is to get introduced the seniors and the fresher’s to each other.
In the name of introduction a fresher student is asked to perform many undesired and unwanted activities which an educated person and a man of prudence and self respect would never like to perform. The senior students of the varsity, who feel proud of their seniority and standing also ask illogical, irrelevant and non-sense queries which any person would find hard to answer. Some of the paradigms are “How will you have sex with another girl, how will you propose a girl, how will you prove that you are a man etc.” If a fresher refuses to answer or is unable to answer or unable to perform any desired activity then he is shouted and abused at and is asked to become a “Murga”, which is ultimately very humiliating and a clear violation of human rights.
Frequent abusing, chiding, castigating, shouting ruthlessly, behaving like uncivilized and rustic persons are all common traits of senior students of AMU who are involved in ragging. Some students are also beaten up for they refuse to submit to the wills and desires of the seniors. I have personally seen students spending their cold nights in an open field or library so as to escape from being ragged. This whole drama lasts till 5 or 6 am in the morning when senior students get tired and feel drowsy. The fresher students who escape from ragging on Saturday are made to undergo a severe punishment in Sunday afternoon. This all creates a felling of fear and depression among the new young lads. This draconian more of AMU continues till 17th October when the Varsity celebrates Sir Syed day.
Ragging in AMU is almost undue harassment and vexation of the fresh students by the seniors. The senior students who take pride in humiliating and asking illogical queries and irritating and teasing every fresh student are hardly afraid of the authorities. Though there are Provost, Wardens, Proctor etc for controlling this menace but they have all proved to be a paper tiger. The authorities are not at all interested in curbing ragging, which affects almost every fresher. One of the reasons for it is that the University does not want to take action or suspend any student in the name of ragging. University is never willing to put at stake the career of any student but it can tolerate such open hooliganism in its campus, clearly defying the orders of the Supreme Court. University also does not want to hog the media limelight for cases of ragging. These all factors cause majority of the ragging incidents to go unreported. Even if any complaint is done, it ultimately proves to be futile. Action is taken only in rare cases when any major incident takes place e.g. suicide by a fresher student, breaking of limbs of any student etc.
It is now high time that a strict administrator should be appointed in Varsities and colleges for controlling this menace. Students should also be given the leeway to move to NHRC or National Commission for Women, Police etc for getting the matter reported besides the University authorities. Strict and exemplary action should be taken against the students who are found involved in ragging.
Ragging in AMU has been given the synonym of “Intro” or “Introduction” by the students because of its being banned expressly by the Supreme Court through its judgment of 2001. Ragging, through another name of Intro commences from July every year after the admissions are over. It takes place every Saturday night from about 10 pm and lasts till 5 or 6 am in the next morning. This traumatic period of more than 6 hours is really hard to bear with. So called Intro never has had any characteristics of Introduction. While a fresher student is asked about his background details at the very beginning but other seniors, who take ragging are never introduced to him. This frustrates the very objective of the so called introduction, which as the senior students claim is to get introduced the seniors and the fresher’s to each other.
In the name of introduction a fresher student is asked to perform many undesired and unwanted activities which an educated person and a man of prudence and self respect would never like to perform. The senior students of the varsity, who feel proud of their seniority and standing also ask illogical, irrelevant and non-sense queries which any person would find hard to answer. Some of the paradigms are “How will you have sex with another girl, how will you propose a girl, how will you prove that you are a man etc.” If a fresher refuses to answer or is unable to answer or unable to perform any desired activity then he is shouted and abused at and is asked to become a “Murga”, which is ultimately very humiliating and a clear violation of human rights.
Frequent abusing, chiding, castigating, shouting ruthlessly, behaving like uncivilized and rustic persons are all common traits of senior students of AMU who are involved in ragging. Some students are also beaten up for they refuse to submit to the wills and desires of the seniors. I have personally seen students spending their cold nights in an open field or library so as to escape from being ragged. This whole drama lasts till 5 or 6 am in the morning when senior students get tired and feel drowsy. The fresher students who escape from ragging on Saturday are made to undergo a severe punishment in Sunday afternoon. This all creates a felling of fear and depression among the new young lads. This draconian more of AMU continues till 17th October when the Varsity celebrates Sir Syed day.
Ragging in AMU is almost undue harassment and vexation of the fresh students by the seniors. The senior students who take pride in humiliating and asking illogical queries and irritating and teasing every fresh student are hardly afraid of the authorities. Though there are Provost, Wardens, Proctor etc for controlling this menace but they have all proved to be a paper tiger. The authorities are not at all interested in curbing ragging, which affects almost every fresher. One of the reasons for it is that the University does not want to take action or suspend any student in the name of ragging. University is never willing to put at stake the career of any student but it can tolerate such open hooliganism in its campus, clearly defying the orders of the Supreme Court. University also does not want to hog the media limelight for cases of ragging. These all factors cause majority of the ragging incidents to go unreported. Even if any complaint is done, it ultimately proves to be futile. Action is taken only in rare cases when any major incident takes place e.g. suicide by a fresher student, breaking of limbs of any student etc.
It is now high time that a strict administrator should be appointed in Varsities and colleges for controlling this menace. Students should also be given the leeway to move to NHRC or National Commission for Women, Police etc for getting the matter reported besides the University authorities. Strict and exemplary action should be taken against the students who are found involved in ragging.
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