Rage and penalties

THE RAGE EVOKED among parents and concerned citizens when fresh entrants to colleges and universities are subject to the harassment and humiliation of ragging rituals at the commencement of practically every academic session is indeed more than justified. No civilised society can remain a mute spectator when what is ostensibly a fun way to welcome newcomers to the portals of higher learning sometimes turns fatal. However, only a series of long-term measures emanating from sober reflection, in addition to stringent action against offenders, can offer a lasting way out of this pernicious practice. In this context, the recent order of the Supreme Court aimed at curbing ragging on campuses reads like a long list of penalties against its perpetrators. In what appears nowadays to be a standard response of the courts in relation to social evils of a similar nature, the number of punitive measures recommended by the Supreme Court against erring students could well be the reaction to another kind of anti-social behaviour on campuses. Withholding scholarships and results, debarring from representation in events, or issuing suspension or expulsion orders might well be a logical response to, say, those inducing peers to take to drugs. The ineffectiveness of a stick approach to situations such as these which require a humane and sensitive handling has been well established to warrant further elaboration. But both the Judiciary and the University Grants Commission which have been trying to evolve strategies to eliminate ragging seem reluctant to consider alternative and possibly more effective means.

A more appropriate response from the Judiciary might have been a set of positive prescriptions aimed at creating awareness, above all, among heads of educational institutions regarding the need to create a conducive social environment that can facilitate new entrants and seniors to forge relations that foster respect for social diversity, cultural plurality and human dignity, without necessarily jeopardising the inculcation of professional competence and a spirit of competitiveness in their chosen field. Sadly, occasions such as freshers gatherings which can potentially set the tone for more meaningful interactions beyond breaking the ice are very often reduced to one among many annual rituals on campuses, although, institutions that give due importance to such events can boast of a healthier climate. The increasing tendency to take too narrow and functional a view of learning and to regard the pursuit of humanities and related disciplines as a luxury that the better endowed can ill-afford to invest in forecloses the social space that engenders a spontaneous human interaction. Ironically, the Indian elite, with its exposure to the beneficial effects of these modes of intercourse in western universities and therefore best placed to replicate them, fails to impart meaning and relevance to such activities closer home.

At a different level, the increasing propensity towards finding legal quickfixes to the erosion of civic values in our community and public life smacks of a dangerous reductionism that traces the roots of all social ills to a law and order situation, consequently justifying the recourse to heavy-handed measures. The failure to recognise the boundaries among civic, legal and moral domains eventually leads to according sanction to authoritarian and arbitrary means that turn out to be a `remedy' worse than the disease and counterproductive in the long run.

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Section  : Opinion
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