I ended Part I of this analysis last week(Sunday Observer, April 5,2020), with a reminder to the reader about the two main factors influencing one’s behaviour as one’s Genes and the Environment (G+E) in which one is living. The interested reader can find ample information about the new findings in the field of ‘Epigenetics’ that describe the effects of the environment on our genes. Though the interest in ‘Epigenetics’ as a relatively new area of research, at present, is on the rise, this idea of ‘Genes being influenced by the Environment’ was first introduced to the world of biological research, by a French Biologist/Naturalist named Jean-Baptiste Lamarck*in his book PhilosophieZoologique in 1809. Therefore, Genes and the Environment may not even be considered as two different factors in the future giving a holistic meaning to the old African proverbs I mentioned last week, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. I would also like to remind the reader that, just for the convenience of writing, I will be using the word ‘ragger‘ to refer to a person who engages in such acts of harassing the newcomers and the word ’raggee’ to refer to a person who is victimised by the ragger(s).
Before I take you along the possible paths through which a newborn to the world of humans may become a ragger in 21 to 22 years of living, especially in Sri Lanka under the current conditions, I would like to examine the possible reasons why a second, third or even a fourth year undergraduate student in one of our state universities may turn out to be a ragger after entering the university just n year (or two or three years) ago.
Of course, before they say anything about the motives behind their actions, each ragger strongly denies that they were involved in any form of ragging, but they just wanted to make the acquaintances of the freshmen so that they would feel free to come and ask for any help they need from the seniors. The people who have entered the university before you, are addressed or referred to as aiya (elder brother) or akka (elder sister), according to the current culture within the student body. At times, it is embarrassing to listen to some of these students, being undergraduates in the university, contradict themselves and just put on a blank face and stay silent when those contradictions are pointed out to them. For example, the raggers, when asked whether they knew what ragging means, usually say they don’t know. Then, in the same conversation they deny ragging anyone but just having a casual chat with the freshmen. If we ask, “how do you know whether you were ragging or not, if you didn’t know what ragging means?”,they would remain silent with a blank face. Almost all the raggers will provide the same answers very much like reading from a script. This shows they are as well organised as an organised crime gang/families in Hollywood screenplays.
I will try to list some of the common reasons raggers themselves have stated as to why they ragged the new students. 1. Just for fun. 2. Freshmen should be taught how to respect the seniors and the culture of the university. 3. We have to make the freshmen understand that it is not the administration, the marshals, the student counsellors, the lecturers or any other employee including the security guards who have the power over them; therefore, they have to obey our orders, because the consequences of disobeying would be serious including physical attack. 4. If we didn’t, the other group of seniors (our rival group) will get the freshmen to be their slaves and followers and thereby increase the number of people in their group. We cannot let that happen. 5. Just wanted to help the freshmen. 6. Just trying to find a girlfriend’ (this answer was given by some of the male students).
Though almost all of the raggers usually have the experience of being raggees, let me start the analysis by randomly picking a young adult from the group known as ‘Senior Students’ from one of the state universities in the country. This can be a male or a female student. I will try to analyse them separately if and when a particular behaviour was known to have been effected, by different factors or circumstances, and the gender of the individual. If we pick a ragger, then he/she may either be a raggee in his/her freshmen year or not. In the rare event of the ragger not being a raggee in a previous year, we have to examine the motive(s) behind his/her actions carefully since the common revengeful motive of ‘do unto others as the world have them do unto you’ is not a possibility. Since some of the harassments and torture reported by some raggees were completely unfathomable to a sane human being, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the raggers who are proven to be capable of inflicting such pain and suffering on other human beings are insane and therefore, should be directed to psychiatric evaluations and suitable programs of treatment before the punishments recommended in the UGC guidelines or in the Criminal Code of the country are carried out. Then, there are raggers who enjoy shouting at freshmen using all kinds of derogatory language and demanding them to perform various sexual acts in front of others. These types of ragging take place mostly in hostels, both male and female, and some of the acts reported over the years are even more brutal than the worst gang rape cases you may have heard around the world. These raggers themselves could have been victims of sexual harassment in their younger days or may have developed a twisted way of thinking and creating their sexual satisfaction due to perhaps living in a sexually deprived society. There can be a lot of other factors involved in fashioning the mind of a 21-22 year old man/woman into a state where he/she would try to satisfy his/her sexual needs by engaging in such barbaric acts as watching their younger brothers and sisters raping each other. Therefore, it is our responsibility to make sure that raggers who are proven to have inflicted such physical pain on others are also given psychiatric evaluations first and then decide on a program of treatment and/or a suitable punishment as mentioned above.
These are just two, (physical/sexual torture), of the many ragging methods the seniors use on the newcomers. Hopefully, through the next couple of articles, I will be able to share with you some of the other examples I have been able to evaluate as one of the investigators of such complaints over the years, examine some more of the possible motives of raggers and discuss what we, as responsible citizens of this country, can do to eliminate this virus of ragging from our society while helping the raggers and also ‘would be raggers’ to overcome the weaknesses in their thought process to get rid of such anti-social behaviours.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
The writer has served the higher education sector as an academic for over twenty years in the USA and thirteen years in Sri Lanka and he can be contacted at [email protected])