Ragging and Inferiority Complex

College freshers and their parents might wonder what Prof Rajender Kachroo might have felt when his son Aman was beaten to death by his seniors a year ago in the name of ragging. One may also wonder what made four “senior” medical students, aged perhaps 19 and who had chosen medicine as their carreer, gang up and beat a lone helpless fresher to death in a display of their might and supremacy.

Ragging in Indian campuses has existed for atleast 3- 4 decades. It was agonizing and humiliating even in our times in the early 70s. I recall how some students loved to rag, and were at their liveliest during the days when freshers came in. They would  terrorize trembling new comers who had just ventured out of protected homes.

In the initial days and weeks of our joining,  we saw these “senior” raggers to exude confidence and power but as we settled down and got our bearings over the next few months, we realized that most of them were phonies, repeaters or perverts of some sort. Very few were scholastically good, had any kind of leadership quality (apart from rousing a mob of frustrated raggers like themselves) or ever subsequently served as role model for their juniors.

A year later when the next batch arrived, we were surprised to find some of the quiet mates suddenly turn aggressive raggers; they were not the achievers,  leaders or the friendly types, but  the ones who had gone unnoticed the whole year, had stuck in small groups, indulged in drinking or drugs, or had come from “problem” homes. They had not attained much recognition amongst their class mates or peers the whole year, due perhaps to lack of any special skill or ability, and even gone unnoticed by girl students. Instead, as though to atone for their inadequacy, they dispalyed insatiable energy in ragging helpless freshers, and threw their weight and strength at them in desperation to be noticed and feared by atleast someone.

Raggers suffer from the INFERIORITY COMPLEX, in which they consider themselves, in their heart-of- hearts (unconscious mind) to be inferior to those of their own match. This constant gnawing feeling of inferiority drives them to bully or rag those who are younger or more vulnerable, so that they may experience a perverted sense of superiority.  Bullies in school are no exception. They indulge in fights or use force against younger and weaker kids with whom they run no risk, shying away cowardly from those who are their equals.

Apart from banning ragging, bullies and raggers should be compulsorily sent for psychiatric help. Perhaps making them understand the complex they suffer from may help restrain them from harming others and themselves.  And would medical students who rag and harbour this trait, be ever able to emerge as kind doctors who will tend to ailing and weak patients with respect and concern?

 As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times)