Despite official campaigns against the practice, ragging has never been an issue in campus politics. Far less does it figure in the larger political arena, where ideological debates are similarly oblivious to gender discrimination, hate crimes, all generated by the same psychopathology of violence linked to the exercise of power

Supriya Chaudhuri

On the night of August 9, a first-year student fell or was pushed to his death from a hostel block at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, probably after being abused by his seniors. This horrific crime has aroused extraordinary public outrage, directed both at the administrative failure and at the sadistic cruelty masquerading under the obsolete euphemism, “ragging”.

It turns out that more or less everyone in the university community was aware of the bullying and abuse that routinely took place at the men’s hostel. The victim, a minor, had shared his fears with both family and fellow students, though without making a formal complaint. He received neither counselling nor advice from faculty, departmental seniors, or the university’s student welfare board, and was left to deal with the trauma of his first few days in the hostel alone.

In all these ways, Jadavpur University failed him in its duty of care. This criminal failure indicts an institution that has prided itself on excellent teacher-student relations and community spirit. It also indicts society’s neglect of a culture of torture and abuse in which its members were complicit, and the normalisation of such behaviour as a university coming-of-age rite. Fostered by official apathy or patronage, ragging is condoned by the gangland honour code of the student body. Despite official campaigns against the practice, ragging has never been an issue in campus politics. Far less does it figure in the larger political arena, where ideological debates are similarly oblivious to gender discrimination, rape, domestic abuse, and hate crimes, all generated by the same psychopathology of violence linked to the exercise of power….

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/jadavpur-university-ragging-row-a-failure-to-safeguard-higher-education-institutions-8898925/