Ragging vis-a-vis the Stanford Prison Experiment
It has been far too long since I wrote anything, and perhaps the thought has been nagging at me from within for quite a while now, although my mind, distracted by several other things, failed to notice the persistent tug on its sleeve by this particular one. Things finally came to a head when I, not understanding why myself, shunned company and shut myself up in my room, with a feeling of having left some task unfinished, the specifics of which came to me only after a night of sleep.
Moving on then, from personal notes of self-indulgence, the purpose of this post is to discuss the parallels between the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment(SPE) and the phenomenon of Ragging.
The SPE, conducted by Dr. Zimbardo, aimed at studying prison conditions, and the behavior of prisoners and prison guards. A mock prison environment was created, and guards and prisoners briefed. What emerged was a shocking degree of conformity by the participants to the roles assigned to them. Guards became sadistic and mentally harassed prisoners who broke discipline. Prisoners became either docile or rebellious, and came to accept the treatment of the guards. One prisoner had a mental breakdown and had to be released early.
For a general overview of the same, go through
Now, the SPE demonstrated the phenomenon of de-individuation- a process where an individual loses his uniqueness and blends in with the social conditions he is put in. In simpler terms this is the mob mentality, documented by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. The mob acquires a life of its own, the individual views no longer matter, everyone is carried along in the flood of opinion. This is also observed in incidents of brutality like lynching and gang-rape.
Now, notice the similarity with ragging. Ragging occurs in colleges, when students arrive as freshers and are subjected to humiliation and activities leading to mental distress, sometimes even extending to physical assault. The point to note here is that the groups are arbitrarily decided- outside of the college environment, the raggers and the ragged are separated only by a year of age, and often less than that! Once they are in the environment however, the juniors automatically become docile and submissive, and consent to the orders put forward by the seniors, although they know perfectly well that the seniors have no authority over them. A social system is created which encourages the seniors to be authoritarian and even cruel to the juniors, and the juniors to be submissive to this. Everyone is distressed by the kind of experience they undergo, however, the level of opposition is extremely limited.
It is also amazing to note how normal, good natured young people turn into seemingly sadistic monsters, putting juniors through several creative forms of humiliation. It is also striking that the very perpetrators of the act were, less than a year before, victims of the same themselves. While the practice has been outlawed by the Supreme Court, those who complain are penalized by being ostracized from campus life. While the practice seems to be dying out, it is certainly dying a slow death, showing how powerful social pressures and structures can be, even when they go against simple logic and reason.
Perhaps a deeper investigation into ragging would assist us in better understanding the infinitely more complex social issues, of which there is no dearth in our nation.
Now, notice the similarity with ragging. Ragging occurs in colleges, when students arrive as freshers and are subjected to humiliation and activities leading to mental distress, sometimes even extending to physical assault. The point to note here is that the groups are arbitrarily decided- outside of the college environment, the raggers and the ragged are separated only by a year of age, and often less than that! Once they are in the environment however, the juniors automatically become docile and submissive, and consent to the orders put forward by the seniors, although they know perfectly well that the seniors have no authority over them. A social system is created which encourages the seniors to be authoritarian and even cruel to the juniors, and the juniors to be submissive to this. Everyone is distressed by the kind of experience they undergo, however, the level of opposition is extremely limited.
It is also amazing to note how normal, good natured young people turn into seemingly sadistic monsters, putting juniors through several creative forms of humiliation. It is also striking that the very perpetrators of the act were, less than a year before, victims of the same themselves. While the practice has been outlawed by the Supreme Court, those who complain are penalized by being ostracized from campus life. While the practice seems to be dying out, it is certainly dying a slow death, showing how powerful social pressures and structures can be, even when they go against simple logic and reason.
Perhaps a deeper investigation into ragging would assist us in better understanding the infinitely more complex social issues, of which there is no dearth in our nation.
