An 18-year-old is dead. Investigations are underway but one thing is certain --- it is a case of college ragging gone unchecked. Ragging, hazing, initiation, bullying, whatever name it goes by wherever, can be understood only up to a degree.
There is that theory psychologists have long proffered, something about valuing highly something gained after enduring much trouble or pain. The gained something in this case is the social bond. And yet, common sense says what is to be gained/earned and at what cost should be evaluated according to context. The primary purpose of joining an institution of higher education is assumedly gaining domain knowledge in a chosen field. Swapnadeep had wanted to study Bengali.
Rituals
The boy from Bagula had bruises on his body other than the fatal injuries sustained when he fell to his death. His last words to his mother were, “I am scared. Take me away from here.” He had arrived in Calcutta only days ago to pursue a bachelor’s programme. Ragging, hazing, initiation happens all over the world. In 2022, three former fraternity members were sentenced to jail for their involvement in the hazing death of a student of Bowling Green State University in the US. The year before, Stone Foltz, 20, had died of “alcohol poisoning after a fraternity initiation event”. (Fraternities are social organisations at North American Colleges and universities.) Stone had spoken to his mother before the event. His mother Shari told the media, ”He had said to me, 'Yeah, we have a drinking ritual that we have to go to and I'm not looking forward to it. I don't want to do it.' My response is 'then don't' and he said, that's rituals. You have to do them.’”
Higher education
In 2018, Sanda Dia, 20, a student at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, died. The New York Times reported that he had been forced by fraternity members to drink excess alcohol, “chug fish oil until he vomited, swallow live goldfish and stand outside in an ice-filled trench”. He suffered multiple organ failure. Sanda’s death has a "black" angle to it. Many of the “mysterious” IIT student deaths, it has been suggested, happened for reasons of caste or religion. Swapnadeep was not from the big city; would that have been reason for a more intense ragging?
Heightened "otherphobia" in the young always surprises, as does cruelty. Cruelty can, of course, nest in any individual, of any age, gender or situation, with reason or without. But it seems especially unfathomable in the young, more so the meritorious young, the kind who seem not to be wanting in opportunities or dreams or intelligence, creatures of the light and light alone.
