By Soumitra Banerji
Been in a hostel for quite a bit of my educational career, have been quite used to being ragged; and managed to rag, subsequently. Less did I know at that time that we were being inadvertently prepared and trained to understand ragging at a much larger level…the Geopolitical level.
So, when we read about Trump’s indiscriminately applied Tariffs…or else skewed approach of the ‘Rich & Powerful’ to wars erupting in today’s world…open to taking irrational sides depending on transactional values; I can distinctly see an element of ragging embedded within.
Let us take a few used cases…and please do not, under any circumstances take the connotations to be judgmental.
Russia wages a war against Ukraine…response of the Global Brahmins is erratic and transaction based…Ukraine is being ragged…US wags like a pendulum…and the war goes on.
Hamas created Terror; and Israel shot mosquitoes with Bofors…US looked on, promoting violence…Trump enjoying the game with an eye on the next Nobel Peace Prize…while human bodies are getting dumped like a heap of garbage. In the meantime, Iran gets into the game and gets bombed in the process…the biggest Brahmin in the global North gets excited and displays its weapons prowess against a weaker cornered member of the global South…anyone’s guess who. And the Brahmin thinks he can bring order and peace with the ‘Ashvamedha Yagya’…while he enjoys the ‘Fire Crackers’ from a distance, on his digital screen…munching popcorns. The Countries favouring the powerful Brahmins get protection and a show of benevolence…as it used to be; and continues to be in the Boardings of Private Schools.
Pakistan…or as they say…some rouges not known to be existing under their shelter…popularly described as ‘Non State Actors’ by all those who would like to enjoy an exciting game of ‘Kabaddi’ and justify the excitement in the process, with various euphemisms…till of course, India reacts with its ‘Operation Sindoor’. And then suddenly the biggest Brahmin of them all wakes up and calls the Pakistani Army Chief for a well-earned Lunch…pats him on the back and encourage to make him and his esteemed group of Brahmin Guests to have some more fun while the Sub-continent burns. Again, reminds me of the basic lessons of ragging in school.
China, India and quite a few Members of a Brahmanical Institution known as NATO, use cheaper Russian Crude to keep them up and about…especially post the Big Brahmin’s self-entertainment game of Monopoly aka Tariff War…but this expert player chooses the safest option to squeeze…where a counter move of arm twisting with Rare Earths or Iron Ore cannot be thrown back at him…and where Soya Beans continue to be sold from his soil. He squeezes India with minimal economic impact…or so he thinks.
So, he counters India with Lunches for the Pakistani General and his Understudy … his Prime Minister. Why? So that India acknowledges his role in keeping her alive, by saving both of them from getting destroyed in a Nuclear Diwali…And make India recommend this powerful Brahmin for the Nobel Peace Prize; which the Pakistani General and his Understudy have done over and over again. Another classical example of Private Boarding School Ragging.
And, finally, the great and hallowed Global Institution…the United Nations…in whose classroom only the Brahmanical North, of course with just a couple of outsiders (again anyone’s guess) have the right to rag, without disciplinary actions…continue to have a merry time at the Earth’s expense.
Isn’t it school ragging at its finest…Friends??
(Soumitra Banerji is an acclaimed Indian author and writer, best known for his thought-provoking novel “Liminal Tides”).
