Dehradun kids' shaved heads reflect our sick love for punishment

Some newspapers reported that 25 male students, studying in a prestigious Dehradun school, were forced to get tonsured. They were summoned to the principal’s office after the morning assembly where a barber was waiting for them. The principal stated that this was a warning to other students that they follow the school’s rules of being decently groomed.

The incident has highlighted the issue of disciplining resorted to by schools.

I was transported to my school days...

This was the moment of dread. We looked at the door expecting him to enter any time now. Whose turn would it be today?

He entered. Tall, erect of bearing, grey-haired. With giant, definite strides he walked to a back desk and gruffly ordered the student to get up. Shaking as an autumn leaf, the boy got up. A tight slap rang around the classroom. The left cheek stood ruddy, the imprint of the thick fingers clearly visible to a terrified class.

The teacher had the undivided attention of the class for the next 45 minutes. He was the Gurumukhi teacher. His randomness in selecting his victims both fascinated and petrified us.

This was the late '60s in Chandigarh. The school was run by Christian Brothers. Every morning, we would line up outside our classes.

The principal, in white Cossacks, cane in hand, would walk past. As he approached each class, the boys would stretch their arms forward. He would inspect the shoes, uniform and nails. Any infraction would invite a cane handed down by a muscular Irish arm on the knuckles. The morning punishment ensured spit and polish!

We had a PT instructor, an Anglo-Indian, who in the matter of drill and discipline could outdo any British sergeant-major. His implement was a wooden foot ruler, which he used liberally on our upper, and bare, thigh. The crimson mark would take ages to disappear. But the scar on the psyche would stay forever in some lads.

A martinet is gender neutral. A frail, diminutive Christian teacher in the junior classes induced more fear than all the male teachers. She had a quiet determination about her and used the blackboard duster with devastating effect. She has turned into a metaphor and still induces a shiver much after her mortal remains have been interred.

Not that corporal punishment was a monopoly of the Christian institutions. The secular schools embraced it enthusiastically too! The school in Delhi where I passed out from believed in it. We received sound thrashing right up to class XI - for class violence, mutilation of books, listening to radio commentary in class, insubordination, throwing chalk pieces at the teacher. The list is endless.

A student once brought a King Cobra rubber toy, its head raised and hood flared, and placed it on the teacher's table. The unsuspecting Mr Singh saw the snake only when he reached the table. He screamed and pissed in his pants. The boy got ten of the best. Mr Singh was in his early 30s so there was little damage done save for a mortifying loss of bladder control. Imagine if he had played the same prank on Mr Agarwal who was in his 50s.

A student wore bell-bottoms to school. He was warned on several occasions but to no avail. Finally, one day at the school assembly, the principal asked him to take off his trousers. He remained in his underwear throughout the day. He never deviated thereafter. On a personal level, I abhor the institution of corporal punishment. It’s degrading and lowers self-esteem. I have never raised my hand.

The perceived upside from the schools point of view was huge: all-round development, excellence in studies, sports and the arts, respect for teachers, imbibing good values, adherence to rules, good turnout, punctuality, toughening up.

“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,

But the rod of discipline drives it far from him."

The Bible is replete with proverbs extolling the virtues of the rod. In Britain, it was widely prevalent in schools as a disciplinary tool during the Victorian era. But it became entrenched and institutionalised in the early 20th century. With the advent of the modern educational system in India, this concept was introduced.

It's not very long back that this institution has been banned in most countries of the world (including India) but still exists in some pockets of the globe. With enlightenment and emancipation came a feeling that this institution was barbaric and needed to be booted out. And rightly so!

There were certainly excesses. Deaths, serious injuries, psychological scars have been an unfortunate consequence. These aberrations created disgust and revulsion. These were unpardonable acts.

However, there is a large constituency that believes that along with the bath water, the baby also got thrown out. Instead of moderation being preached, prohibition was imposed.

The "pro" brigade point out the disastrous results - break down of law and order in schools, no respect for teachers, abandonment of values, cocking a snoot at authority, increase in bullying behaviour, and the list goes on.

They feel that that if corporal punishment is used as a last resort, is not inflicted frequently and for the smallest of infractions, if there are adequate restrictions and safeguards, if it is non-discriminatory, if due process is followed, if the intention is deterrence and reformation - not just punishment - then it is a permissible and useful educational tool. Though it may be morally repugnant to most people, including this author, its practical necessity overrides any compunction.

They claim that alternate punishments do not work. Detention after school hours, being sent home, parents being summoned are effete attempts at disciplining. There is no deterrence, there is no fear.

A student in my children's school took a blade and etched the four letter word on the wooden desk top. No amount of washing or re-polishing could erase it. He was reprimanded. He repeated it after a few weeks. He was detained. He got further emboldened and yet again carried out the act some months later. The parents were summoned this time by the principal. They laughed and wondered what the big deal was. The student has since graduated and God knows how many more desks have since been the victim of his artistry.

But this was the 60s and had Mrs Joshua been in charge, the vandalism would have been nipped in the bud. The student would have quaked at the very prospect of being at the business end of Miss Perry's special skills.

My mother was a teacher in my school. During her test, some of us were caught cheating. We were lined up next to her table. She slapped all the guilty students one by one. When she came to me, her eyes showed hurt and disappointment. But she didn't waver.

Her tightest slap was bestowed on me.