Murga is a stress position used as a corporal punishment mainly in parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is used primarily in educational institutions on students of both sexes usually by female teachers, and occasionally by the police as a summary, informal punishment for petty crime. The punishment is usually administered in public view, the purpose being to halt the offence by inflicting pain, deter recurrence of the offence by shaming the offender and providing a salutary example to others. The wordmurga means rooster in Hindustani and Bengali. The punished person assumes a position resembling that of a rooster, by squatting and then looping the arms behind the knees and firmly holding the ears.
Variants
There are many variants of the Murga punishment. Some of them are:
Regular/Sitting Murga
This is the default murgha position, i.e. the position a student assumes if the exact variant of the murgha position is not specified by the teacher. The recipient of the punishment is required to position his/her buttock as low, while holding his/her ears from behind the legs. He/she is allowed to relax his/her bottom on their arms. Hence, this punishment is milder than standing murgha and therefore can be done for a much longer duration. Nevertheless, it is still a very severe punishment. The arms and lower legs start hurting in very quickly; arms as they are squashed between the upper and lower part of the legs, and the lower legs because of the very awkward position. In contrast, standing murgha is easier on the arms as they are not squashed between any body parts, but it is much tougher on the legs and thighs as one has to constantly work against gravity to keep their buttocks lifted. Hence, sitting murgha having a duration of 30 minutes are common. In some cases, the duration may even go up to 60 minutes. As the duration of the punishment increases, the tiredness becomes increasingly unbearable. At some point, one may feel compelled to raise one's bottom to try and get some relief. However, that only brings temporary relief as keeping the buttocks raised is painful, so one soon lowers the buttocks onto the arms again. That again brings only temporary relief and one again feels like going back to the raised position. In this way, one can end up oscillating between the two positions, not getting much relief either way.
Standing Murga
In this position, the recipient of the punishment is required to position his/her buttocks as high as possible, while holding his/her ears from behind the legs as in the regular murga position. With the bottom constantly raised in the air without any support, this is similar to sitting in the air without a chair. Hence, this is a very intense and severe punishment, as the student needs to work against gravity to keep his/her bottom raised for a period of time. The student's body, especially the legs and thighs, will become extremely painful within a matter of minutes. Sometimes, the teacher may spank the students' bottom if he/she lowers his/her buttocks. Failing to keep the bottoms up may result in harsher punishments like murga parade or being made murga in the sun. Alternatively, the teacher may ask the student to make the sound of hen/rooster to cause humiliation. For the average student, muscle fatigue starts to set in within a couple of minutes of assuming the standing murgha position. Afterer 10 minutes, the student's leg muscles will become very painful. As the punishment continues, it becomes unbearable and legs will start to tremble. For most people, it is nearly impossible to maintain this position beyond 15 minutes and it takes a lot of willpower to continue. To keep the punishment going and "encourage" students to maintain the punishment position, teachers may hit the punished student a few times on their back, buttocks, or thighs with a cane/ruler the moment he/she lowers their buttocks. Alternatively, a teacher may decide to end the punishment sooner if the student keeps his/her bottom properly raised, or prolong the punishment if they see the student lowering his/her bottom.
Combination of Standing and Regular/Sitting Murga
Sometimes, Sitting and Standing Murga are combined for longer punishments. One such combination is to make the student stay in Standing Murga throughout, but allow them to rest their bottom in the Regular Murga position quickly from time to time. This makes it possible to increase the duration of the standing murga punishment. Another combination is to start with Standing Murga for the first 10 minutes when the student is not fatigued, and then let them lower their bottom for a much longer Sitting Murga punishment like 30 minutes. The last 10 minutes of the position may be in Standing Murga again for a tougher punishment. Yet another combination is to switch between Sitting and Standing murga once every few minutes for a period of time.
Murga Parade
In a Murgha Parade, the student has to walk a few rounds around the corridor/classroom while in a standing murga position. The Standing Murgha is already very severe by itself, having to walk makes it even tougher. This can be extremely tiring for the student's legs, hands and back. It also hurts the ears because of irregular movements. Hence, an average person can only carry out Murgha Parade for a very short period of time, usually not more than 5 round or 10 minutes. While doing a murgha parade, the person may sometimes be required to loudly make rooster-like sounds, as well as loudly count the number of rounds completed. Some female teachers make the student carry out his/her murga parade under the hot sun in the track/field. This can be very dangerous as it can cause dehydration. It is therefore considered highly inadvisable to do so. Futhemore, if the student is unable to complete the number of rounds requested by the teacher he/she may be caned.
Swaying Murga
For Swaying Murga, the person is asked to alternate his/her buttocks between the higher position to lower position every 5–6 seconds. This is a very severe form of murga punishment; the legs start trembling after about 60 sways and the pain becomes unbearable after 100 sways. If the student is unable to complete the number of repetitions requested by the teacher, he/she may even be caned.
Murga Riding
In Murga Riding, the student is made to carry another student or to put some weight on his/her back while in the murgha position. This is extremely difficult and can possibly cause serious injury, and it is therefore considered inadvisable to punish someone this way.
