India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear

It is stomach-churning, terrifying, and maddening to read this ...

Very much so... I don't think I can describe in words just how horrifying it was to read this. This is a country that my ancestors were from. It's hard to imagine it being so patriarchal and sexist as is described here.

But, as we see from the news, it is. It's hell.

And it's not going to change.

i think it's important that it was true for the places the author was in, as well as the other women whose situation was similar with the author's.

yes, it's generalization, but that the experience and the severity of consequences were similar to multiple people should give you more sympathy than 'it's true in some places'.

I know you didn't use the word as I think you used for, and I'm sorry, but the usage of the word some really tipped me off here.

Thinking about India really made me grow up in some ways. Mostly by disputing the idea that the whole world is progressing and 'getting better'.

Not saying India is particularly bad, but maybe the foreignness shocked me into noticing it.

The problem I think is - The people at lowest rung of our society have very little moral values. The most important thing is to survive. Sure occasionally you meet a auto-rickshaw driver who did not try to charge you more, but by and large every one of them will try to take as much as they can.

I have been with some of the poor people (heck I come from poor background) of this country, took a trip in transport truck from Kolkata to Patna, stayed in cheapest hotels in Varanasi, was part of student group that tried to forcefully occupy a train only to get fired at (one guy got killed) and one thing that is clear as day to me is - the idea that "this is wrong" does not exist when what matters is - "Can I get away with this?"

The gap between middle class and lower class is HUGE. I don't know if there is any other democracy that has such wide gap of income between people. It Us vs Them. Rich and middle class get very little empathy from poor folks. Perhaps it is true other way round too.