And keep commenting. Makes me write more often :)

Hey, maybe he got some ideas from Gandhi – after all, his non-violent and civil disobedience actions were inspired by Gandhi’s methods.

@Vivek: I admit it might be a pre-emptive lecture but given the past experiences, I wouldn’t fault Salil for expecting such an attack. Mostly I think such protests are more political rather than social or cultural. But I disagree about not wanting to lecture. It may be perceived as a lecture but then rants against societal norms always have been. You’ll not see attitudes change unless people start ‘lecturing’. You say social values take time to change. Maybe but when they do change, it is always the results of constant ‘lecturing’ which leads to a triggering point when such a change occurs. Change in social values, IMO, have not really been changed gradually but instead needed a flashpoint. Eg. U.S. Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, Suffrage, India’s unaccountability problem, etc.

@Dinesh: People always get angry when you show them the other perspective. Making them aware of something that they know exist but refuse to acknowledge always makes things dicey. But then that’s where a healthy debate comes into the picture.

Social values take time to change. And in India, they are changing. In the process, the less lecturing is involved, the better it is for this process. People don’t like being lectured, or shown their faults.

Such lectures would be appropriate if India was really going down the competitive intolerance path. However, IMO, the increased number of offense-taking instances is essentially a reflection of the growth of media (and sometimes, even provocation by the media) and not a true reflection of the Indian society. In non-media evidence of the Indian social values (which is to say ‘look around’), you would find that Indians are far more liberal about these things than they used to be. So yes, while you are more likely to find (in the media) small-town lawyers filing cases against the Mallika Sherawats and the Rakhi Sawants, you are far less likely to find any genuine support for such lawyers – either in the public, or in the courts.

And when has offense ever been about logic or detailed analysis of the type “what would Gandhi do?”? It is about sensibilities, which are as logical as people – which is to say, not at all.

I think it’s a global phenomenon not limited to Indian politics alone – Mao, Lenin, Thatcher, Churchill, Ho Chi Minh, Guevara, JFK, Reagan, Castro…..I could go on. :)

Along with Palin, I’d also add Obama. ;)

Agreed with your points about the picture – it’s brilliantly done!!